Rising Hegemon
...a survey that measured Americans' knowledge of religion found that atheists and agnostics knew more, on average, than followers of most major faiths. In fact, the gaps in knowledge among some of the faithful may give new meaning to the term "blind faith."
A majority of Protestants, for instance, couldn't identify Martin Luther as the driving force behind the Protestant Reformation, according to the survey, released Tuesday by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life. Four in 10 Catholics misunderstood the meaning of their church's central ritual, incorrectly saying that the bread and wine used in Holy Communion are intended to merely symbolize the body and blood of Christ, not actually become them...
American atheists and agnostics tend to be people who grew up in a religious tradition and consciously gave it up, often after a great deal of reflection and study, said Alan Cooperman, associate director for research at the Pew Forum.
"These are people who thought a lot about religion," he said. "They're not indifferent. They care about it."
Atheists and agnostics also tend to be relatively well educated, and the survey found, not surprisingly, that the most knowledgeable people were also the best educated. However, it said that atheists and agnostics also outperformed believers who had a similar level of education.
That's why I only worship Andy Partridge:
Oh, and this...
12 comments:
Ignint bastidges, ur true b'lievers.
Hmmmm. Wonder if there may be some cause and effect relationship here. The more you know the less you believe (says the militant agnostic).
Exactly, Dr. Dick.
I've worked with a bunch of very hard-core fundamentalist Christians, and they're always quite favorably impressed by my knowledge of both the new and old testaments. Most of them assume I'm a believer, if not of the same level of piety as they are.
My seven-year-old daughter disabused my inlaws (Catholic) of that notion this summer when we were home for a visit. Grandma asked Laura if she had had her first communion yet, and Laura asked what that was. In the course of the explanation, Laura interrupted and exclaimed, "We're Jewish, we don't believe in god!" That resulted in some interesting discussions.
steven colbert did ask one of those pro 10 commandment GOoPers to name them, and he got like 3.
10 commandments:
1. Don't bang on doors trying to convert anyone to anything
2.Live and let live
3.Eat drink and be merry
4.Do nothing unto others as long as they don't bother you
5.Feel free to silence those who bug you, whether with words or arms is up to you.
6.Anyone claiming to be God, even if he or she insists they can prove it, must be incarcerated.
7. Anyone who makes up lists ought to go up on the mountain and get pushed off a ledge.
stop me, please,...vox
Then there's the little known 11th Commandment: And I, the Lord God, giver of barley and hops and grains in general, dost command thee to not spilleth thyne beer.
I love to introduce believers to some of my favourite Bible verses.
For example, speaking of the ten commandments, few believers know that the Bible offers three different versions of the Ten Commandments, and fewer still know this one:
Exodus 34: 26 "Do not cook a young goat in its mother's milk."
*************
I also love to quote Mr. Jesus H. Christ himself on the subject of public prayer:
Matthew 6:5
"And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men..."
New International Version (©1984)
I also love to quote Mr. Jesus H. Christ himself on the subject of public prayer:
You forgot the best part about locking yourself in your closet and praying silently.
ot:
here is the obama at wisconsin speech if you were looking for it.
cspan hid it behind the albuquerque speech on their schedule list.
be excellent to each other.
Slightly OT, or not:
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/17390/210904
"The individuals in the Tea Party may come from very different walks of life, but most of them have a few things in common. After nearly a year of talking with Tea Party members from Nevada to New Jersey, I can count on one hand the key elements I expect to hear in nearly every interview. One: Every single one of them was that exceptional Republican who did protest the spending in the Bush years, and not one of them is the hypocrite who only took to the streets when a black Democratic president launched an emergency stimulus program. ("Not me — I was protesting!" is a common exclamation.) Two: Each and every one of them is the only person in America who has ever read the Constitution or watched Schoolhouse Rock. (Here they have guidance from Armey, who explains that the problem with "people who do not cherish America the way we do" is that "they did not read the Federalist Papers.") Three: They are all furious at the implication that race is a factor in their political views — despite the fact that they blame the financial crisis on poor black homeowners, spend months on end engrossed by reports about how the New Black Panthers want to kill "cracker babies," support politicians who think the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was an overreach of government power, tried to enact South African-style immigration laws in Arizona and obsess over Charlie Rangel, ACORN and Barack Obama's birth certificate. Four: In fact, some of their best friends are black! (Reporters in Kentucky invented a game called 'White Male Liberty Patriot Bingo,' checking off a box every time a Tea Partier mentions a black friend.) And five: Everyone who disagrees with them is a radical leftist who hates America.
"It would be inaccurate to say the Tea Partiers are racists. What they are, in truth, are narcissists. They're completely blind to how offensive the very nature of their rhetoric is to the rest of the country. I'm an ordinary middle-aged guy who pays taxes and lives in the suburbs with his wife and dog — and I'm a radical communist? I don't love my country? I'm a redcoat? Fuck you! These are the kinds of thoughts that go through your head as you listen to Tea Partiers expound at awesome length upon their cultural victimhood, surrounded as they are by America-haters like you and me or, in the case of foreign-born president Barack Obama, people who are literally not Americans in the way they are."
i snorted when i heard protestants didn't know who martin luther was.
when i was little kid in sabbath school, we were handed booklets that told the story of martin luther in comic book form, which i thought odd considering we weren't lutherans.
it impressed upon me the importance of individual thought. and the necessity at times that the hierarchical status quo needs to be challenged in order to reform corruption. concepts that are quite subversive if you are an authoritarian, fundamentalist organization.
the lessons from the martin luther story isn't that dissimilar to that of jesus. though i must say, i was aghast when later on i learned martin luther was antisemitic.
a lot of my political inclinations i can trace back to my youth in what i learned at church.
by the way, if you are a parent and you want to instill in your kid an appreciation of history at a young age, give them historical accounts to read in comic book form.
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