Religious knowledge by religious group

[Intothewind]

http://www.pewforum.org/2010/09/28/u...wledge-survey/

[Ohio]

Originally Posted by Intothewind

http://www.pewforum.org/2010/09/28/u...wledge-survey/

This is a forum for members to express contributing ideas, not a place to post links.

http://gizmodo.com/5804106/the-10-ea...n-the-internet

[awareness]

Originally Posted by Ohio

This is a forum for members to express contributing ideas, not a place to post links.

http://gizmodo.com/5804106/the-10-ea...n-the-internet

Yeah, bro Into ... write a short OP(Opening Position - Opening Post) explaining your question, problem, or point ... Then drop the link.

But expect blowback. I've noticed in the past that it rubs believers the wrong way to learn that atheists know more about their religion than they do.

[Intothewind]

My apologies. I figured the link ought to explain itself.

Why atheists and Mormons is my question? Most Mormons ive met have been great folk...but their doctrine is frequently bashed by the mainstream.

[awareness]

Originally Posted by Intothewind

My apologies. I figured the link ought to explain itself.

Why atheists and Mormons is my question? Most Mormons ive met have been great folk...but their doctrine is frequently bashed by the mainstream.

I ordered The Book of Mormon from a 800 number. I got about 3/4 thru reading it when the boys on bicycles in white shirts and ties dropped by. When they asked what I thought of the book I said, "I think it's one of the best adult fantasies ever written."

Long story short. we made friends, and they visited from time to time. They seemed to be well educated and knowledgeable.

And it was a Mormon on the web that turned me onto Dr. Bart Ehrman's book, "The Orthodox Corruption of Scripture," when it was published.

They seem to be going thru the same processes and changes and struggles, and such, in life that we local churchers are going thru.

Modernity is not only troubling to Muslims, but Christians as well. Science is winning over past superstitions. Thank God.

[Freedom]

Intothewind, I’m not convinced that having a broad knowledge of religions should be taken to mean anything significant. I know that some people find the study of world religions to be interesting. Other than that, I don’t expect anyone, religious or not, to be particular learned in a multitude of religions. Of course, if someone is religious, they should have a better-than-average understanding of their own religion, otherwise, they just look stupid.

I am not impressed with some people who purport to be an ‘expert’ on different religions. Allow me to use Richard Dawkins as an example. In The God Delusion, he states the following:

The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully.

When you see this kind of talk, can you honestly say that it’s an geniune ‘conclusion’ that a person has reached, and not just a disingenuous and venomous characterization that they want to make? Since he is a prominent atheist, he obviously has an agenda, that being promote atheism. If Dawkins believes God to be a delusion, then why is he so concerned with ‘disproving’ a delusion? Why must God be characterized in a way that was foreign to even the very authors of the Bible?

Mormons have to be well-learned in various religions, because they are given the task of door-knocking, so they have no choice not to. They have to be aware of what kind of people that they might be dealing with. Atheists have to be well-learned in various religions, because they apparently feel the need to ‘disprove’ something that they already believe to be fictitious. Go figure.

[awareness]

Originally Posted by Freedom

[B]
When you see this kind of talk, can you honestly say that it’s an geniune ‘conclusion’ that a person has reached, and not just a disingenuous and venomous characterization that they want to make?

No, I think Dawkins has actually read the OT. But Dawkins is quite harsh. But isn't that the God he refuses to believe in.