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BS: Canadian stats on belief in God...
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Subject: BS: Canadian stats on belief in God... From: Little Hawk Date: 01 Jun 08 - 01:17 PM This should interest you, Riginslinger...and Mrzzy...the latest stats are in on how many Canadians say they believe in a god. Slightly less than 3/4 of them. Compared to the USA, it's a very different situation, and a far less polarized one. "TORONTO - Fewer than three-quarters of Canadians believe in a god, suggests a new Canadian Press Harris-Decima survey. "Religion in Canada today is not a particularly divisive subject and tolerance levels for different beliefs are high," said Harris-Decima president Bruce Anderson. "This is evident in the fact that one in four people feel comfortable saying they do not believe in a god." The poll found 72 per cent of respondents said they believed in a god, while 23 per cent said they did not believe in any god. Six per cent did not offer an opinion. Results may not total 100 per cent because of rounding. Polls have told a different story in the United States. "Canada's secularism stands in clearer distinction, when compared to the cultural and political influences of religion in the United States," said Anderson. "In one Harris Interactive study in the United States, conducted in 2007, the number who said they were non-believers was only eight per cent." Keith Howard, a United church minister and executive director of the church's Emerging Spirit program, said the results of the new survey do not represent a dramatic change from previous polls about Canadians' beliefs. "We are past the time of people trashing God," he said. "They are now trying to find a safe place where they can nurture that spirituality." He said a poll done for the church last year indicated Canada is a nation of believers, not belongers. Howard said his sense is that people who believe in a god increasingly imagine a nebulous but powerful force for good, rather than the traditional concept of a deity. Indeed, he likened the concept to that of the Force in the Star Wars movies. A study quoted by Statistics Canada in 2006, found "adult Canadians attach a higher degree of importance to religion than religious attendance figures alone would indicate." The study noted only one-third of adult Canadians attend religious services at least once a month. But the study, conducted in 2002, found more than one-half engage in religious activities on their own at least on a monthly basis. Howard said a recent survey done for the United Church rating the importance of religion in the daily lives of people around the world placed Canadians fourth, behind the United States, Mexico and Italy. The Canadian Press Harris-Decima survey data were gathered by telephone from just over 1,000 people between May 22 and May 26. A sample of the same size has a margin of error of 3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20. The Harris-Decima poll also indicated: -(at) Women (76 per cent) were more likely than men (67 per cent) to say they believed in a god. -(at) Canadians over the age of 50 (82 per cent) were far more likely than those under the age of 25 (60 per cent) to say they believed in a god. More than one in three (36 per cent) of those under the age of 25 said they did not believe in any god. -(at) English Canadians (73 per cent) were more likely than French Canadians (67 per cent) to say they believed in a god. -(at)Belief in a god is higher in rural Canada (76 per cent) than in urban Canada (69 per cent). ************* Now, the problem for me would have been even answering that poll, because it doesn't ask the right question as far as I'm concerned. There is no point in my answering a brief question as to whether I do or do not believe in "a God"...the question, in itself, simply is not an adequate enough question to be worth answering as far as I'm concerned. I would have to ask the person who put the poll together to explain to me exactly what they mean by the word "God" first, and to do so at some considerable length. (Heh! I bet they never even gave it much thought!) I could then say, "Okay, I definitely don't believe in this part, that part, and that other part of what you said about "God"....but I might consider this part or that part of what you said, depending on...and so on...and so on. Hopefully by the end of the conversation the polling person might have actually done some original thinking about the many things that the word "God" can mean to different people. In other words, the mere question "Do you believe in a God?" in itself does not serve very well to illuminate the matter (in my opinion). It's like asking "Do you believe in love?" What kind of love???? In which aspect? By or for whom or what? And how? |
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Subject: RE: BS: Canadian stats on belief in God... From: gnu Date: 01 Jun 08 - 01:22 PM For the love of God! What a poor excuse for a "survey". |
