OK, I shall create the said thread tommorow. Anyone who wants to debate me apart from Simonius, register before then. I will have no more then 2 opponents(Simonius, and the applicant with the highest post count that volunteers).
In regards to terminology-
It seems to be the most common consensus among academia that the Western world applies to the Protestant/Catholic areas of Europe, plus EU, the Americas,Australia and NZ.\
Also, the debate is about how the Western world stands up to the rest currently- so the fact that, say, Japan is westernized to some extent is NOT a counter-argument. Japan is as modernized as the US, but not seen as Western- thus, we must recognize that Westernized and modernized are not synonomous(or accept Japan as part of the Western world).concerned.
So, if Simonius would agree, shall we recognize jointly that the terms westernized and modernized are not synonomous, and that "westernized" refers only to traits of Western nations that are distinct from modernizational traits? Frex, "Japan is a modernized but not Westernized nation" is a statement we can agree upon?
As to defining the what the Western word encompasses-
I'd say this, less South Africa and Israel, would you agree?
Image:Westerncultures map.png - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia