The less educated are more religious -Gallup/Pew (priests, God, Christians)
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Explain how you or your beliefs are being persecuted by evil secular education.
You can't, because they are not.
What you are actually decrying is secular education failing to support if not teach your dogma, which is so out of step with reality that even a church-funded college can't get state accreditation without agreeing to teach some things contrary to your dogma.
Even apart from accreditation, way back in 1975 I was typing a graduate thesis by a student at a Baptist theological seminary questioning the inerrancy of scripture on the grounds that it's an untenable position.
Thought wants to be free. It is you who have naive views that it can be contained and constrained, much less in the particular way you wish it to be.
Explain how you or your beliefs are being persecuted by evil secular education.
You can't, because they are not.
I really didn't say that, did I?
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What you are actually decrying is secular education failing to support if not teach your dogma, which is so out of step with reality that even a church-funded college can't get state accreditation without agreeing to teach some things contrary to your dogma.
Why do you believe most university faculty are liberal and skew toward liberal religion, if at all?
It's not a conspiracy among university administrators, but the people that are doing the teaching tend to be liberal in politics as well as religious views.
Most of the questions on the survey had nothing to do with Christianity so those results are not surprising at all. If we know the gospel to be the truth, we're not going to spend our time studying other religions.
It's that kind of self-proclaimed myopia that brings down your score on a general religion test. You are right, no one should be surprised.
I'd be interested to see where you got that info on. China #1 in the world's education rankings. Can't believe that my old trout...but happy to be proved wrong'''if you can.
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...greatest Atheist to Religion conversion in the history of mankind.
1.3 BILLION people. Were all Atheist just a few decades ago...now half are Religious.
Now you're just being silly my lad. China has always had a high number of religious/spiritual followers. Are you really trying to tell me that a few decades ago the population of China were all atheists???
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Plus...that Religion stuff is contagious...in 50 years 90% will be Religious.
No "celebration"...just stating facts.
Well, I haven't seen any 'facts' yet. I've seen various claims from you but as yet, nothing to support the claim.
...and of course, I will remind you again as I have done so many times in the past that the number of people that have religious beliefs is no reflection on whether the belief is true. Even if you could show that 99% of the people alive today or who have ever lived, held religious beliefs it doesn't indicate that the beliefs are true. That many people believe something does not indicate that what they believe is true, it indicates that what they believe is POPULAR. You also have to consider that there are massively huge numbers of people around the world who SAY they are religious simply because they are in situations where it would not be in their interest to disclose that they are not.
Location: In a little house on the prairie - literally
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Originally Posted by Vizio
Think about it...your assertion is that smart people aren't religious. As if all smart people go to college, or that colleges only allow smart people in. It's just like saying that most liberals are college-educated. Maybe their political views are a product of the university, rather than the university being a product of the people.
Nope, and that is not what the surveys I posted in the OP show that all.
What they show is that those that tend to be most religious also tend to be least educated. Nothing says that all religious people are uneducated.
But you were perfectly aware of that, and had to go down into your deflection mode didn't you?
Why do you believe most university faculty are liberal and skew toward liberal religion, if at all?
It's not a conspiracy among university administrators, but the people that are doing the teaching tend to be liberal in politics as well as religious views.
Because they are educated and intelligent - not qualities held in high esteem by many fundamentalists.
Nope, and that is not what the surveys I posted in the OP show that all.
What they show is that those that tend to be most religious also tend to be least educated. Nothing says that all religious people are uneducated.
But you were perfectly aware of that, and had to go down into your deflection mode didn't you?
I'm just suggesting that you're looking at it from the wrong end. You assume that it's because non-religious don't go to school, where it could be that they do go to school...but are influenced away from religion by the non-religious educational system.
And it couldn't be that they were simply educated by teachers that were liberal and skewed left? Or that they haven't had to live in the real world?
Nope. They are simply educated and intelligent. They are able to parse truth from myth, for example. A task for which fundamentalists are particularly unsuited.
A ritual is a ceremony with actions repeated in a certain order, or more loosely, any actions repeated in a certain order. Such as a worship service -- whether it's tired or exuberant, empty or rich doesn't change that it's a ritual.
Then the only way a worship service fits your definition of a ritual is if every Christian church is always having worship in the exact same fashion and order of the serviced and singing the exact same songs.
Far from it. Our churches are not scripted. God guides the service. It could end early or go on for hours in some churches. You could have singing before the sermon, during the sermon, and after the sermon, anytime really. You may not even have singing at all.
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Originally Posted by mordant
Protestantism by and large removes icons and statues and funny hats and incense and latin incantations and the like and thinks that it has exorcised ritual. It hasn't.
Closely related to ritual is tradition. It hasn't exorcised that either. It has different and subtler traditions in some ways than other disciplines at times, but has tradition just the same -- again, whether a particular individual regards the tradition as infused with life and relevance or not is beside the point.
As a former fundamentalist I know that you have tried to turn ritual and tradition into dirty words because you enjoy the conceit that you have forsaken the empty trappings of a dead faith for a living and vital one. When I say "ritual" you probably see nothing of value; I am not so disparaging as that. Ritual is useful. I have a ritual for example of driving up the street to Dunkin Donuts most mornings and having a hot hazelnut latte and it's quite enjoyable and meaningful to me. It is part of my day that I look forward to, it is calming and it is centering, and perks me up for work. Your ritual of going to church on Sunday morning is no less meaningful to you because you refuse to call it a ritual or see it as one.
Christianity is not about ritual, it's about a relationship with the Creator of the universe and everyone's experience is different. Other religions demand that believers all peform the exact same acts. In Islam, you must pray 5 times a day at specific time frames or make at least one pilgrimage to Mecca. Christianity is not that way. You don't have to even go to church to be a Christian.
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Originally Posted by mordant
And be careful about insisting on your sort of ritual or on renaming it to something else -- you need that whole 33% of Christianity to prop up your argument about how well Christianity is doing vs other faiths and no faiths.
You claim to have a compelling message that delivers compelling value. And yet what you have is just another message with its fair share of followers. People should be lining up around the block to get into your church and hear the good news. For some reason they are not. I wonder what that reason is. You would say it is the work of Satan in the world (elevating Satan's power above god's) or the lazy indifference of people (elevating human folly over god's power and ability to communicate) or the godless liberals (elevating human government over the power of god).
So your claim is that the message is invalidated because the population has a weak response to it? Christianity is heart based. A person has to want to receive the good news before they will darken the doorstep of a church. Often the only way that happens is for the person to find themselves broken at their lowest of lows. After all, light shines brightest in the dark. There is a hunger for the gospel. Maybe not so much in America anymore because we have become so blinded by busy-ness that we lose track of our own lives. In foreign countries hostile to the gospel like the Phillipines, I've had missionary friends report people walking from 20-30 miles to come hear the gospel.
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Originally Posted by mordant
I remind you again that your dogma is embraced by a fairly small percentage of that 33% which includes Roman Catholicism, Eastern Orthodox, and even Mormons and JWs, all of whom in other contexts you would decry as backslidden or even apostate. The real situation is even worse for you -- probably more like 5%, charitably.
And it is a pointless reminder. A statistic doesn't change the truth. In fact, all you are doing is employed the very logical fallacy in your playbook. The notion that Christianity is not true because most people don't believe in it.
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.and whilst you are waiting for them to dry, read this.
