Do Christians and other really understand their religion??

[wheels5894]

How about this interesting article and quiz from the New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/10/opini ... ef=general

I thought it quite thought provoking that, say, Catholics don't understand their services properly. Do you know anyone like this?

I didn't do well in the quiz either!

[Coito ergo sum]

Just take a straw poll of people you know. Ask the religious folks what religion they are, then ask them to describe their beliefs.

9 out of 10 just believe in god, and "don't buy into EVERYTHING that their church teaches..."

They'll be sure that we all need to believe in god, but they reserve for themselves the right to pick and choose what tenets to hold to.....I always find that intersting...

Plus, they have no idea what the distinctions between their denomination and another denomination are. Most Christians are shocked to learn that the Catholic Bible, for example, has 5 extra books not found in the Protestant Bible.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

[Thinking Aloud]

How about this interesting article and quiz from the New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/10/opini ... ef=general

I thought it quite thought provoking that, say, Catholics don't understand their services properly. Do you know anyone like this?

I didn't do well in the quiz either!

I read the Pew Research quiz the other week and scored 14/15 or something! I was a Catholic, though, and probably one of the better informed. Trans-substantiation was explained fully, so I knew I was "actually" eating ... ... anyway fortunately it actually tasted like a flavourless wafer*, which I came to enjoy in time. Sadly there are some rather well-versed Catholics who actually create convoluted answers so things like the communion (which basically come down to "it is because it is") and the rest nod at the long words and agree.

I was always a bit sceptical, and fortunately became a lot more sceptical later!

* In hindsight it actually tasted quite a lot like something else, but in board form. Seriously.

[Robert_S]

The Church of the Subgenius says "You don't use your brain to think about your religion!"

Religions may have a very loose association with the texts they are founded on. For many religion is the rituals, the community, the conceptual framework for morals, and a reassurance that things will turn out OK in the end. The theological bits are things that they pay someone else to worry about.

[Rob]

Most Christians don't realize the contradictions of the gospels or how apologists attempt to get past these issues. Conformity doesn't require you know about your religion just that you know how to say amen.

[Feck]

No .

[Svartalf]

You know, if I hadn't studied the bible, I might have decided to become a priest.

[piscator]

You know, if I hadn't studied the bible, I might have decided to become a priest.

got a thing for alter boys?

[Svartalf]

No, I was just pretty depressed at the time... no success with the girls, pretty grim professional prospects... I was thinking that if I was to spend a life of poverty and sexual frustration, I might give it a purpose... I'm still poor and frustrated but that's a mistake I did not make

[piscator]

seems like chicken sexer at the poultry plant would have been the natural second choice, given your criteria

[Rum]

How about this interesting article and quiz from the New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/10/opini ... ef=general

I thought it quite thought provoking that, say, Catholics don't understand their services properly. Do you know anyone like this?

I didn't do well in the quiz either!

Many Catholics protested when they stopped doing all masses in Latin. They preferred not to understand what the priest was saying it seems! How funking nuts is that|!?

[Thinking Aloud]

How about this interesting article and quiz from the New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/10/opini ... ef=general

I thought it quite thought provoking that, say, Catholics don't understand their services properly. Do you know anyone like this?

I didn't do well in the quiz either!

Many Catholics protested when they stopped doing all masses in Latin. They preferred not to understand what the priest was saying it seems! How funking nuts is that|!?

Perfectly logical. Jesus spoke Latin, ergo it's more accurate. (He only spoke King James English later.)

[Svartalf]

How about this interesting article and quiz from the New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/10/opini ... ef=general

I thought it quite thought provoking that, say, Catholics don't understand their services properly. Do you know anyone like this?

I didn't do well in the quiz either!

Many Catholics protested when they stopped doing all masses in Latin. They preferred not to understand what the priest was saying it seems! How funking nuts is that|!?

Technically not so nuts when you notice that torah study is all that kept Hebrew alive for like 12 to 15 centuries, and that muslims consider that koran study must be conducted in the Original Arabic from a certain level up.

It's the reflex of the Sacred language, that the old ways are closer to the deity... and it's not so wrong since the more you translate a body of work, the more slides from the original meaning (with its peculiar sets of denotations and connotations and whatnot).

Now, if you go calling the KJV crowd who go blathering that THEIR version is the true and inerrant word of dog and that whoever studies or worships from another version is a hellbound heretic a bunch of nutfucking cretins, I'll still agree with you 100%

[Rum]

How about this interesting article and quiz from the New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/10/opini ... ef=general

I thought it quite thought provoking that, say, Catholics don't understand their services properly. Do you know anyone like this?

I didn't do well in the quiz either!

Many Catholics protested when they stopped doing all masses in Latin. They preferred not to understand what the priest was saying it seems! How funking nuts is that|!?

Technically not so nuts when you notice that torah study is all that kept Hebrew alive for like 12 to 15 centuries, and that muslims consider that koran study must be conducted in the Original Arabic from a certain level up.

It's the reflex of the Sacred language, that the old ways are closer to the deity... and it's not so wrong since the more you translate a body of work, the more slides from the original meaning (with its peculiar sets of denotations and connotations and whatnot).

Now, if you go calling the KJV crowd who go blathering that THEIR version is the true and inerrant word of dog and that whoever studies or worships from another version is a hellbound heretic a bunch of nutfucking cretins, I'll still agree with you 100%

I think you miss the point here. The theocracy might feel closer to the 'truth' (LOL!) of their text but the slavish followers who are called on to do anything in the name of their gods are left in ignorance of the meaning of their 'holy texts' and it makes them even more prone to manipulation by their priests. Ever was it so, the evil bustards..