Yet another survey...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091222/ts_alt_afp/usreligion_20091222221531

I'll never understand how people can have such sloppy reasoning ability with regard to eternity yet are able to manage their money and other responsibilities in the REAL world. It makes me wonder whether, if their churches suddenly told them God demanded they turn over all their wealth to them (like cults do), they would suddenly reject religion. After all, clerics do speak for God, and God's word is the last word.

So as they say about whether the lady IS a lady, we're really just quibbling over the price? And after thousands of years of practice, priests and other clerics have figured out just the right balance to prevent mass defections?

Hmm- in the old days the first Christians ran the risk of sudden demise if they failed to turn over everything but the clothes on their backs.

Jess Tauber

There's also the factor that people tend to answer questions about god in the affirmative, especially telephone surveys, whether they actually believe it or not.

I'll never understand how people can have such sloppy reasoning ability with regard to eternity yet are able to manage their money and other responsibilities in the REAL world.

Given the size of the credit card debt in this country, the number of people driving cars they don't need and can't afford, the lack of personal savings, etc, I see America as the land of sloppy money management...

Jon

Speaking of only US population; most are Bibliclly illiterate. If the illiterate are told "donate your estate and you'll get to heaven", they are more likely to believe it than those that know what is written about such claims. At one time, youngsters' first experience with the Bible was on a parents' knee and read to. That was their first reading lesson, also. Also, let's not forget that many "Ivy League" colleges, such as Harvard, were established to provide education, including, religious instruction. Public schools, especially the more remote "one-room" type, used the Bible for literature, as well as reading practice. Today's intelligencia have prohibited that in our schools today, to the detriment of society, imo. Instead, there are, in my son's junior-high library, introductory books about Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Shintoism. But no Judaism or Christianity. Isn't that curious. Apparently, the "Powers That Be" haven't considered that a Buddhist might be curious about one of them, or are afraid of the ACLU or Freedom From Religion groups filing lawsuit. Just the threat is enough. And conservatives are accused of being fascist Thought Police. Go figure.