Religion is to strongly tied into our government, especially superficially, at many levels.

However when one compares this to Germany with their Catholic government and the official closing shops at 5pm - it seems very tame indeed.

That practice of closing the shops at 5 - I still can't abide. It's so preposterous to have to run down to the Bahnhof to find an open shop! I could reach within five minutes at least a dozen mini-marts and gas-sellers open 24hours at this time (2:30AM) If one has a sick child with fever and wants to get Tylenol - or just has insomnia, one can always find someplace to go. That's nice.

From what have been hearing, many of the foreigners are disliked - because they are very willing to run covert all-night-stores and make quick profits from the ridiculous medieval custom of 5 pm shop closures.

Until people are generally advanced enough to come up with their own code of ethics which meets and exceeds religion's - we will still see religion reign in many nations of the earth. Religion serves a purpose, in that it subjugates the many fearful evil folks who would otherwise be running around doing all sorts of terrible things - and whom are kept in line by the fire and brimstone sermons.

The world changes - but it is always amazing how much stays the same.

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