30 ‘European Things’ That Might Just Make Americans Go “Huh?” As Seen In This Online Thread

Or a female nipple... the horror!

Its like BP when I say f**k

I didn't know Australia had censorship at an american degreee?

Yes, Spain too. And about knives it is illegal to carry them in the street or public places (obviously you can use them at restaurants :D).

That is not the case in Scandinavia, maybe except Denmark. I live near 3 gun shops, where you can buy pretty much anything you would be able to buy in the US, but not full auto and .50BMG. Norway.

Switzerland allows and encourages gun ownership, though, don’t they?

And Australia

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Somewhat in Canada too although there is a subculture that is heavily influenced by the States.

Other than Chezckloslovakia (sorry my spelling is wrong ik)

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Yes, no one could defend themselves from Hitler. They depended on the ability of American farm boys to do the job for them.

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No its not.

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But there is knives.

Tragic, but true

My family in law are muslims, although not strictly. I am an atheist, but they agree that from my behaviour I am a better "muslim" than many people that call themselfs so. And I agree with you: If somebody needs a God to not be a s****y person, they are already a s****y person.

Atheist here and I love that description, try to do good things because it’s more beautiful than doing bad things. Never a truer word spoken 😀❤️

I do not want to associate with anyone who only does good things to avoid punishment.

Exactly, I find people who are good only because of punishment/reward actually selfish. You have to be good for the goodness of community/society, not your own agenda.

You're right. Even animals have been documented to show compassion and they know nothing about religion. I don't waste my time with people who think the only source of morality is what their specific religious book tells them, that the vast majority of them ignore anyway. Kindness and compassion existed before religion, and I demonstrate them daily without religion.

Now imagine all those people who only try to be good because of their fear of god and what they'll do the moment - hypothetically - it's conclusively proven their god does not exist.

Quora is not remotely a reliable sample of americans. This is like saying all germans hate the turks.

One of the things my old Bible teachers talked about was that we don't do good things to avoid punishment or get reward, we do them because we should want to do them. And there are so many "Christians" out there that don't practice what the Scriptures actually teach, and it is sad to see that they are now what people think of when they hear Christian.

I think there is no morality when religion is allowed to take the place of morality.

If you can read through the bible and identify the positive lessons (treat others as you would like to be treated, dont steal) and at the same time discount the bad parts (slavery is fine, stoning people for adultery is fine) then congratulations, you didn't need the book to begin with! All the equipment for determining what was morally right or wrong was already in your head.

I've never understood why people need religion to have a moral compass

I think that an atheist must be especially kind to his fellow humans, because he/she doesn't believe in an afterlife, and so this life is the only chance they have of obtaining happiness.

This is just an attempt to wave away their Bronze Age worldview. "Lightning is an angry god" is now a tough sell, so the fallback position is more nebulousity.

An opinion of very few American Christians. Many Americans are Christian and have little to do with any church, they just believe in the morals of Christianity. Things seem to get greatly distorted getting across the Atlantic.

Religion doesn't make you a good person, especially when you use it to justify doing bad things! Some of the worst crimes against God have been committed by those claiming to be one with God, doing God's work, or spreading God's word. One of the 10 Commandments is "Thou Shalt Not Kill," yet that is exactly what those people did throughout history when 'nonbelievers' refused to comply. Take Native Americans. They were almost exterminated, yet the irony is they were probably closer to what God wanted than any European or their descendants.

If a person needs a God or religion to tell the difference between good and evil, right and wrong, then neither God nor religion can fix them.

I think it's the accountability.

I'm a Christian and truly I do good not to avoid punishment and I think a lot of other Christians feel that way too. I do good because its the right way to be. In fact, according to my interpretation of the bible, its not that I would be punished if I did bad anyway because salvation is not based on my good or bad works. I don't think all sects of Christianity teach this though and in fact I don't identify with any specific denomination because I think so many get things wrong or use false interpretations as a way of controlling people vs. because thats what God wants for us. I test everything I hear from man against scripture.

Lotekguy

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An ethical atheist is morally superior to a religious person who acts the same to get to heaven or avoid hell. The former is doing so because it's right, not for eternal self-interest.

In fact they ought not to call themselves Christians, because they only use the Old testament in their argumentation, not what Christ said in the New testament.

"Puritanism. The haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy" H.L.Mencken

You make such an excellent point. It seems that only nurses and other hospital staff are seen as OK to see you naked. Let's be real people, talliloo's situation is an excellent example of just not making a big deal about seeing the human body naked. She needed help, and she was able to get it because she didn't raise a prude.

Thank you. This is sometimes on my mind as I age and my only caregiver is an adult son. So far I am able to attend to my personal care but it's getting harder.

I so agree with you. I reared my sons pretty much as a single mom. While we did not roam our home undressed, neither did we make much of nudity. If one of us saw one of the others naked, it was just...naked, not "nekkid. No squeaking, jumping, or fainting. In fact, when I married again, my sons' favorite time to talk to me was when I was soaking in the tub, and they could be sure of uninterrupted time.

You said it, "puritanical", the Puritans from England brought it over here and it has permeated our culture, but luckily not most of our people.

Exactly!

Americans seem to want that prudery in odd places. We are, however, sex obsessed in this country, and seem to sexualize EVERYTHING! I can't even laugh about my 7 yr old granddaughter's flirtatious use of her eyes and expressions. It isn't about sex, she is flirting to soften you up for something she wants and she does it to EVERYONE, including her sister, me, my male friends, EVERYONE!

I might also question that, if it is no longer sexual, maybe that explains why Europe is a diminishing population, that is more people die than are born, thus reducing the population. People aren't interested in sex, seems a bit unnatural, they are just interested in themselves.

No. Same in public saunas.

German here, I have a Sauna at home and it's just the same. Also in public saunas here it is normally forbidden to wear clothes, which makes sense. I would feel very uncomfortable being naked in a room full of people wearing pants :-).

Not in the Netherlands. Very few people have saunas in their houses, but many like to visit a public sauna, and usually we do that naked. Only one thing that could be a bit cringe: meeting people like colleagues or acquaintances there. Fortunately that has never happened to me so far.

One is supposed to bring a piece of cloth to sit on (“pefletti” or “persletti” as in “assie” or “arsie”) 😬

American Union employee here. This is why those of us with contracts push hard to get everyone to have unions here. But really difficult to get through the 40 years of Regean/Republican/Corporate brainwashing in America.

Very few have written contracts.