But without our US government sponsored religion, CHRISTIANITY TO THE MAX: FOUNDING FATHERS EDITION™®© #WHITEJESUS #MADEINMERICA(but really china) #DONTTREADONME #OHMYSTARSANDGUARDERS #THEONLYGOODIMMAGRANTISANIMMAGRANTTHATSTAYSINTHEIROWNCOUNTRY, how will USA stick to its morals? It will be chaos I tell you!
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I stand corrected. Thanks!
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No, his viewpoints and manner are distinctively that of a devout Christian. Not the funny mentalist sort, but that sort is simply the loud minority. Atheists are actually an extremely small portion of the population, though I would concede that they do own a disproportionately large amount of mindspace in politics… this is not because shared views which are conscious, but unconsciously shared views.
One problem with stating that “his viewpoints and manner are distinctively that of a devout Christian” is the illusion that this is equivalent to saying, “Everything he says and does is perfect”. Reality is a devout Christian might be found in many divergent cultures, operating in many different ways, taking many different stances.
In a pure legalistic manner of religion, that is impossible. Everyone must think and act in the exact same way.They are perfection obsessed, where perfection is static. There is only one right way to do anything. Judgment is performed by applying static rules, devoid of any context.
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Reply is here: Poll: 54% of Republicans believe, “deep down,” Obama is a Muslim
Not sure why the Reply link is not always appearing for me on every post. I might try a different browser. Nevertheless, there are the two quotes you requested, and you should be able to Google for many more.
In these days when the Catholic Church is actively attempting to reconcile evolution and the Big Bang with Christian faith, this statement is on incredibly shaky ground.
It’s actually completely possible to be both a devout Christian and have a scientific viewpoint, as long as one doesn’t get all fundamentalist about it. It’s tough to reconcile things when the two come into conflict, but as long as one doesn’t expect miracles to actually happen in the present-day you don’t generally need to worry about whether they’re against the known laws of nature or not. You really can’t tell much about someone’s religious beliefs from the way they look at science unless they’re explicitly anti-science.
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Although, let’s see those poll results on who Americans think JW worships…
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Can we please focus on what’s important here?
Like why nobody seems to think he’s secretly Jewish!
/me ducks
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This is an interesting response, although we should note that the Big Bang and the concept of resurrection are not identical.
Some Jewish rabbis have handled this rather eloquently, with statements along the lines of:
“God created the universe, using science.”
While I take polls with a grain of salt (I did dig into the numbers here, but this suffices for a statement)… this serves to me as just another of many bulletpoint reminders that much of the voting population operates on a herd based, instinctual level – incapable of rational thought or conscience.
There is a lot which could be said on “what this means”, but I think one quick summary is that they are ‘useful idiot’ cheerleaders whose slathering idiocy is useful for causing as much chaos as possible, and little else. If the chore is hate and slander, they are good for it. Anything else, and they useless.
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Well, I, for one, am just glad you got here in time to share this with us before the mandated Death Panels™ voted you “off the island.”
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Absolutely. But it’s not horribly difficult for someone to believe that a supernatural being resurrected a small number of people a few thousand years ago while also solidly believing in science as a fact of daily life. One can argue that it’s not entirely consistent, but it isn’t as fundamentally broken as, say, trying to use the Bible to disprove all current knowledge of geology, astronomy, and biology… and it’s a belief that’s benign enough that it won’t really have any noticeable impact on most interactions with that person.
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What I want to know is, why is Obama’s alleged Muslimness presented as a bad thing? You’d have thought the GOP’s core demographic would have been bang alongside having a God-fearing teetotaller in the White House.
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That’s a real solid interpretation of the nuances. We see this in a lot of sci-fi too. Star Trek is based on science “as a fact of daily life”, but there are characters who may not be deemed “super” natural, but are accepted to be immortal or omnipotent (such as the Q), all within the framework of science.
Regarding beliefs that are benign enough to not noticeably impact interactions, I agree completely. If you have too many “dealbreaker” beliefs that prevent you from interacting with people, you miss out on sharing in the human experience with them. I enjoy being in a place with people where I acknowledge that our viewpoints are diametrically opposed, but, hey, let’s drink a beer together.
Muslims are bad! They make men into deviants that kiss other men!
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Which is funny in a sad sort of way, because Christians and Muslims DO worship the same deity. Christians (at least the ones here in the U.S.) know next to nothing about their own religion, much less any others. The thought that Christians, Jews and Muslims all worship the same deity would probably shock them more than any other bit of information you could give to them.
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[quote=“gurglegurglebangbang, post:44, topic:52676, full:true”]
Atheists are actually an extremely small portion of the population[/quote]
You might be surprised how many people are atheists (in the U.S., anyway), but then again ‘extremely small’ is a relative term.
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I’d like to see a follow up poll that asks:
• Do you know what a Muslim is?
• Do you believe that Muslims are inherently evil?
• Do you know the difference between a Muslim and muslin?
• How many Muslims have you met in the last ten years?
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I don’t know how many I’ve met, but I’ve slept with a muslin.
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