Posted on 09/28/2010 6:31:00 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
If you want to know about God, you might want to talk to an atheist.
Heresy? Perhaps. But 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.
Atheists and agnostics — those who believe there is no God or who aren't sure — were more likely to answer the survey's questions correctly. Jews and Mormons ranked just below them in the survey's measurement of religious knowledge — so close as to be statistically tied.
So why would an atheist know more about religion than a Christian?
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.
(Excerpt) Read more at mobile.latimes.com ...
How would anyone know that?
He was slow. Read about him. I find his story inspiring.
Thanks; I’m moderately familiar with his story - I just always pictured him as being fairly sharp... guess I was wrong.
A public access channel in CT had a show on once a week called Atheist Today or some such title.
It was nothing but one hour of atheists being mad at God for nuns disciplining them in Catholic schools.
They must go out of their way to exclude any Christian who is knowledgable of the faith. I have never met such ignorant faithful anywhere except when debating with Liberals who claim to be Christian.
Joseph of Cupertino was an Italian saint. He was said to have been remarkably unclever, but prone to miraculous levitation and intense ecstatic visions that left him gaping.
In turn, he is recognized as the patron saint of air travelers, aviators, astronauts, people with a mental handicap, test takers, and weak students. He was canonized in the year 1767.
He lived to be 60.
Post # 21
ok
I am pretty sure Satan knows the Bible backwards and forwards too.
Amen. Once you become satisfied with your faith you eventually lose it. That does not mean you lose your belief, it means you lose the fire and the accompanying peace and joy that go with faith. You become an empty shell and are back where you started without knowing why.
Most of the atheists I know, regardless what they say, NEVER stop looking for a reason or a way to believe. It is a lonely and painful trip for them, because their ‘reason’ deceives them, leads them down so many roads... and in the end, and even IF they never accept a faith... they SEEM to know more than believers.
Without God, and more specifically, Jesus, there will forever be that aching emptiness, that feeling of "something is missing." However, the search for proof is futile. God cannot be proven! Were one to think he had proven God, he would have , by the very act of proving, turned an infinite Being into a finite being, thereby destroying God by definition. In the process, they do learn most of the arguments pro and con. What they don't learn is that it is by grace that we are saved, not by works. They keep looking at the works angle and miss the grace part.
Faith is a feeling, a feeling we know to be true and the truth is reaffirmed every day. Some, like John, have an epiphany. Others get there through Bible study and a true desire to understand. Eventually, they do and they are there.
They are truly sad and lost. I pray for them...and their children.
So do I. It is a shame for any to miss the true reason we are here. Christianity is as much about living as it is about everlasting life.
Heresy? Perhaps. But 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.”
Martin Luther was just one among many who rejected religion and wanted the truth known and he worked to that end.
Any educated person can read the Bible, and some people can remember what they read better than others, but that does,nt make them more knowledgeable because they do not know the meaning of what they read, and they do not know the difference between religion, and faith and truth.
Its hard for me to believe that people actually think that Jesus was preaching some kind of religion since it was the religious leaders ( the atheists and the agnostics ) who had Jesus hung on the cross in the first place.
It is like the saying, ( truth is sometimes stranger than )fiction.
The works and words of Jesus were not wittnessed by professors, they were seen and recorded by ordinary men, fishermen and the like, and thank god for that.
Put a knickel in it and see if it will start.
I wonder how many professors could translate the meaning of that the same way? (with out copying some one ) yet almost any grade school drop out knew what it met not many years ago.
Many of the atheists and agnostics whom i have had contact with thinks that it would be rediculeles to believe that the world was made in seven days, so for that reason they believe that the Bible is just foolishness.
Are they reading the Bible, or are they listening to a preacher that has not done his study very well? does the Bible say that god made the world in seven literal days? No.
The scribes and Pharisees obviously did not believe in God, they just believed in a religion that was making them rich and important.
Jesus was saying to them, don,t you know that this God that you preach is really real? why are you turning it into a religion?
That is why the religious leaders hated him, he was about to take away their rose garden, so to speak, their tithes and all of their authority.
The religious leaders of today misinterpret the scriptures and insist on collecting tithes and it has become a money game and the truth has gone down the tube.
The atheists and agnostics (well ) the scriptures say that many shall be called but few will be chosen.
6:40 This is the will of the one who sent me,
that everyone who sees the Son, and believes in him, should have eternal life;
and I will raise him up at the last day.”
6:39 This is the will of my Father who sent me,
that of all he has given to me I should lose nothing,
but should raise him up at the last day.
If God does not send some one to Christ, then Christ can not raise them up at the last day, just pray that God will send them.
Jesus Christ is not a religion - He’s the Truth.
I think that the more educated and intellectual a person is, the easier it is to fall into the same trap as Adam and Eve did in the Garden of Eden when they ate from the forbidden tree.
From this comment I assume you are a believer, right? If so, you are mistaken about who the non-believers are. There are many intelligent conservatives who are non-believers. Quite a few of them try to be believers but can't quite get there. Primarily because they are looking for God in all the wrong places - in scientific proof. Many were raised in the church and do all the right things, all the things a believer would do but, for the wrong reasons.
You also may need to reexamine your own belief. In your condemnation of non-believers you run the risk of conceit in your own knowledge and belief. You run the risk of finding out, when the time comes, you are among those wailing and gnashing their teeth, saying, "Why not me, Lord? I did all that was required."
Remember, Hate the sin but love the sinner. Pray for those you so arrogantly condemn.
Yes, and on human nature. Remember, he was there in the beginning, in the Garden. He even has his own kingdom, Hades. That is why Saul Alinsky dedicated his book, Rules for Radicals, to him under his other name, Lucifer. Need we know any more about Marxism and its ultimate destination?
Atheists, agnostics most knowledgeable about religion.
Lawyers know all the loop holes too.
Atheists, or self worshipers tend to be highly educated. As such they feel self empowered, like the sixteen year old who thinks he knows it all, and feel they have no need for God as they are in control.
Isn’t Satan also an expert on Scripture?
There are many intelligent conservatives who are non-believers. Quite a few of them try to be believers but can’t quite get there.
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