It's not only just theology schools. Creationist shitwits love to give themsevles phony degrees to impress the dolts....if no one else.


http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/credentials.html

Jesus, if they want some fake degrees, they can just go on ulc.net and get a doctorate for $30. And these are the same guys that gave Hunter Thompson his doctorate and ordained me.

I agree, Christian universities give out worthless degrees to their students as long as what you learn is in accordance with the bible and their beliefs. It's an insult to those that work for years to earn doctorates in biblical or religious studies that these nut jobs can call themselves doctors of theology etc. I also agree that it's not totally useless if you know how to use it to your own advancement up the social ladder lol. They should just call those degrees doctorates of deception!

My sister went to a Nazarene university and got a degree in exercise science. She made no friends while she was there because everyone was a Jesus freak. My sister is Catholic, but even she couldn't handle the degree of nuttiness that pervaded the school (pun not intended).

(November 1, 2011 at 11:30 pm)Phaedra Wrote: My sister went to a Nazarene university and got a degree in exercise science. She made no friends while she was there because everyone was a Jesus freak. My sister is Catholic, but even she couldn't handle the degree of nuttiness that pervaded the school (pun not intended).

Well, odds are, they wouldn't have considered her, as a Catholic, a true Christian.

(November 1, 2011 at 11:34 pm)Rev. Rye Wrote: Well, odds are, they wouldn't have considered her, as a Catholic, a true Christian.

I'm sure they wouldn't have.

She told me this amusing story:

All the students were required to attend chapel once per week. Chapel lasted for about 45 minutes-1 hour. She used to sit in what everyone called Hell Row (the last pew) and watch movies on her iPod.

(November 1, 2011 at 11:37 pm)Phaedra Wrote: All the students were required to attend chapel once per week. Chapel lasted for about 45 minutes-1 hour. She used to sit in what everyone called Hell Row (the last pew) and watch movies on her iPod.

This reminds me of a novella I recently read by Philip Roth. In it, a Jewish student goes to a college wherein he is required to attend chapel at least 40 times before graduation. Of course, in addition to being Jewish, he's long since stopped believing in God. And, in an attempt at being inclusive to the many different denominations of Christianity that they would have imagined attending, the "chapel" services were essentially extremely bland, wishy-washy moral instruction seminars, and so, he stopped going. After having an argument with his college dean about it, including the merits of Bertrand Russell, he learns from another student that people usually just pay off suckers $2 a pop (about $20 in today's money) to go in their place.

For what it's worth, the book is called Indignation.

(November 1, 2011 at 11:21 pm)chatpilot Wrote: I agree, Christian universities give out worthless degrees to their students as long as what you learn is in accordance with the bible and their beliefs. It's an insult to those that work for years to earn doctorates in biblical or religious studies that these nut jobs can call themselves doctors of theology etc. I also agree that it's not totally useless if you know how to use it to your own advancement up the social ladder lol. They should just call those degrees doctorates of deception!

It does explain a lot. I have always wondered how people that stupid could get advanced degrees.

There are others who when they are young get master's and perhaps doctorate degrees in divinity. They think they could do some good in the world. When adult onset Atheism hits and causes them to question the things they have been taught, some of them can crash pretty hard. Imagine being so engrossed in a religion that everyone you know is a Christian Fundamentalist (cf) including your spouse and children. If you don't have any marketable skills beyond theology i supposed you're fucked.

In defense of these people I suspect (but don't have any proof) that the stuff they teach in Bible colleges and universities isn't much about the errors in the Bible or how these religious writings were concocted over time. They do teach apologetics but from the smattering of what I've read they gloss over a lot of stuff.

I also suspect that Bible colleges and universities teach a rather colored version of history, (and we all know of their colorful "science"). In the 1980's the cf's tried to push on lay people a revised version of American history. Essentially it's about how all the writers of the constitution etc. were basically CF's. Benjamin Franklin is a bit of a problem in regaurds to this theory but they "fix the glitch" by saying (essentially) that he altered his beliefs in his later years. I suspect that this is just a taste of what they teach in these schools.

All told, the information taught at these schools can give someone a rather twisted view of the world. It takes a strong will and a lot of independent study to shift your paradigms.

(November 2, 2011 at 9:34 am)Rev. Rye Wrote: This reminds me of a novella I recently read by Philip Roth. In it, a Jewish student goes to a college wherein he is required to attend chapel at least 40 times before graduation. Of course, in addition to being Jewish, he's long since stopped believing in God. And, in an attempt at being inclusive to the many different denominations of Christianity that they would have imagined attending, the "chapel" services were essentially extremely bland, wishy-washy moral instruction seminars, and so, he stopped going. After having an argument with his college dean about it, including the merits of Bertrand Russell, he learns from another student that people usually just pay off suckers $2 a pop (about $20 in today's money) to go in their place.

For what it's worth, the book is called Indignation.

She might get a kick out of that. I'll tell her about it

I'm minoring in religion...i find religious study interesting from an anthropological standpoint