everyone (else) seems to be hating on atheists

[Aiza]

That is a claim in itself. I don't think either of us has a leg to stand on, as I pointed out some posts ago when I mentioned we just have different opinions on the topic. These would be interesting things to study (how likely is someone who has never been taught to believe in God to become a believer?), but I don't know how to prove it either way without such studies having been done.

Even if we did pretend that they were all atheists, the study still tells us nothing. "A very small percentage of atheists make up a very small amount of prisoners". Studies which focus on religious affiliation paint a rough picture, but its a bit more accurate than that.

But the studies didn't actually show that. Are you keeping studies that better support your hypothesis that people hate on atheists because we're more aggressive and impulsive a secret?

They show that irreligious people are more prone to aggression etc., and I think its fair to say that that people do associate atheists with irreligion (seeing as some 86% atheists/agnostics are irreligious).

If we were having this conversation on the theist board you imagined, I think it would be appropriate to mention that there are stereotypes of theists as intolerant hypocrites, not so appropriate to try to prove that those stereotypes are justified--trying to prove that people actually hold that stereotype would be a different matter.

That's fair, and I apologize. I tried to put disclaimers on the studies like "just because it says irreligious on average, doesn't make it true of everyone". But maybe it was a can of worms that shouldn't have been opened.

Interesting. One of my step-aunts was a nun, but I wasn't exposed to Catholicism much growing up. I've always liked the name Mary, it was my mother's.

Really? Did she end up leaving her convent? Mary is a very common name among my mother's generation, even thought its almost unheard of now. When you go to the Motherhouse though, almost half of the Sisters have names of "Mary [other Saint]". Its a very Marian community with Consecration to Mary every single day.

We have to pick out three names during our first year (postulancy), and when we take our vows, our Mother Superior calls out the name she has chosen for us as the first time we hear our new name. I am getting much too ahead of myself trying to pick out my top 3 when I haven't gotten my papers yet.

If one literally believes Jesus died around 0AD and we have Jesus' lineage that goes back to Adam and Eve (a metaphorical couple) - how do we make sense of this? Jesus actually existed but has metaphorical ancestors?

Hm? Adam and Eve are symbolic of the first people, and the Fall and separation from God is considered to be a real thing, though its told in symbolic language.

Actual sin is different from original sin. We inherit that separated state from God.

Those long genealogies are themselves a form of ancient literature. I have no idea how accurate they are (and genealogies do leave out members), but for example, Jesus' genealogy in (the Gentile-written) Luke, which goes all the way to Adam, is meant to show his connection with all of mankind and therefore the universiality of his message, his divine Sonship and emphasizes his priestly role.

The (Jewish written) genealogy in Matthew emphasizes his royal role and his connections to Israel in particular. He also does this little trick where he presents 3 stages with 14 generations in them each (the last is missing a generation possibly due to scribal error). The numerical value of "David" is 14 (in Hebrew anyway), and this also is to emphasize his kingly role. Also since 7 represents totality, we have 6 stages of 7 generations with Jesus Christ being the first member of the 7th. He also includes 4 women in his genealogy, all of whom were foreigners, and this is to also include the role of women and non-Jews into Jesus' teachings.

Adding up numbers for genealogies doesn't really work since expressions like "begat" and "son of" can also mean indirect descent. Post-Babylonian exile the rights/obligations of every person dependended on their link to a certain tribe.