Athiests know more about religion than the religious.

[MikeH]

Why a wow? A ton of "Catholics" are nominally Catholic. Their parents were Catholic, they've been to Church on Christmas, but little else.

Yes, that's what I meant by

Most people who say they belong to a certain religion in surveys don't believe most of the doctrine anyway.

But, still this is one of those things that everyone knows because it's so widely mocked isn't it?

[Imran Siddiqui]

I don't study religion per se, but a cursory glance of the questions in that questionnaire shows that I know the overwhelming majority of them: Quiz

I got 15/15 and I'm religious, so . I will generalize that Welsh atheists don't know jack now!

[Jon Miller]

You answered 15 out of 15 questions correctly
for a score of 100%.
Here's how you did on these 15 questions (excerpted from the larger U.S. Religious Knowledge Survey) compared with a nationally representative sample of 3,412 adults. Read the Full Report

Your responses on the quiz do NOT affect the U.S. Religious Knowledge Survey's results.

The total survey was a bit larger than that.

JM

[MOBIUS]

I got 15/15 and I'm religious, so . I will generalize that Welsh atheists don't know jack now!

Well, it was one of the 4-5 Yank Qs - so yeah I don't know jack about Yank Mumbo Jumbo...

[MikeH]

I got 14 too, failed on one of the yank questions too.

[Arrian]

Why a wow? A ton of "Catholics" are nominally Catholic. Their parents were Catholic, they've been to Church on Christmas, but little else.

My wife was having a conversation with a co-working yesterday. Said co-worker sent her kid to some sort of Catholic school (communion prep or somesuch?). The nuns running the class have been doing this thing where they send care packages to felons in jail. The Catholic woman had a real hard time with that. After explaining her problems w/that, she went on to grumble that "our likely next governor is going to get rid of the death penalty."

You can argue for/against her positions on the issues, but both clearly contradict Catholic doctrine. She probably uses birth control too!



It's a GOOD THING most religious people don't take their holy books too seriously.

-Arrian

[Arrian]

Meh, 14/15. Oddly, I messed up the Jewish Sabbath. I knew it ran (roughly) sundown to sundown, but got confused and went with Sat->Sun instead of Fri->Sat.

-Arrian

[Jon Miller]

I got 14 too, failed on one of the yank questions too.

A lot of people failed one of the 'yank' questions.

JM

[Jon Miller]

My wife was having a conversation with a co-working yesterday. Said co-worker sent her kid to some sort of Catholic school (communion prep or somesuch?). The nuns running the class have been doing this thing where they send care packages to felons in jail. The Catholic woman had a real hard time with that. After explaining her problems w/that, she went on to grumble that "our likely next governor is going to get rid of the death penalty."

You can argue for/against her positions on the issues, but both clearly contradict Catholic doctrine. She probably uses birth control too!



It's a GOOD THING most religious people don't take their holy books too seriously.

-Arrian

The Bible actually doesn't say anything explicit about death penalty or birth control.

It is pretty explicit for sending care packages to Felons though.

JM

[Arrian]

Fair enough, perhaps I was a bit sloppy in conflating scripture w/doctrine. Revised:

It's a GOOD THING most religious people don't take their holy books, or various theological interpretations thereof, too seriously.

-Arrian

[Imran Siddiqui]

My wife was having a conversation with a co-working yesterday. Said co-worker sent her kid to some sort of Catholic school (communion prep or somesuch?). The nuns running the class have been doing this thing where they send care packages to felons in jail. The Catholic woman had a real hard time with that. After explaining her problems w/that, she went on to grumble that "our likely next governor is going to get rid of the death penalty."

I will say that since I've become a Christian, I've had massive problems with the DP. Whereas before I was pro-DP (though with DNA testing), now I'm anti and don't really understand Christians that argue for killing someone else.

[Arrian]

I'm anti-DP only b/c I'm convinced there remain serious problems with its administration. It is not an ideological objection on my part.

But then I'm not a Christian.

-Arrian

p.s. I'm still sorta surprised at your conversion, but hey whatever floats your boat. At least now you're not part of the dangerous 5th column working to destroy American from within!

p.p.s. Yes, I know you went Muslim->Atheist->Christian. Don't bother me with details.

[MikeH]

For the US model two facts should be the deciding factor.

1. It costs more.
2. It provides no practical benefit to society over life imprisonment.

The morality doesn't even matter on that level. Although I think the risk of a wrongful execution is another major factor against.

Not sure why an illogical thirst for revenge should trump those two facts.

[Jon Miller]

Independent of morality DP is wrong in the US, I agree.

JM

[Arrian]

For the US model two facts should be the deciding factor.

1. It costs more.
2. It provides no practical benefit to society over life imprisonment.

The morality doesn't even matter on that level. Although I think the risk of a wrongful execution is another major factor against.

Not sure why an illogical thirst for revenge should trump those two facts.

1. It does, but it doesn't have to. Ideally, it would not, while still providing reasonable protections for the accused.
2. Assuming there is *zero* deterrant value, yes.
3. Risk of wrongful execution + clear evidence of discriminatory practices = major, major problems. Hence my stance.

Thirst for revenge should have no part in any of it, but we're talking about human beings here. People are bloodthirsty *******s.

-Arrian