How many here would say they know next-to-nothing about Christianity?

[Taverner]

Poll question: How many here would say they know next-to-nothing about Christianity?

And I'm not talking about knowing every denomination's theology - but the basic precepts, original sin, virgin birth, Christ-as-sacrifice, etc.

My hypothesis is that the the number of folks who don't know it will be small. But I want to see that tested.

MODS: Please don't send this to R/T as that will skew the results. Chances are in there LOTS of people will know Christianity very well.

[walldude]

1. How can you not? It's rammed down your throat on a daily basis.

There's no way to avoid it.

[Taverner]

2. My hypothesis is that you are right

I would love to hear from Non-Christians tho - it would be interesting to hear how familiar a Hindu or Buddhist - who's been that way since birth - understands Christianity

[Zax2me]

4. Really?

[cleanhippie]

28. Yeah, really.

[Nye Bevan]

14. "rammed down your throat on a daily basis"? Seriously?

I can't recall *any* incidents, ever, of Christianity being "rammed down my throat", since I was a kid.

Are you including things like people saying "bless you" when you sneeze?

[Taverner]

20. Must not have grown up in the South or the Midwest...

[cleanhippie]

29. You are just so used to it being there, you've lost your gag reflex.

[cui bono]

35. I have to use my peep hole on the weekends due to fanatics trying to talk to me about Jesus.

Then they litter my doorstep with pamphlets that go straight into the paper recycling bin. I keep swearing one day I'm going to mark one of them with a big red circle with a diagonal line through it and tape it to the outside of my door. You look outside and there's about 20 of them canvassing the neighborhood. And this is in Los Angeles.

It's on our money. It's in the pledge of allegiance. You constantly hear god bless America said by our "leaders". Yes, it is ubiquitous.

[ChadwickHenryWard]

25. I have a list of goals for my life.

Among them is to go one entire 24 hours period without being told anything about Jesus Christ. We'll see what happens.

[JoePhilly]

3. I've read a great deal about it. Not just the bible, but discussions

of all religions, their origins, how they've changed over time.

But it did not learn it because it was crammed down my throat, but more because people were TRYING to cram it into every part of American Life.

[sarcasmo]

5. Why is this not in the religion/ theology thread?

[cordelia]

7. Good question.

[Taverner]

11. Because it would skew results

Didn't you read the OP?

People who go to R/T are in all likelihood, already very familiar with Christianity

So it would be a bad poll

[muriel_volestrangler]

21. There are no 'good' DU polls

They do not provide any kind of realistic estimate of the knowledge, feelings etc. of DUers. Only people sufficiently interested in the subject to bother opening the thread and making a decision will answer.

R/T is as good a place as any for this.

[Taverner]

23. No it isn't

I don't want to ask DUers in the Religion/Theology forum whether they understand Christianity. I already know most of them do.

I want to ask general DUers. Yes, its not the most scientific poll, but now that it's in R/T its absolutely worthless. Thanks. You suck.

[muriel_volestrangler]

24. Oh, so it's a chance for personal abuse you wanted, then?

Because I say to you that DU polls are all unscientific, and inaccurate, so that your reason for keeping a religious subject in GD doesn't hold up, I "suck"?

Are you always so eloquent? So devastating in your argument? Would you like, perhaps, to add 'huge donkey balls' to your opinion, to make it just that bit more adult?

[Zoeisright]

6. 11 years of parochial school.

Conservative parochial school. Which taught me that Christians of that branch are mean.

[Fuzz]

8. My dad was an ordained minister. I kinda had to know a lot about it.

[LooseWilly]

9. I've studied the Bible as Lit., but 'Christianity' as practiced?... WTF?

I can make some interpretations about Saul (though I might have to do a quick google search to be sure I'm thinking of Saul vs. Samuel...), I can talk some shit about Luke... but I assume you're talking about 'Christianity' as it goes on in churches—and I still can't tell a Baptist from and Episcopalian... and often get them mixed up with Catholics... and the shit that they think is in the Bible mystifies me.

Now that you make me think about it... I no longer even believe that Christianity exists—anymore than a schizophrenic's hallucination 'exists'.

[ChoppinBroccoli]

10. On The Contrary, I Know Entirely Too Much

Even though I don't consider myself an "according to Hoyle" Christian (I don't believe in ANY organized religion), I have studied it a good amount. I went to a Lutheran Church-affiliated college, and I was required to take 2 religion classes in order to graduate. One of the classes taught me to question everything people CLAIMED Christianity and the Bible was all about. I enjoyed that class a lot because it wasn't about "believe it or else," but more about, read this book and then make up your OWN mind if it REALLY says/means that (because most of the time, it doesn't). I also had a friend I used to talk to a lot who has a PhD in Biblical History from Cambridge, and he really opened my eyes as to some other things most people don't know about the Bible. Again, the vast majority of the "deeply held" beliefs Christians hold are based on complete fabrications and misinterpretations.

