Thought or Rant of the day!!!

[Doug R.]

Religious people will only tend to care about their own religion. Atheists and Agnostics probably will study up on the subject to find out what everyone else is talking about, so they can make informed decisions on the topic. So, it may be ironic, but it's completely logical.

[Joshuamonkey]

Religious people will only tend to care about their own religion. Atheists and Agnostics probably will study up on the subject to find out what everyone else is talking about, so they can make informed decisions on the topic. So, it may be ironic, but it's completely logical.

Yes, I think so too, plus both Atheists and Agnostics may have tried to understand religion better so that they can decide what they should or should not believe in.

Also, the article seemed to indicate that most people didn't know enough about their own religion.
It did say that Jews and Mormons were close behind Atheists and Agnostics.
I found some Pew surveys and it agrees. Plus, Mormons know the most about the Bible and Christianity.
From a survey taken in June.

I think I forced myself to stop posting on that thread.

I'm talking about religion against aren't I. Eh, oh well.

[Doug R.]

Religions with global scope and many factions, like Christianity, have a potentially befuddling mix of ethnic and theological values. Catholics in Mexico will have different values than Catholics in the US. I'm Catholic, and I admit I've never read the Catechism of the Catholic Church (not that it's written to be read casually), nor read the Bible extensively. I also admit, at times, that I've adopted some more liberal views from my Protestant brethren and thought that they were Catholic. I've been surprised several times. Judaism places a premium on the study of the Torah. I think most orthodox families still read from it on the sabbath. The Mormons, being fairly centralized in the US, have the means to strictly monitor their congregations, and also benefit from an elder power structure to reign in liberals (when I was a kid, my best friend's mom left the Mormon church 15 years prior, and they still visited her once a year).

Controlling large, global religions, like Islam or Christianity, would be like herding cats. Rome's over-reaching attempts to control it's far-flung flock resulted in the Reformation, and you can see what's going on with Islam. From a purely US Catholic perspective, we've gotten away from fire and brimstone homilies and instead now focus on preaching Christian values. I think with declining numbers, the priests and bishops are afraid to drive away people with pre-Vatican II bible thumping. The consequence, of course, is further loss of the understanding of dogma among congregants, and US people, when they want to learn more about spirituality, turn to Gary Zukav and his new-age ilk rather than pick up a Bible (The Dancing Wu-Li Masters, btw, is a fascinating read that blends spirituality and quantum physics. His latter books get really left-field, imo).

[SekoETC]

OKcupid had an article that included statistics on reading/writing levels by religion and protestants came in last by far. It was somewhat embarrassing, but seeing all the religious nutjobs in Yahoo comments it's no wonder many Christians appear unintelligent.

http://blog.okcupid.com/index.php/the-r ... ople-like/

[Alladinsane]

I attend a Church and we are led by a bevy of PHD's in subject that include more than just Theology. I don't understand where they actually find so many illiterate Christians either, I mean, are these guys sending back mail survey's (note the irony in that)? answering phones? hanging out in malls (usually urban area's where illiteracy is somewhat subjective)? or what? I just question the validity of such survey/polls and the cross sampling used.

As far as knowledge of my own faith, I am about a week from finishing the entire Bible; every Amen, every blessed, every 'begat' etc. It really is irresponsible to profess any ethos without knowing as much of its core dogma as possible. While I agree with Doug that, in general, agnostics and atheists are likely to know more about religions in general; the average Christian knows far more about Christianity than any agno-atheist just as the average Islamic knows the Holy Koran better and the average Jew knows the Torah. Most/many of us of faith study our own particular theological documents on a regular basis and can display a greater familiarity with those writings. We tend not to know, in general, as much about other theologies, its never really been an option unless we might have some questioning of our own faith or are merely curious imo. So we are, in general, comparing the 'jack of all trades' in agnosti-atheism who may have a broader knowledge of the surface of alot of faiths, to the specialist in a particular faith who (ideally) knows what he/she believes and exactly why.