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Subject: RE: BS: Canadian stats on belief in God... From: Little Hawk Date: 01 Jun 08 - 01:35 PM Hey, that's what surveys are for! ;-) Ask a few dumbass Yes/No questions that are posed so primitively that they force everyone to avoid really thinking much at all, then call it a "scientific survey". The only way to deal with it sensibly is to just refuse to answer the question. However, it does point up the stark contrast between Canadian and American society in this respect...that over 25% of Canadians felt okay saying they did not believe in "a God", while only 8% of Americans felt okay saying the same thing. So guess why all American politicians go on and on all the time about how strong and abiding their faith in God is! ;-) They figure they HAVE to or they will not get elected. Guess why there's all this endless HooHa about Obama's church and his pastor all the time. There's the difference. You don't see that kind of ludicrous performance in Canadian politics, because religion is simply not an issue that politicians in Canada would use to divide people. Why? People wouldn't go for it, that's way. They'd find it embarrassing and in bad taste, and inappropriate. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Canadian stats on belief in God... From: bobad Date: 01 Jun 08 - 01:38 PM Sounds like "Lola" has a burr in her panties this morning. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Canadian stats on belief in God... From: artbrooks Date: 01 Jun 08 - 01:46 PM So why compare Canada to the US? The only things they really have in common are the continent upon which they are located, the fact that the majority language is English and that they were both once British colonies. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Canadian stats on belief in God... From: GUEST,Shimrod Date: 01 Jun 08 - 01:48 PM "I would have to ask the person who put the poll together to explain to me exactly what they mean by the word "God" first, and to do so at some considerable length. (Heh! I bet they never even gave it much thought!) I could then say, "Okay, I definitely don't believe in this part, that part, and that other part of what you said about "God"....but I might consider this part or that part of what you said, depending on...and so on...and so on. Hopefully by the end of the conversation the polling person might have actually done some original thinking about the many things that the word "God" can mean to different people." For a start the beliefs of the pollster ("the person who put the poll together") are irrelevant. A pollster should remain objective and independent at all times - otherwise the results of the poll are biased and not worth the paper they're written on. Did you mean the person(s) commissioning the poll? His/her responsibility is to give the pollster as clear an objective as possible. Second. Who cares? People, including Canadians, Americans, Japanese and Uzbeks, seem to believe all sorts of superstitious twaddle. Asking them about it only encourages them! |
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Subject: RE: BS: Canadian stats on belief in God... From: Peace Date: 01 Jun 08 - 02:15 PM I don't believe in surveys. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Canadian stats on belief in God... From: Amos Date: 01 Jun 08 - 02:41 PM Hey, man, God doesn't even believe in surveys. A |
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Subject: RE: BS: Canadian stats on belief in God... From: Peace Date: 01 Jun 08 - 02:42 PM I'm still lookin' for jujubes, man . . . . |
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Subject: RE: BS: Canadian stats on belief in God... From: gnu Date: 01 Jun 08 - 02:55 PM Peace... I will put you down as not believing in surveys in my survey of peoples' opinions of surveys. The results are just in and have been carefully tabulated. 100% of the people surveyed do not believe in surveys. Plus or minus SFA. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Canadian stats on belief in God... From: Peace Date: 01 Jun 08 - 02:56 PM Thanks, gnu. You got any jujubes? |
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Subject: RE: BS: Canadian stats on belief in God... From: Little Hawk Date: 01 Jun 08 - 03:08 PM Nice of shimrod to care enough to drop in and tell us that he doesn't care! ;-) Yes, shimrod, I meant the persons who designed and commissioned the poll, not the person(s) asking the questions. My point is that it's anything but a clear objective which is posed by the question. It blandly assumes that we all agree on the same definition of what "God" is, and we don't....just as we do not all agree on the same definition of what "love" is. It's a subject which is not very accessible to the kind of Yes/No questions posed in opinion polls...though it does give one some sort of vague way of measuring something about the state of mind of a collective public. The state of mind in Canada and the USA are comparatively quite different, and I think that some Americans might be interested in that, and in asking themselves "why?". |
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Subject: RE: BS: Canadian stats on belief in God... From: Ed T Date: 01 Jun 08 - 04:10 PM "People trashing God", only in Canada you say? Seems like more like people in organized religeon using God and interpreting Gods directives to justify alot of nasty and ungodly stuff. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Canadian stats on belief in God... From: Little Hawk Date: 01 Jun 08 - 04:51 PM I worry a lot more about people in organized marketing, to tell you the truth, Ed. ;-) WalMart has way more faithful followers in my town or yours than the churches do. American Idol pulls more viewers than the TV evangelists ever will. You have your eyes fixed on the little jabbering monkey of "organized religion" while the 800 pound gorilla of corporate mass marketing is towering over you in his Nike track shoes and drooling on your shoulder. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Canadian stats on belief in God... From: Ed T Date: 01 Jun 08 - 05:10 PM I submit that "price wars" and retail marketing messages caused less harm in history than "so called religeous wars"? I take my chances with the minor evils of falling prices over those who juistify ungodly deeds over a threat of "falling skies". |
