"Christians are morons"
I think there are a number of factors accounting for the seeming discrepancy.
1. Levels of belief vary enormously across the world and also to a certain extent within countries. I've heard a number of Americans say anonymously that they are atheist but do not dare "come out" to their friends, family or work colleagues for fear of discrimination and exclusion. In the UK the reverse is more likely to be true nowadays with people openly admitting they are religious likely to be excluded or though of as weird.
2. If the Churches base their counts on the number of people baptised or married therein, the figures will be heavily inaccurate. Typically in the UK people get married in churches because of tradition rather than religious beliefs. It is more of a "party" to have the "big white wedding" in church rather than simply a few words exchanged in a registry office.
3. Many people who claim to be of a religious belief only claim to be such based on the predominant religion of their country. Take my elderly father for example. He claims to be a Christian but never goes to church, doesn't have a bible, never prays, never watches any religious programs on the TV, never mentions or talks about anything to do with religion - but he is a Christian.
4. Mixing up religion with morality. I've heard people exclaim "I'm a Christian!" but in a context where they simply mean they hold certain moral values. Just because someone doesn't go around murdering and robbing doesn't make them a Christian.
Any more?
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Peer pressure tends to be a factor that I usually discount, since it doesn't seem to affect me very much (I've never had qualms about disagreeing with people) but yes, I can definitely say that this is true in parts of the US. In the Midwest, you mark yourself as a target for harassment if you claim to be an atheist.
Independent polls and census counts should be more accurate than church baptism rolls, but still perhaps not very accurate. At this point, though, we wander into the question of "what is a real Christian?"
The RINOs (religious in name only) are probably a sizable portion of declared Christians.
This I haven't observed.
MussoliniBismarck already brought up the issue of age demographics on the Internet- younger people are less likely to be religious.
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gina-ghettoprincess
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I am perfectly happy with people having their beliefs, its best not to question a persons mental faculties over something that is personal to them.
Its just poor manors to insult people over their faith or lack of faith, it all comes down to who is morally superior in both parties when nether is acting
in a moral way, sorry if I am being to wordy.
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In my case not declaring my godlessness is pure opportunistic capitalistic economics
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I think there are a number of factors accounting for the seeming discrepancy.
1. Levels of belief vary enormously across the world and also to a certain extent within countries. I've heard a number of Americans say anonymously that they are atheist but do not dare "come out" to their friends, family or work colleagues for fear of discrimination and exclusion. In the UK the reverse is more likely to be true nowadays with people openly admitting they are religious likely to be excluded or though of as weird.
2. If the Churches base their counts on the number of people baptised or married therein, the figures will be heavily inaccurate. Typically in the UK people get married in churches because of tradition rather than religious beliefs. It is more of a "party" to have the "big white wedding" in church rather than simply a few words exchanged in a registry office.
3. Many people who claim to be of a religious belief only claim to be such based on the predominant religion of their country. Take my elderly father for example. He claims to be a Christian but never goes to church, doesn't have a bible, never prays, never watches any religious programs on the TV, never mentions or talks about anything to do with religion - but he is a Christian.
4. Mixing up religion with morality. I've heard people exclaim "I'm a Christian!" but in a context where they simply mean they hold certain moral values. Just because someone doesn't go around murdering and robbing doesn't make them a Christian.
Any more?
Wow!! ! this sound a lot like in Quebec (In the towns a least, in countryside peoples still go to church.)
I will say that religion had nothing to do with be a moron or not. Even though a lot os christians in USA are.
This statement is not entirely true - quite a bit of knowledge was carried through the Dark Ages because Irish monks needed practice at illuminating manuscripts (so as to make their Bibles prettier), and got it by transcribing documents from the Greek and Roman periods. Much of what became the Enlightenment came from documents preserved by Catholic monks in Ireland.
(Remember that the Library at Alexandria was burned by an Islamic leader, who maintained that the scrolls would either contradict the Qu'ran and be heresy, or confirm it and be unnecessary. The biggest such act by a Christian wasn't done by one of their leaders, but by one of the Conquistadors, who destroyed all the Mayan codexes he could find because nothing written by a non-Christian could, in his view, possibly be anything but heretical. I understand the Pope wasn't too happy, when word got back to Europe... But this was well after the accepted end of the Dark Ages.)
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Deacon, what I meant was that during the early and middle dark ages the church tended to impede intellectual growth. The Moors saved the Greek writings as well and I have never heard of a concrete reason as to when and why Alexandria was burned. Caesar, accident, Muslims, ya da ya da.
Gina, I meant exactly what I said, people should not be punished with ostracism for merely being different.
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I agree. I am just rather confused as to what this has to do with "peasants".
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I agree that the letter of recommendation written on the actions of some people of faith is sometimes not a very good recommendation to the faith values they hold.
But I think that neither the consistency nor the inconsistency of the rationality in people of faith has anything to do with the rationality of the belief itself.
And I also don't believe that atheists, agnostics, evolutionists, creationists or anyone who follows a particular belief system are above being inconsistent at times, or above being reproved for that inconsistency.
Sometimes it seems difficult to find two persons who share the same worldview being on the same page. And at times the very person who seems consistent on one thing will at times seem inconsistent on another thing, usually depending on the subject matter.
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This is part of why I think you CAN say christians are morons.
Not because they think there's a god, but because they think there is this maniacal god of the bible.... and love him.
If it was proof conclusively that the god of the bible existed I still wouldn't bow down to the creepy old man.