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 Center’s 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 Islam’s holy book?
Others were more obscure: What is Indonesia’s dominant religion? Which Christians teach that salvation comes through faith alone?
About half the Protestants (53 percent) couldn’t 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 ...
Discuss the issues all you want, but do not make it personal.
Are you talking about the Lynn Ridenhour who has disassociated himself from lds in 2005?
How do you know that I haven't explored Mormonism thoroughly? In my years in graduate school, I spend hundreds of hours in discussions with Mormons and many hours reading the materials that they suggested I read. Most of it was official LDS publications or literature from groups closely aligned with the LDS church (even if it was not official). Obviously, none of it was intentional "anti" material but actually it turned out to be. If a well-grounded Christian reads Mormon literature with care, the errors of Mormonism are apparent as several people have pointed out when you printed the Articles of Faith of the LDS "church".
A Southern Baptist pastor named Lynn Ridenhour read the Book of Mormon and discovered the Truth.
What's that prove? The Bible tells us that several followers of Jesus left Him. I could just as easily claim that Mr. Ridenhour is just a modern-day example of false followers of the truth falling away.
You will continue to condemn Mormons without knowing the Truth.
We've been through this before. I don't condemn Mormons, I condemn Mormonism, I don't condemn Muslims, I condemn Islam. It is the evil systems that blind people to the true Jesus Christ that I condemn, not the victims. By the way, the true Jesus Christ, not the fiction of Joseph Smith and Brigham Young.
Oops. Saundra, you're going to have to find a new hero.
your mind is already made up
Reading the mind of another Freeper is a form of “making it personal.”
Discuss the issues all you want, but do not make it personal.
****
In all due respect day after day, and year after year all Elsie ever does is state his mind what is there left to read…
FOTFLMHO
Ouch.
That’s gonna leave a mark...
YAY!!
I is RESPECTED!!!
"The more the words, the less the meaning--and how does that profit anyone?"
Ecclesiastes 6:11
Better what the eye sees
than the roving of the appetite.
This too is meaningless,
a chasing after the wind.
tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine,
***
well you antis Reader’s Digest version of the scriptures are a good testament to that!
in your dreams along with your imitation of what is a Christian!
You antis follow a boorish jesus....
Sadly you antis have no clue about the God of Love!
So the lds jesus, a created one or the Biblical Jesus the Eternal One...........lds say our jesus could never love you, Christians say our Jesus already loves you..........the choice is evident, except to the blinded heart..
Thanx for that. Its a joy to finally learn something from your posts. lol.
Then based on your reply you get an F because you learned nothing.
“The Christian Community is laboring under false assumptions about Mormons.”
Empty claims. Show us which assumptions are “false”.
Thanks for the wonderful example of how to state something in love. (/sarcasm)
I bet he is an arrogant little bugger too...
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