If you'd like to read an INCREDIBLE book on Christianity, written from a purely HISTORICAL perspective, pick up a book called "Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years," by Diarmaid MacCulloch. He is one of the most brilliant, learned, and preeminent historians of our time, and he really lays to waste a lot of the myths surrounding Christianity to this day, based solely on historical research. For example, one of my favorite passages, he discusses the origins of the "rule" that members of the clergy are to remain celibate. It's pretty much accepted practice today, but guess what. That "requirement" appears nowhere in the Bible (surprise, surprise). It was a rule adopted by the Catholic Church that had absolutely NOTHING to do with faith or piousness. At the time, whenever a person died without any heirs, his or her property was granted to.............say it with me, now.............THE CHURCH. And how do we increase the number of people dying without heirs? Increase the number of people who remain celibate. So this rule was adopted for NO other reason than to increase the assets of the Church. I know, you're shocked that people in power were obsessed with amassing money by hook or by crook back then (because things are SOOOOO different today, right?)

If you're interested in checking out this book, here's a link to it on Amazon (be sure to set aside plenty of time to read it, though, because it's well over 1,000 pages long, but well worth the time invested if this is something that interests you). http://www.amazon.com/Christianity-First-Three-Thousand-Years/dp/0143118692/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1302296185&sr=1-1

[hfojvt]

16. you have that backwards about celibacy

The rule was created to prevent Church dynasties. Imagine cardinals and bishops placing their sons and son-in-laws in positions of power. Look at what you can see in the world of televangelism. Franklin Graham, taking over the empire of Billy Graham, Joel Osteen becoming pastor when his father died, you will sometimes see the son of John Hagee on his TV show, the same with Charles Stanley of InTouch Ministries, Robert Schuller's daughter is poised to take over his ministry, and Paul Crouch's son is a Vice President at TBN. If priests had kids, the temptation would be there to turn the church into a family business.

[cleanhippie]

30. Interesting view.

Hadn't really thought of it that way before.

[jeepnstein]

33. That's the way I always understood it.

I had a nice leisurely lunch with a scholar during a stay in Rome once. He pretty much admitted that the Vatican put in the celibacy rule to protect Church assets from messy estate cases. The problem is now the church can't bring itself to fix the mess it created. That kind of thing happens when you let pride stand in the way of a thorough reading of Scripture.

Oh well, I'm not Catholic so I don't really have a dog in that fight.

[damntexdem]

12. If you knew sushi like I know sushi.

Raised as a Catholic, stayed one until I was 23.

So, I know a bit about Xtianity but not that much about the Bible. ;-)

[RagAss]

13. All I know is Jesus got violent once. ........

He took a whip to those who sold their goods in front of His father's temple.
He did it because they dared to imply that God approved of what they sold.
Sound familiar??????
Just like those who run candidates in the name of God.
That's all anybody needs to know about Christianity.

[sarge43]

15. You can't have a working knowledge of Western history without

knowing the basic tenants of Christian theology.

[Paradoxical]

17. I'm 21. I've read the bible at least 3 times.

Forgotten most of it. But I was raised in a fundamentalist christian church.

[Tikki]

18. When I was a little kid...in the neighborhood..

I might hear adults and a few kids point out
actions and behaviors and twirl bible words around them..

...When I small I obeyed
his every word
Handed down to me by some
thoughtful blur
But now I am as big as he,
See...No God bigger than I-
No God frightening me...

"No God"....Darby Crash (GERMS)

[Taverner]

19. I like it :)

[PufPuf23]

22. Voted other. Too complex to explain.

MODS: You made an unfair decision and error in sending this thread to R/T against the wishes of the OP and essentially destroyed the poll.

I am culturally a Christian but never a Believer in the myth and magic and have not called myself a Christian for 30 years.

Neither do I consider myself an Atheist nor anyone else to have my reality: divinity is beauty and complexity and novelty and etc. and humans are not wired to understand but only recognize.

Religion is a tool to brainwash for social control.

[dimbear]

26. In a sense the phrasing is iffy. There's next to nothing known by anybody.

I'm pretty sure I know a lot more than most Christians, in particular the fact that that amounts to a piffling amount of fact.

Like the old saying goes, it's not what you don't know, it's what you do know as ain't so.

[donheld]

27. I have a Bachelor of Theology

From one of the most right wing unaccredited Bible Colleges on the planet.

[cleanhippie]

31. Why?

[donheld]

32. I was a young, very frightened gay kid who

had hell fire and brimstone crammed down my throat my entire life. So at 18 off to Bible College
(Bible MIssionary Institute) i went. When I got out of that school the closet finally broke open.
That's the short version of my early years.

[rrneck]

34. I just WISH I didn't know anything about it. nt