Peak Religion
The US watches more TV per day than any other nation, and a total of 60 hours of e-media per week. Time devoted to this sort of thing has been increasing for decades. Much of this media is filled with stories directly, and much of the rest, such as news, is framed to fit story norms. And as I quoted two years ago, stories in effect reinforce a belief in God:
It’s not that a deity appears directly in tales. It is that the fundamental basis of stories appears to be the link between the moral decisions made by the protagonists and the same characters’ ultimate destiny. The payback is always appropriate to the choices made. An unnamed, unidentified mechanism ensures that this is so, and is a fundamental element of stories—perhaps the fundamental element of narratives. (more)
So in the quite literal sense of direct immersion in a religious world view, we are the most religious people of the most religious generation ever. What unusual features of our place and time in history can be explained by this unusual feature?
Simple answer - we're having one of these https://en.wikipedia.org/wi...It'll pass, but it has to run out of steam first, which will likely take a while. We're nowhere near the REAL peak yet. Also, turns out God actually does sort of "exist" against all odds, so there's that.
What do the Swedes spend their time on? Shoveling snow? Talking with friends. Drinking with friends? Is there TV as good as ours?