[kidyankee764]

Originally Posted by KH02

are you saying religious people are not intelligent? That's offensive.

I was thinking the same thing (and I'm not too religious).

[JViello]

Originally Posted by kidyankee764

Oh, I know this. That's why I said they are very nice people who are a product of their environment. Same reason we are the way we are here in New England. Even so, with your explanation, still not my cup-o-joe.

Fair enough. I just wasn't sure if you realized that or not.

Originally Posted by kidyankee764

You've lived in Charlotte for too long, JV. Since when does saying "I'm Catholic" mean "buzz off?" If that's how they see it, still, I find it very sad.

LOL It wasn't in Charlotte, I get that more up here than anything when talking matters of faith.

When I get the "well I'm catholic" blow off, I usually try to lighten the mood and say "oh, so we are both Christian then, great!" and it really separates the folks just letting me know they are Catholic and those saying "buzz off".

[JViello]

Originally Posted by KH02

are you saying religious people are not intelligent? That's offensive.

I think it's rather close-minded and unintelligent actually.

[iPwn]

it's also distinct because even the RURAL areas are non-religious. rural oregon isn't much less religious than rural texas ...

[JViello]

Originally Posted by MimzyMusic

it's also distinct because even the RURAL areas are non-religious. rural oregon isn't much less religious than rural texas ...

Yea we don't keep our hippie athiest liberal friends contained in just the cities like you folks, we let them live in the country too.

[kidyankee764]

Originally Posted by JViello

Fair enough. I just wasn't sure if you realized that or not.



LOL It wasn't in Charlotte, I get that more up here than anything when talking matters of faith.

When I get the "well I'm catholic" blow off, I usually try to lighten the mood and say "oh, so we are both Christian then, great!" and it really separates the folks just letting me know they are Catholic and those saying "buzz off".

Ahh, okay. "Buzz off" sounds like it'd fit better in CT anyway, lol.

[Currency Pair Crocodile]

Originally Posted by Cruikshl

One time when we lived in North Carolina next to a great young couple, who happened to be Baptist, it proved to be quite comical. They of course didn't drink and we of course the good Catholics we are, did. Every time my husband would be working in the yard he would always offer the neighbor a beer. For three years this went on. We never had a problem with anyone asking us if we had found a church. We just said we were Catholic and that would end the conversation.

Ah, good ole NC!!

I've had my fair share with the Baptists. But none of them ever bullied me for being catholic, a treatment I'd been subjected to by other folks, for instance, many of my friends who happen to be SDA's.

Also, with regard to NC, I found bigdave's religion heatmap in the first page a bit surprising where NC and SC are kind of yellow, both these states had some of the most ultra-conservative christians I'd met all my life.

[Currency Pair Crocodile]

Originally Posted by JViello

Some of the greatest intellectuals come from the church. If you don't believe it, lets go a few rounds and see if you can keep up.

Several people ward them off, but actually the early works of Jerome, Augustine etc., are probably the most complex of polemics and intellectual arguments I have ever come across.

There's this great book I grabbed from Amazon once upon a time. Here's the link:

Amazon.com: How the Catholic Church Built Western Civilization: Thomas E. Woods : Books

"Ask a college student today what he knows about the Catholic Church and his answer might come down to one word: "corruption." But that one word should be "civilization." Western civilization has given us the miracles of modern science, the wealth of free-market economics, the security of the rule of law, a unique sense of human rights and freedom, charity as a virtue, splendid art and music, a philosophy grounded in reason, and innumerable other gifts that we take for granted as the wealthiest and most powerful civilization in history.

But what is the ultimate source of these gifts? Bestselling author and professor Thomas E. Woods, Jr. provides the long neglected answer: the Catholic Church. Woods’s story goes far beyond the familiar tale of monks copying manuscripts and preserving the wisdom of classical antiquity.

In How the Catholic Church Built Western Civilization, you’ll learn: · Why modern science was born in the Catholic Church · How Catholic priests developed the idea of free-market economics five hundred years before Adam Smith · How the Catholic Church invented the university · Why what you know about the Galileo affair is wrong · How Western law grew out of Church canon law · How the Church humanized the West by insisting on the sacredness of all human life No institution has done more to shape Western civilization than the two-thousand-year-old Catholic Church—and in ways that many of us have forgotten or never known. How the Catholic Church Built Western Civilization is essential reading for recovering this lost truth."

[bluecountry]

Originally Posted by Colossus_Antonis

I'm not sure if Jay will appreciate religion in this forum. But here goes:

CT has been in the news like two days ago. NE is the least religious and least catholic region in America per the latest survey.

What do you guys think? Could this really be factual? When I was in CT, I used to visit one church every Sunday and every church was kind of overflowing.

Perhaps the left is at it again

I'm glad to hear this...it is a good thing.
The worst thing about this country are those religious wacko nutjobs...like GWBush..and Sarah Palin.

They have a perverse religious belief that evolution does not exist...reject all geologic evidence...want THIS to be taught as science at out schools.
Further....they want to force US to have babies we don't want....rap children...bastards...teen pregnancy...even if the mother';s life is in jeopardy.
They don't believe in stem cell...claiming it kills life...when REAL human life can be saved.

They want prayer in school and don't believe in contraceptives...so STDs can be spread.

No...I'm perfectly ok with having a least religious state.
Our forefathers had it right...seperation of church and state...because it's wrong for one person, like Sarah Palin and Geogre Bush, to impose THEIR persverse religious views on ME.

Why should I have to have a bastard child I don't want.
Why should I not be allowed the benefits of stem cell research?
Why should I have to be taught creationism bullsh*t?
Why should I have to sing their prayer in school?

Religion is like the bathroom....keep what you do in church to YOURSELF.
Don't subject me to your wacky views.

[JViello]

Originally Posted by bluecountry

Why should I have to have a bastard child I don't want.
Why should I not be allowed the benefits of stem cell research?
Why should I have to be taught creationism bullsh*t?
Why should I have to sing their prayer in school?

I'm going to give this post a mulligan for now because I'd like to settle in with the family.

But I will say it's pretty obvious to me that "I" is the problem here.