Ultimately, I think this subject will lead to many ROTD's as the debate and rhetoric reaches heated levels amongst the numerous sides. Heck, I may have started some myself here, though not intentionally; and I don't think I have been inaccurate in any of my 'generalizations'. I guess we can start a brief flame war where few if any minds will be changed about any personal faith(s), but more than few friendships may be compromised. I find it best not to write much about this publicly and will likely not comment further out of respect for others. We may not always respect what each other thinks, but we can hopefully always respect each others reasons and rights to think like they do.

I bid everyone peace.

Be well

[BrentW]

I love being an Atheist. I get to sleep in on the weekends. But I don't know all the Core Dogma for most major Religions Mormons have the funnest. No Offense to any Mormons. But I find Religion to be primitive and a bit insane. But hey that's me. I live thank god in a Solid Blue state our christian Right is small and sits down and shuts up rather well. And in the end Religion causes way to many lives to be worth it.
Just me if I get sent to hell I will get a great timeshare next to Gandi right in the beach..sure great tan but sucks to swim in.

[Alladinsane]

See, a good chance for me to show respect. !

I get it, I was an atheist for 32+yrs. Being a Tampa Bay Buccaneers fan during the 80's was enough to make me question, well, you may know.

[BrentW]

Ouch Typo...I do know all the core Dogma...Yea woops there lol. I know it all so I know what I dont want to belive..the whole if your not one of us you burn in hell things gets me..Oh yea Gandi is going to hell.

[Doug R.]

Oh yea Gandi is going to hell.

This is a gross and unfortunate misunderstanding perpetuated by Christian fundamentalists. Christ teaches love and mercy, and the idea that a saintly man, who was born immersed into another religion with little or no opportunity for conversion would be condemned to eternal damnation because of this circumstance, is both unmerciful and unloving. While I cannot speak for the many Protestant denominations out there, you'd be very hard pressed to find a priest or bishop in my church that would espouse such a belief.

[Addicted]

I'm crying over spilt soup. I made a nice pot of thick pumpkin soup and managed to drop it so it went all over the floor, the cupboard doors and me! I have one orange leg, my jeans and sock is covered in it. Now I have to find a meal to feed everyone in five minutes - notice I'm not, I'm doing this!

[Snickie]

I read somewhere (I don't remember where, so don't ask me; it was a long time ago) that Gandhi had been respectful of the Christians and had wanted to join the church, but the Christians turned him down. So then he went to the Hindus, who welcomed him with open arms.

Like I mentioned, I don't remember where I read it, so I can't provide an analysis for its accuracy. But I thought it'd bring an interesting element to the conversation.

I'm not saying this to bash Christians, being a Protestant myself (in the fastest growing church in America, just thought I'd throw that in ), but it gets me thinking and wondering. What happens to the Christians who rejected him? What happens to Gandhi, the rejected? Of course, this could be one of the many things we're not meant to understand ever, but we can't but wonder.

And on that note, if you're wondering, I did finish that chart and the quarter ends today, which means I can come back full-time again.
Not that I was ever really gone during the hiatus. Really, the only reason I announced it was I could hold myself accountable to something about it.

Off to the last day of the quarter.

[Joshuamonkey]

Edit: I made a new Religion thread: http://forum.cantr.org/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=20349

[gejyspa]

Actually, I knew about that Pew research study, and took the online version of their quiz a couple of weeks ago. http://pewforum.org/Other-Beliefs-and-P ... urvey.aspx (15 out of the longer 32 question phone survey). I then took the longer quiz. I got a perfect score on both (I only hesitated on two questions, one of which was only gotten correct by 11% of the respondents, so I don't feel too bad). I am an Orthodox Jew, but it didn't hurt that I minored in religion in college

(heading over to Joshuamonkey's religion thread)

--gejyspa
P.S. to Snick -- I had copied (I thought) and pasted your small type to another document to read it, but when it came back "boljmepracurnu", I thought "What the heck? Why is she typing lojban?". Took my about .5 seconds to realize that it was an earlier entry in the paste buffer and I must have missed clicking ctrl-C.

[SekoETC]

I took the quiz now and I got 13/15 right. I think they were pretty easy.

[Joshuamonkey]

*sigh* I only got 12 out of 15. (80%)
But still:

I got a perfect score on both

I got 13/15 right.

Considering the fact that the average score was 50%, and the highest group score (post-college graduate) was 68%, this is evidence that Cantrians are much more knowledgable than most people.