A French Christian came close to giving up his faith when he experienced the American version.  His main problem is how religion and politics are mixed together in the U.S.  In Europe, Australia and Canada, it does not matter what politicians think - unless they are evangelical and want to impose their beliefs on the country (like Stockwell Day).  Only the U.S. has "separation of Church and State" in their constitution yet they are the only western country where that is not true.  Because of this convergence,  the Christian lobby has enormous power - worse, it's the evangelical, fundamentalist viewpoint that gets pushed.

The French Christian  simply could not understand how the American Church had taken something so deeply personal and introspective, and turned it into a daily public spectacle.  The desire for personal piety had been transformed into a need to impose and ensure the piety of others, whether they believed it or not.

The news that the world is going to end on December 21, 2012, may possibly come as a shock to some people. For most of us, I suspect, it's ho-hum time again. I mean, the world has ended so many times since people began keeping records, with no obvious or any other consequence that anyone has ever discerned, that sensible people don't take the impending doomsday scenarios seriously anymore.

Think about it: If the world ended in 1914, to take one well-publicized year, why is the world still here? Another widely publicized world-ending year was 1925. When the expected end did not arrive, attendance at the annual "Memorial Service" of one well-known religious sect that had been prominent in spreading the prediction, fell from over 90,000 to about 17,0000.

Christians and Muslims believe that prayer works - at least that's what they say.  Why would someone believe that thinking thoughts would make something happen or become true.  It's a seductive thought - it would be wonderful if it were true.  But then the bible says it's true: In Mark 11:24, Jesus says: "Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours."  Seems quite unambiguous.  No qualifiers about "only sometimes, god does not want to force you to believe and take away your free will".  No mention of such stuff.   Maybe you need a group of people praying.  In Matthew 18:19 Jesus says: "Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of them."