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Subject: RE: BS: Canadian stats on belief in God... From: Q (Frank Staplin) Date: 01 Jun 08 - 05:23 PM Hmpfff! No one asked me. artbrooks, "majority English"- Canada has two official languages with equal status. (OK, so 17.5 million speak English and 6.8 million speak French. About 1 million speak Chinese.) |
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Subject: RE: BS: Canadian stats on belief in God... From: Little Hawk Date: 01 Jun 08 - 05:55 PM I'm talking about now, Ed, not then. Anyway, most of those past religious wars were really about controlling land, resources, trade routes, and other material considerations. They were about which king got to lord it over a given area. Standard politics in other words, with religion as one among many great propaganda tools to motivate the common people to go out and slaughter one another. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Canadian stats on belief in God... From: gnu Date: 01 Jun 08 - 06:16 PM Peace. Sorry buddy, but I don't keep any kind of sweets in the house... except, I found a 2l container of chocolate ice cream last night in the freezer. I bought it for a birthday party that didn't happen. I guess it's God's way of saying, "You don't have any willpower, you fat bastard." I believe in ice cream... tonight, anyway. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Canadian stats on belief in God... From: Peace Date: 01 Jun 08 - 06:18 PM Thanks, gnu. Doesn't matter. Three peoople messaged me to say they had red, yellow and orange. But I need green. I will start wishing for dinosours instead. But green ones. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Canadian stats on belief in God... From: Jeri Date: 01 Jun 08 - 06:26 PM These all look green! |
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Subject: RE: BS: Canadian stats on belief in God... From: Little Hawk Date: 01 Jun 08 - 06:33 PM Very odd that Riginslinger and Mrzzy have not been drawn to this thread like flies to a rotting corpse! ;-) In fact it's worrisome. I wonder if they're all right? |
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Subject: RE: BS: Canadian stats on belief in God... From: Ed T Date: 01 Jun 08 - 06:40 PM Little Hawk, What do you feel the current Iraq, Afganistan war is about. Have you not heard strong religeous overtones, over one god or another? (Not to mention some south Pacific and African areas). I suspect there are other current and future Middle east conflicts, where religeon is a strong excuse/factor. BTW, the IRA conflict was was not that far from recent Then there are an assortment or other conflicts, like Pakistan and India, and even China and Burma. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Canadian stats on belief in God... From: bobad Date: 01 Jun 08 - 06:48 PM "...like flies to a rotting corpse!" A apt definition of religion. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Canadian stats on belief in God... From: bobad Date: 01 Jun 08 - 06:53 PM An An An.............before a vowel. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Canadian stats on belief in God... From: Little Hawk Date: 01 Jun 08 - 07:00 PM It's mostly about who gets to control the oil, Ed, and who gets to control the area in a military and political sense, and which corporate contractors get to build the new infrastructure and supply the troops, and who gets to establish large military bases and staging areas for further military adventures in that region. Are there religious overtones being put in play in Iraq to motivate the foot soldiers? Sure! Politicians use religion whenever they can to do their dirty work for them. If there wasn't money in it, though, they wouldn't be there in the first place. The Protestants and Catholics in Ireland were fighting over which cultural group would get to run the show...they were like two gangs living in one large neighborhood. Call one "The Sharks", call the other "The Blades". They both believe in essentially the same things and they want essentially the same things out of life, and they even grew up in the same city speaking the same language, but when you're a Shark, you're a Shark for life. When you're a Blade, you're a blade for life. If you're a Shark, you learn to hate Blades, if you're a Blade, you learn to hate Sharks. You have no idea why you hate them, you just do. Besides, they hate you, right? That's reason enough! ;-) Someone from another city can't even tell those two sets of fools apart, because they are pretty much alike in everthing except a superficial surface layer of belief about the gang they grew up in. That's how it works. It's not a fight over religion, in truth. It's a fight over identity labels. It's a fight over who gets to control the turf and call the shots...which identity label gets to be boss. This happens just as much with other types of labels as it does with religious labels. The labels...and people's belief IN their labels...that is the thing that divides them and causes them to fight. All the labels are irrational...NOT just the religious ones. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Canadian stats on belief in God... From: Ed T Date: 01 Jun 08 - 07:32 PM Little Hawk, Try telling the Islamics (and other areas I mentioned) that it's not about god. Good luck with thst:) You reinforce my point, that many evil deeds are done in the name of organized religeon, in the past and to today. