The Beer Belt of America<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"(No Buddhist content, just taking a mini-break) This image, from a story at npr about beer, gave me pause today. The darker states represent the highest\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2012\/05\/the-beer-belt-of-americ.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Beer Belt of America\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"(No Buddhist content, just taking a mini-break) This image, from a story at npr about beer, gave me pause today. The darker states represent the highest\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2012\/05\/the-beer-belt-of-americ.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"American Buddhist Perspectives\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-05-18T01:11:37+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/wp.patheos.com.s3.amazonaws.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/files\/2012\/05\/npr-beer-belt-300x255.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Justin Whitaker\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Justin Whitaker\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2012\/05\/the-beer-belt-of-americ.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2012\/05\/the-beer-belt-of-americ.html\",\"name\":\"The Beer Belt of America\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2012-05-18T01:11:37+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2012-05-18T01:11:37+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/#\/schema\/person\/abfb8f851f671638c4c7536b963f9da9\"},\"description\":\"(No Buddhist content, just taking a mini-break) This image, from a story at npr about beer, gave me pause today. 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{"id":1279,"date":"2012-05-18T02:11:37","date_gmt":"2012-05-18T01:11:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/?p=1279"},"modified":"2012-05-18T02:11:37","modified_gmt":"2012-05-18T01:11:37","slug":"the-beer-belt-of-americ","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2012\/05\/the-beer-belt-of-americ.html","title":{"rendered":"The Beer Belt of America"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

$\"Beer$ <\/a>(No Buddhist<\/a> content, just taking a mini-break)<\/p>\n

This image, from a story at npr<\/a> about beer, gave me pause today.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The darker states represent the highest growth in microbreweries per capita. And Montana, Wyoming, and Colorado form a sort of belt <\/strong>(perhaps we\u2019ll include New Mexico to get border to border coverage). \u00a0The old \u2018Bible belt<\/a>\u2018 exists in an almost perfectly inverse relationship to what I\u2019ll call the Beer Belt of America<\/em>. It forms the nice vertical off-white line in the South East\/South Central US.<\/p>\n

And perhaps appropriately, while a bible belt might hold a man (or woman if you are one) upright, thus its horizontal position \u2014 the beer belt is at an almost horizontal pitch, as if worn by someone who has passed out.<\/p>\n

I thought about downloading an image of some sort to help illustrate that, but what exactly do you type into google to get the right result? \u00a0This was about the most appropriate thing I could find:<\/p>\n

$\"\"$ <\/a><\/p>\n

And here I thought the internet was going to be a beacon of reason and thoughtful discussion. Sadly, no. Anyway, to demonstrate the beer belt as it might be illustrated in action<\/em>:<\/p>\n

$\"\"$ <\/a><\/p>\n

Much better, right? Intriguingly, the other beer area seems to be in Maine and Vermont, here overlapping with Santa\u2019s cortex, the area of the brain associated with intelligent decision making.<\/p>\n

Hmm\u2026<\/p>\n

Side story for thoughtful discussion: <\/strong>when my older brother was around 5, he discovered that Santa isn\u2019t real. Being the genius that he is, he immediately marched up to my mom and said, \u201cif you lied about Santa, how can I believe you about God?\u201d He\u2019s been an atheist ever since. Then, a couple years ago, my mom was driving my brother\u2019s kids, then aged around 13 and 9, looking at Christmas lights one night. (They are both Christians due to their mom\u2019s influence.) When they passed by a house with a stuffed Santa outside, my mom said, \u201cdon\u2019t worry, that\u2019s not the real Santa; the real<\/em> Santa is getting your presents ready.\u201d Eyes rolled, the younger of the two responded, \u201cGrandma, there is no Santa<\/em>.\u201d To which my mom responded, \u201coh, you should believe<\/em> in Santa, just like you believe in God<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

My mom, the atheist-maker.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not so far from the truth, actually. She encouraged analytic thinking, which recent studies suggest decreases religious belief<\/strong>. Read the study press release here<\/a> or the CNN story here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"