Posted on 09/29/2010 3:05:05 PM PDT by zippythepinhead
Atheists and agnostics know more about major world religions than many people of faith, while Mormons can answer more Bible questions than their Catholic and mainline Protestant counterparts.
Those are among the somewhat startling conclusions about religious literacy in America the Pew Research Centers Forum on Religion and Public Life drew after surveying 3,412 Americans.
Some of the multiple-choice questions were relatively simple: Where was Jesus born and who led the exodus from Egypt? What religion was Mother Teresa, what day does the Jewish Sabbath begin and what is the name of Islams holy book?
Others were more obscure: What is Indonesias dominant religion? Which Christians teach that salvation comes through faith alone?
About half the Protestants (53 percent) couldnt correctly identify Martin Luther as the person whose writings and actions inspired the Protestant Reformation. Fewer than half of Americans (47 percent) knew the Dalai Lama is Buddhist and only 38 percent correctly associated Vishnu and Shiva with Hinduism.
John Morehead, director of the Western Institute for Intercultural Studies in Salt Lake City, had already noted religious illiteracy in the general population as well as in the evangelical community. But he did not expect Mormons to top them in their biblical fluency.
Mormons tend to emphasize Mormon scriptures like the Book of Mormon rather than the Bible in their devotional life, Morehead said in an e-mail.
Even some LDS scholars were surprised to find Mormons at the top.
(Excerpt) Read more at sltrib.com ...
That’s interesting. We know that the Bible is the Word of God. We know that God is sovereign and that nothing that happens in the story of Jesus Christ as related in the NT is an accident. There is meaning upon meaning upon meaning.
Take the fact that women are the first witnesses to Christ’s Resurrection. What does that say?
Isn’t it a massive refutation of Jewish positive law? Women had been relegated to chattel status in violation of God’s Natural Law. God never gave that Law, yet the “law” became such. Women couldn’t be witnesses, yet here we have them witnessing the greatest event in history first and I believe intentionally.
This would continue the insult to the ruling elites. Jesus’ trial was wholly illegal, but their law was no longer God’s law was it? They abused Korban for selfish reasons, bought and sold the position of High Priest and due to all this and more didn’t recognize their God and eventually arranged his death.
Clearly Paradise doesn’t equal Heaven and the scriptures are very clear about the basic necessaries to Salvation. The thief doesn’t qualify for Biblical Salvation under those descriptions and his specific circumstances.
>>”The members are people that can be turned around.”<<
My next question is, “turned around” to what? Another religion, another belief? If the members are happy in their beliefs and their form of worship, why should so many people want them to change?
It is human nature for everyone to have people think the way they do. They feel their beliefs are the only way, e.g., Jesuit priests covering the earth trying to convert tribal natives to believe the way they do, Baptist and Mormon etc. missionaries, same thing. Democrats arguing with Republicans because they think the other is so stupid and naive that they just ‘don't see the light’.
Thanks again for ‘discussing’ this with me, rather than responding with nasty immature remarks, as so many here do. I must admit that I am guilty of firing back when attacked by these bigots. Yes, they are bigots and they know who they are.
I have painfully tried over and over again to try to explain to certain people here at FR that I am not a practicing Mormon and that I only defend them because my family roots can be traced back to the beginning of the church.
My Gr. x3 grandfather left his family to fight for a country that had condoned killing Mormons. After they were burned out in Nauvoo, IL he joined, along with 500 other Mormon men to march with the Mormon Battalion. He actually walked 5000 miles to get back to them in winter quarters where he found them half-starved. They gathered what they could and then walked back to Utah. His story is well celebrated in Mormon history books. He was the “Butcher” that slit a wild bull's throat with a knife in the “Battle of the Bulls”.
Mormons are not a cult, not a sect and do not eat babies. They are good hard working and honest people that just tired of being pushed around by people that didn't agree with their form of worship. I don't understand the hatred that comes from a small group of ‘Mormon-Haters’ that have infiltrated Free Republic. Mormons do love Jesus and God, they are Christians and they live clean lives. I must add at this point that, according to the survey, that they are more well-versed in the teachings of the Bible than other religions. Facts are facts.
I guarantee that someone will clip a couple of my words written here and make a big issue out of it. They will respond to me with quotes and links, ad nauseum.
Take care, my FRiend.....panax
No.
Most Christians realize that Christ’s atonement alone saves you. And after that the baptism of fire - your heart has changed and the fruits of that change is that you have a desire to never sin again. It doesn’t mean you won’t sin again. Or do you think you don’t sin?
You had it right the first time.
ding we have a winner!
Do you even know what the LDS says about your savior?
Did you know that your faith does not recognize the LDS as Christian, does not accept their Baptism etc.?
And you are right?
Well if you are grading yourself perhaps, but on the fact. nope...
Much like the LDS...
Don’t go all logical with these guys now...
By design of course. Emphasis works as your means to have and no telling what you can manipulate people to do...
Legalism. How do you know if you’ve sinned enough to lose your salvation, or if you are ever sin-free enough to actually get it.
It boils down to this; who saves you - is it Christ or is it yourself?
HA ha ha!
Your 'wild goose chase list' get posted yet one more time.
At 'appears' that you are to LAZY to actually show what you are talking about.
All you want to know is right here!
And just a 'little' bit more...
The BoM 'clarified' the one man/one wife thing found in the Bible; but JS and others CHOSE to ignore it.
Could you 'clearly' post these 'problems'?
Oh?
Then why were they 'needed'?
THX1138
AMEN, Sister!
Why, we are thinking about sending 600 MORE kits to help HAITI!!
--MormonDude(http://www.examiner.com/lds-church-in-national/lds-church-to-build-temporary-housing-haiti)
Yeah!
--MormonDude(Just LOOK at whose NAME is on the side of our buildings!)
Excellent analysis and I agree with you. Clearly, just seeing miracles isn’t enough to generate faith or at least not the faith necessary to sustain belief.
Jesus had made the metaphors more than clear and we don’t have everything that He said to the disciples and it would be ridiculous to assume that the closest twelve didn’t have even more detailed knowledge or discussions with Jesus. The NT narrative is not one to one across time. That is it doesn’t record everything. We have to think for ourselves.
You’ve really hit it on the head with your description of the early moments at the tomb.
What we are witnessing is a complete refutation of the Judaic Error. Their law wasn’t God-made, but man-made. The hedge wasn’t about protecting God’s word, but their own prestige, perks and privileges. God’s Law is Natural Law. Wherein did He decree that women are less than men?
No where. Yet, Judaic Elites made women chattel. They abused their authority and set women below men. Women couldn’t be witnesses, yet Jesus Christ made them his first witnesses. Mary is the first living human to witness the most glorious event in the history of the world. That same world missed it nearly completely.
Jesus refutes this false “Law” and re-establishes his true Law. Moses knew and recognized this, but his people had long forgotten it.
‘Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani’ which is interpreted, ‘Lord, Lord, why hast thou foresaken me?’ is better translated as “My God, my God, why hast thou left me alone?” I don’t think Heavenly Father would abandon his Son in the negative sense, just left him to complete the task alone. Enkatelipes can mean forsake or abandon, but only in the negative sense. Elói in Aramaic is possessive for “God”.
Your conclusion is interesting. If even the closest, most beloved disciples missed the message - that the Messiah wasn’t a material liberator, but a spiritual one - what does it say about the Chosen People missing the message?
Then you are the VERY person to tell us just what did Joseph Smith learn that was UNTRUE abour PRESBYTERIANism?
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