Canada and the United States--a tale of two counties

   

     As two countries founded around the same time period and in a similar fashion it has always been surprising how differently Canada and the United States have developed in so many ways.  Some of the differences can be explained by the reality of the United States having a system of slavery that didn't exist in Canada but does it explain why Canada seems to be a more rational country than the United States?  My hypothesis of why there is a difference in the two countries is the influence of religion in general and fundamentalism religion in particular in the two countries.  While both countries are seeing a decline in religious beliefs the Canadians are seeing it at an accelerated rate.  Fundamentalist religion is anti-science and values faith over fact-based reasoning.   Trump and his followers, with its core of fundamentalist believers, have shown this more clearly today.  Fundamentalist believers may not be literally burning witches today but their anti-science belief system, embraced by the Republican Party, has caused the United States to pay the toll with this virus that is so different than what Canada and other Western European countries have had to pay
 Here is an article in the Atlantic Magazine (a magazine no fundamentalist would ever read) that shows how this reality has played out.