 Let me ask another question. Rob told me that there was a recent discussion of among the candidates where they were asked, do you believe in God? And correct me if I'm wrong, but five of your candidates said no. And this reminded me of a story about the difference between Europeans and Americans on the question of God, because in the United States in general, you would get into a lot of trouble in politics if you answered no to that question. It's remarkable. Actually somebody did a survey of how few politicians, including all the way down in 435 members of Congress, 100 senators, there were only a handful who were willing to say outright they were atheists. And a French pollster and I were once talking about this. And as many of you know among the, in the wealthy democracies, the United States has the highest rate of church attendance or synagogue attendance on a regular basis. And the French pollster and I agreed that our American number is probably inflated and the French number is probably lower than it is because Americans felt guilty when they didn't go to church and the French felt guilty when they did go to church. And so what I am wondering, I wanna ask the question, it's a personal question. I'll give you a third option if you would like rather than ask, do you believe in God? I wanna ask, do you believe in God or do you think God is possible or are you quite sure there is no God? How many believers are in the room? How many people are, as I would say in the United States, how many will testify to their faith here? That's a very substantial number. That might explain why you came to a discussion on faith and politics. How many are in the middle? Kind of, I think they might be there, but not sure, or she. And how many are quite certain that there is no God? So I would say, help me count here. It's a rather close split, but I would say the non-believers outnumbered the believers with a fairly substantial keeping their options open on the God question. And I think what I wanna talk about a little at the outset, let me ask you a question. Why do you think, before I talk, anybody on any side of this question, why do you think it is that the answer, the political answer in the Netherlands, the politically convenient correct answer in the Netherlands, is so different from the politically convenient or correct answer in the United States? What do you think makes us different from the Netherlands or from Europe on this question? Any volunteers on the matter, please? But the two of you back there, then we can pass the mic. Well, the way I understand is that it's a clear residue of the Westphalian peace, in which a division between faith and politics were an answer to war in general. Once those two were divided, war would be established in Europe, and if it was not divided, then war would still be possible. So it's seen as something necessary for peace historically. May I just say, God bless you because I can't think of very many people in an American audience who would cite the peace of Westphalia. So that's a very interesting answer. It is sort of the, I think a philosopher called Judith Schwarz referred to it as the liberalism of fear, a fear that if we engage in these questions too much in public, we will end up repeating the religious wars. So you think that's the motivation. Person in front of you, that's a good theory. I also think that it's very closely related to the entire Manifest Destiny idea and the American dream and the move Westward and the idea that God gave the right to the Americans to be in America. Because, well, that kind of, I think if a politician would step away from that idea that he would be not accepted anymore or not seen as a serious American politician. So without God, most of us wouldn't have a right to be there? Well, that's what they believe, right? Or at least that's what Manifest Destiny said. That's a very interesting idea. Any other takers on the difference between Europe or over here, let's do two more and then I want to sort of offer my answer. That's a good answer too. I think it has to do with the fact that in America you vote for a person. I mean, you choose between Romney and Obama. And I think that we generally vote for the party or we used to. So for us, I think it shows character if you're religious in America. And I think here we don't really mind whether someone's religious or not. So it's about the content of the party and not about the person. Do you think, by the way, inherent in your question, I've had conversations with people, inherent in what you just said is the idea that Dutch politics may be moving more toward a politics of a person. Is that what you think is happening? It feels like that in this election. Yes. So might that change whether people care about the religious beliefs of their candidate or not? I don't think so. I think we're really accepting of religion. So I think that doesn't really matter. I think character doesn't matter, but religion maybe not so much. And then there was one other person right next to you. Yes, sir. I think it's also a set of values that's been disappearing throughout. You know, when you look at the Netherlands in the 50s, we had like a system of values that's very ingrained to our political parties. And that's disappearing right now in 2012 and, well, earlier. And that's something, if you look to America, that they still have, like, well, the political parties both have changed, but their image is still kind of the same as it used to be in, like, the 50s, I guess. So that's also a progression that happened in Europe. Yeah, that's interesting. I do think, and we can talk about this later, that the two parties have changed quite a lot since the 1950s. And in fact, our two parties were in some sense broad coalitions, including quite conservative and quite progressive interests in both parties. And there's been a kind of sorting out. But I think your other point is very interesting. And to the lady who talked about character, you're dead on according to many pollsters, because there's a lot of polling that suggests that Americans, whether they are believers themselves or not, but since a vast majority say they are believers, use religious belief as a test of character on the theory that somebody who is a believer is more likely to behave morally in office. One more before I go on, because he had an urgent hand up, in the size. America believes more in God. I think it is also a matter of the distribution of the rich of the wealth. I think it is also the distribution of the wealth. I think that religion is in America something as a last resort, and not many Americans do have other options. That sounds like an old Marxist, the opiate of the people analysis. Is that kind of where you're coming from? There was a great left kind of anarchist trade union movement in the United States called the Industrial Workers of the World. And they put out a little hymnal of union songs, and one of them was rooted in that idea where the refrain was you'll get pie in the sky when you die, and then the next line was it's a lie. And so that was in that tradition that you are talking about.