New study finds atheists/agnostics "the most knowledgeable" about religion.

[theVOID]

How about we just don't decide for the children and when they get to an age where they question we leave it up to them

Says the bible school teacher...

Sixty percent of Americans can't name five of the Ten Commandments, an

Snicker....snicker!

And that's despite the fact that the first 3 basically just say "Don't piss me off cause i'm the one and only mac daddy"

[Shell B]

I'm not really surprised. I think that religious people are obviously exposed to more religious hoopla than atheists and agnostics. However, most of them don't question any of it. Atheists and agnostics learn more about religion because whenever some religious doofus tries to shove religion down their throat, they look for a way to shove it back by questioning it and researching it. Personally, I don't know shit about religion. I don't feel the need to research it. It sounds stupid enough without me bothering to argue.

[TheDarkestOfAngels]

No surprises here:

I think that about sums it up entirely, but I also come here with some video support of a recent newscast from the Young Turks:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rM6oO4ySyJQ&feature=sub

I didn't realize that Cenk was an Agnostic (though I suspected it from things he has said before) but I find little to disagree with his assessments on the topic but a number of interesting points were brougth up.

The whole thing is very interesting, either way, but I have little else to say about it.

[Skipper]

No surprises here:

I think that about sums it up entirely, but I also come here with some video support of a recent newscast from the Young Turks:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rM6oO4ySyJQ&feature=sub

I didn't realize that Cenk was an Atheist (though I suspected it from things he has said before) but I find little to disagree with his assessments on the topic but a number of interesting points were brougth up.

The whole thing is very interesting, either way, but I have little else to say about it.

Never really knew the story behind the tower of babel, so thanks for that video.

So humans worked together...god didn't like it, so (somehow) magically scattered them all around the world (nice metaphor for how religion causes division ) because he felt threatened by them building a tower into heaven (but we know heaven isn't literally in the clouds). Religious folk, are we meant to take this story literally or is it just a metaphor for god being a spiteful dick?

[IceSage]

Never really knew the story behind the tower of babel, so thanks for that video.

So humans worked together...god didn't like it, so (somehow) magically scattered them all around the world (nice metaphor for how religion causes division ) because he felt threatened by them building a tower into heaven (but we know heaven isn't literally in the clouds). Religious folk, are we meant to take this story literally or is it just a metaphor for god being a spiteful dick?

To be fair, you need to understand the "moral" of the story as well. But yeah, that's pretty much how it went, only God didn't scatter people around, he basically made it so that nobody could understand each other. So, you and your best friend could be speaking fine one moment, and then after God got mad, he'd be speaking Spanish, and you'd be like, "Uh... what?" and he'd be like, "Que?" Thus, if you can't understand what each other is saying, you can't work well together.

Also, God got mad not because they were simply building a tower, but because humanity is never suppose to do something, or make a monument in their name. They're suppose to do things for God, at all times, in his name. When they built the tower, they were doing it because it was gonna be, well... an AWESOME TOWER that reached the heavens! (And they also wanted to attempt to reach "Heaven" and meet God, is another interpretation.)

But basically, yeah, to sum it up, God didn't like it, so he made your friend Peter into Pablo.

[Skipper]

I liked peter

[tackattack]

---

How about we just don't decide for the children and when they get to an age where they question we leave it up to them, teach them to think on their own, and constantly question everything. Ignorance is a human condition not a religious one. I got 10/10 on the lame cnn quiz, but I'm not agnostic according to the definition within the quiz.

Thats what I think you will find most atheists agree with. Religious folks however have a nice attitude of ignorance that they pass on to children. How would a child learn to question and learn for itself when it gets told religion knows all the answers? Religious schools should not be allowed, and certainly shouldn't be state funded. Secular education, showing all sides of religion (including the bad) and then letting the child decide should be the way forwards.

---

Yet, I'm a religious person with a congregation full of similarly minded individuals. Churches like mine (where I do teach VOID ) can teach multiple religions, and the good and the Bad. I had a lesson a few months ago where I told all my kids that King david was a horrible person at times. We talked about taking the seeing the good in our heros while acknowledging the bad We discussed human nature and how to figure things out for yoourself. This was to a bunch of 6-11 year olds. I also teach an adult class, and I find them just as receptive and open in our discussions. For the adults we do comparative religious studies. I'm sure my adult students would like me to stop pointing out the beauty of the hebrew language, but I digress. We don't teach science in Bible school, and I agree we should put Religion into elementry or junior high public schools. When you're able to start selecting your classes, in high school and colege is where the options can be given. I'm Ok with all options being given, and as long as there isn't a semeser on how to make a bomb, or shootan abortion doctor in the class I'm fine with it.

[Minimalist]

It seems as if many ancient peoples were struck by the need to explain the multiplicity of languages.

http://www.varchive.org/itb/confus.htm

This purpose of the builders is found also in an account of this catastrophe which the aborigines of Central America transmitted from generation to generation. Ixtlilxochitl, after narrating the story of the Deluge which brought to a close the first world age, Atonatiuh, and destroyed most of mankind, described the catastrophe which ended the second age or Ehecatonatiuh—"the sun of wind.”

And as men were thereafter multiplying they constructed a very high and strong Zacualli, which means “a very high tower” in order to protect themselves when again the second world should be destroyed. At the crucial moment their languages were changed, and as they did not understand one another, they went into different parts of the world.(3)

There is nothing special about the Middle Eastern variant of the bullshit story.

[leo-rcc]

I went to that website where the 15 questions were on and the only one I missed was the last question about "the first great awakening" which I've never even heard of.

It was not a particularly hard test.

[Anomalocaris]

This is hitting too soft a target.