Many countries around the world have witnessed a shift away from the organized religion, namely Christianity and its various sects, since the Industrial Revolution. In the midst of the Industrial Revolution, people discovered humanism, and capitalism: "natural laws and society can be molded to fit our needs"(Wazzinski 41); neither of which allows very much room for God. There is little time now for worship and religious study because there is so much more that needs to be done. This is true in almost every highly industrialized country, except the United States. Since the early settlers the United States had ridden on the back of Christianity, but today there are two types of American society, sacred and secular America. The United States, since the Industrial Revolution, has seen a general shift away from organized religion, although not to the extent of western Europe, yet it remains the paradox of the industrialized first world community. .
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The United States" religious background is deeply rooted in their history and can be traced back to the first (white) settlers: the religious upheavals of the 16th century encouraged a group of men and women called Puritans to attempt to reform the Established Church of England. They called for a less rigid Roman Catholicism and wanted the strictness to be replaced by more straightforward Protestant views and beliefs. In 1620, a group of Puritans secured a land patent from the Virginia Company, and a group of 101 men, women and children set out for Virginia but landed in New England on Cape Cod. Upon landing at Cape Cod they believed themselves to be outside the rule of any government. An agreement was drafted for the new settlement to abide by "just and equal laws". A new wave of immigrants arrived on the shores of Massachusetts Bay in 1630 many of whom were Puritan. When the Anglicans, or Cavaliers, came from England to settle the southern colonies of North America, they too brought with them many of their religious customs.
