Atheists know more about religion than religious people TheismIsUntenable: How come religious people don't know anything about their own religion? Couldn't be due to their status as mindless lemmings... https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/08/21/among-religious-nones-atheists-and-agnostics-know-the-most-about-religion/  Zanjan: In the survey, they asked 5 questions - none of which were religious questions. The survey was for citizens of the USA. They cited those who know about "Christianity". Big whoop - it has advertising everywhere and is highly commercialized. . Surveys have a 1-10 scale or yes/no answers - what would you learn from this survey's question: "Do you know what Easter is"? A. Yes. There's no provision for explanation. So yeah, it's a stat holiday. If atheists know so much about religion, why don't we see them quoting texts to prove it? How many have ever done research on comparative religion and world religious history? In my experience, you can't get atheists to talk about it at all; in social settings, they forbid others to mention the subject (same people who also forbid mention of politics) As soon as GOD is mentioned, they run from the room to avoid displaying their ignorance. Granted, a lot of religious people don't have a wealth of knowledge about their Faith but most have enough to practice the lifestyle and honour its laws. Some actually show up. Scientists know a lot about science - you can't expect the general population to have anything more than a light smattering of it. You don't remember what you don't use; so, most people only need practical information - if they acquired more, professionals would cease to exist. (Edited by Zanjan)  garryhr1234: if we look around us we see creativity ,complex organisms were did this come from was it random chance coincidence or was it a product of a intelligent designer , garryhr1234: you have to study the Bible for your self ,just following a sermon and preacher do not work to find the truth and be pro - active in the faith of GOD Zanjan: People who study the Bible believe they already know what truth is so they weigh the Bible according to their own standard. Meanwhile, most of the Bible is a record of ancient wars and arguments fought, which have absolutely nothing to do with us.  yippeskippy: They don't know the history of their religion nor how their holy con books were even put together, They don't care about the pagan references. The don't care about the textual variants that can make it confusing to read. Some interesting stuff I learned recently though. The word zero came into the English language via French zéro from the Italian zero, a contraction of the Venetian zevero form of Italian zefiro via ṣafira or ṣifr. In pre-Islamic time the word ṣifr had the meaning "empty". Sifr evolved to mean zero when it was used to translate śūnya (Sanskrit: शून्य) from India. The first known English use of zero was in 1598 If this is correct, how come the Bible registers Noah as being on the boat 40 days? And Jesus fasted 40 days? The Hebrew bible defines 40 days and 40 nights as: “two distinct epochs”. An epoch is defined as, a period of time in history or a person’s life, typically one marked by notable events or particular characteristics. It still makes no sense considering the fact that if in Hebrew there is no word for zero, how did whoever came up with the Hebrew word Epoch even know to add the zero to the 4? Maybe they meant 39 or 41. Who knows? Zanjan: Zero isn't important to *basic* math where there's no negative scale. Spiritual time and earth time aren't the same; there's a conversion formula in the Bible to calculate an approximation. One Day of God = 1 thousand earth years. Thus, weeks, months and even hours can be calculated. Why? In the Kingdom of God, there is no time or space - only paced events. We need something to bring our world into relation with the world of God. (Scripture never includes calendar dates). A Day of God refers to the generation of a dispensation of knowledge to mankind - an Age of civilization. The Revelator Who delivers this is called "The Lord of the Age". Time, in scripture, is mostly used for prophetic statements so a count begins with an event, not the date of the event. There can be a series of events, all which involve a single generation; then the number of generations are counted to the next equivalent happening, which completes a cycle. The statement of "40 days and 40 nights" refers to the Revelator's own life. That is, it doesn't apply to mankind - it's a holy event (1 spiritual day = 1 earth year); the event endured for 40 years, which happens to be the count of one human generation. The Bible is pretty big on certain numbers, which are seen repeatedly - specifically, 3, 7, and 40. Therefore, it seems these have special significance. Interestingly, this recurring 40 is as big in Islam and the Baha'i Faith. So, we can establish that a pre-ordained cycle is determined in all of God's religions. (Edited by Zanjan)  A_Muse_Mint101: If you read the Bible, then you would see also that a generation is calculated at 37 years, 40 years, 70 years, 80 years, etc. Let alone modern definitions of ~15-25 years. Multiple versions of a time length for a generation can be discerned. There's no fixed point to discern *basic* math standards. https://www.quora.com/According-to-the-Bible-how-many-years-constitutes-a-generation?top_ans=84047955 Has a good breakdown of this. If theists had a keen understanding of math, they wouldn't be theists. Zanjan: One discerns the application by the context of the sentence. Some believe that the 40 days and nights applies to the Prophetic generation but this is a misnomer. It's right in that it's not a human generation. When God's Revelation is pouring out to mankind, this is daytime; however, not everything in a Revelation is prophecy. It's a period when the Sun of Reality can be clearly seen, felt, and understood by believers. The nights are the times when opposers who wronged the Revelator had plotted against Him. Every leader has his nemesis. So, the "40 days and 40 nights" is the period covering the generation of divine knowledge. When Christ said some of them would live to see Him coming in great power and glory, He was then speaking of the generation of humans - His contemporaries (all those on earth at the same time He was, regardless of their age). While Jesus walked the earth, He suffered the whole time; hardly anyone believed in Him; He had no glory, despite accounts of the healings He did. It wasn't until after He'd passed into the next world that people came to realize who He really was and glorified Him. (Edited by Zanjan)  shadowline: Perhaps atheists know more about religion than religious people do because they are conflicted about it, while Christians know less because...they are not.  youarewell2: TheismIsUntenable: How come religious people don't know anything about their own religion? Couldn't be due to their status as mindless lemmings... **I think you have to look at each person uniquely. Having bad experiences with on a few people out of billions and then classifying the entire billion from the few is problematic. If you say the Christians you came in contact did not know about their religion that would be a right thing to say. Then I would answer, go back and ask those specific Christians why they are not reading and studying their Bibles. That is not the condition of every Christian. And once you do run into a Christian that knows their Bible many people want to block, ban or fight with them. And what is the measurement of somoene knowing something? Nobody knows every little single dot and comma of the Bible. So if you do point something out that a person is a Christian doesn't know, does not mean you know everything they know. But the knowing that the Bible wants to have is to Know Jesus Personally. And everything after that God will teach you. We are not loved by God for knowing every single word, dot and comma in the Bible. We are loved by knowing God, However. So if you know the Bible and you don't Know God you missed the whole point of why you shoud know the Bible in the first place. (Edited by youarewell2) Zanjan: Religion is a system of education; exactly like academic schools, it has classes, grades, tests, and different teachers for each of them. It has students who are frequently on time in eager attendance while some are late and fall asleep in class. Some students are playing hooky a lot, maybe have too many sick notes. There are newbies, some repeating grades, and some have been promoted to the next. Not many actually graduate with the rank of Mastery. When I see a passerby standing outside, saying 'I know everything that school teaches', I just want to roll my eyes. Where's your backup?? I can can assure you, had they attended, they would have dropped out with poor grades. Certainly, had they persisted, they wouldn't have graduated so wouldn't be qualified to teach. (Edited by Zanjan)  GeraldtheGnome: There are grammatical errors and other errors on this forum. This forum would be better off being about if those who are religious know enough about their own religion. At the moment it's just an us and them forum equivalent of a fight club. | Religion Chat Room 27 People Chatting Similar Conversations |