Michel Boucher wrote:
> spamtrap1888 > wrote:
>
>>> Scotland, England, Wales and NI are parts of the same
>>> _state_; but they are different nations.
>
>> Ah, like the Iroquois and the Apache are separate nations.
>
> And Québec.

None of which actually make any sort of rational sense in the modern
world.

> It all depends how you define nation.

If you read the dictionary definition of nation it's about unity through
shared language and/or culture and/or religion. Thus calling any region
a nation is a bit of an exageration. I've tried to refer to the US as a
country ever since I read the dictionary definition.

That and nonsense like people who claim that "The United States is a
Christian nation" which anyone who passed third grade civics knows was
never the case. The United States is a secular country whose government
was deliberately designed to emulate most of the features of the
pre-Christian pagan Roman Republic. There's a difference between a
secular country that happens to have a majority of Christians in its
population like the US and a Christian state like some in Europe where
the citizens are enrolled in the Lutheran Church at birth and they have
to fill out forms to explicitly leave the Church and stop their tax
money from going to the Church. If every Christian in the US converted
to Buddhism over night tomorrow morning there would be no need to change
a single secular law.