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Canadian stats on belief in God... From: peteglasgow Date: 01 Jun 08 - 07:43 PM there is no god, no gods and no heaven or hell. grow up you dick heads and pay some attention to this world and your life now. your purpose here is to do all you can to help other people. we can have a heaven on earth if we get the politics right. life is what you make it. there is nothing in this world more evil than an arms dealer. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Canadian stats on belief in God... From: artbrooks Date: 01 Jun 08 - 07:55 PM Q, majority means majority, not what is legally mandated. I live in New Mexico. We have 2 "official languages" - English and Spanish - but the majority (including those of Spanish descent) speak only English. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Canadian stats on belief in God... From: bobad Date: 01 Jun 08 - 08:09 PM Don't be misled by Q's assertion that Canada has two official languages with equal status, in fact the only mandated bilingual areas are those of federal jurisdiction, in all others it is the provinces which mandate the language of use. In Quebec the only official language is French, New Brunswick is the only officially bilingual province and in the rest of Canada English is the de facto language with some provisions made for the accommodation of French. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Canadian stats on belief in God... From: Little Hawk Date: 01 Jun 08 - 08:12 PM Yes, Ed, the fighters on the ground (a great many of them) think it's about religion. That is how effectively the controllers at the top who set these wars in motion have fooled them. It's about oil, money, and military/commercial supremacy in the world. It would still be happening even if no one on the face of the planet was religious (meaning: belonging to some organized religion that posits the existence of a deity or "God"). As long as you have huge moneyed interests determining national policy, as long as you have people divided into competing power groups that identify themselves with a flag, a cultural tradition, a nation, a political theory, or a government...you WILL have war. Take away ALL of the religions. You would still have war, and it would be over essentially the same material spoils of war as it is now. The Communists prided themselves on wiping out or suppressing ALL religion. They still were warlike, they still had wars with other competing systems over the usual material and power issues. Pol Pot of Cambodia prided himself on exterminating ALL religious people and wiping out ALL religion, and he was probably the worst despot we have ever seen in modern times. He killed 1/3 of all the people in his own country in just a few years of mindless terror and genocide. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Canadian stats on belief in God... From: Q (Frank Staplin) Date: 01 Jun 08 - 08:39 PM I am from New Mexico originally, but I think our viewpoints differ. In Quebec, many speak only French, in home and in the workplace. I presume that, if they have a belief in god, they speak to him in French. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Canadian stats on belief in God... From: Richard Bridge Date: 01 Jun 08 - 08:47 PM I'd be pretty amazed if you got that many in England who said that they believed in God. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Canadian stats on belief in God... From: Little Hawk Date: 01 Jun 08 - 08:57 PM It's always hard to say about that kind of thing, Richard, because one's friends and acquaintances may not form an average representative demographic of the whole population. I get the general impression that roughly half the people I know believe in God, and sometimes I'm surprised to find out that someone I didn't think would believe in God, does. My parents certainly didn't, and neither did I when I was a youngster. What I tend to think about it now doesn't fit most people's notion of "God" much at all...not the religious ones nor the atheists either. They all seem to be talking about something else entirely, in fact. That's why there would be no point in my answering "yes" or "no" to the poll. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Canadian stats on belief in God... From: Ed T Date: 01 Jun 08 - 11:09 PM Little Hawk No surprise that man wages war against man. But, to wage war under the name of god, Christ or one of the others, is unctuous hypocrisy. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Canadian stats on belief in God... From: Little Hawk Date: 02 Jun 08 - 12:34 AM Hypocrisy? Well, so is waging war in the name of "freedom" when what you are actually after is controlling oil. Anyway, nothing is hypocrisy if you honestly believe in it. It may be folly, but it's not hypocrisy. Therefore if someone wages war in the name of a God and actually believes in what he's saying and doing, then he's not a technically a hypocrite at all...although you may indeed question his good judgement on the matter. I will agree that many of the politicians who invoke God when waging war are engaging in unctuous hypocrisy. This is not so true of the ordinary soldiers in the field, however. When they speak of God or pray for God's aid, they are usually being entirely sincere. And you will find that out right quick if you are in their gunsights, Ed. It's safe to insult someone else's most sacred beliefs on the Internet, but it's not so safe on a battlefield. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Canadian stats on belief in God... From: Q (Frank Staplin) Date: 02 Jun 08 - 12:43 AM In any war, one enlists whatever supernaturals one happens to believe in. Gott mit uns! The Prayer of the Army Spouse, at the Association of the United States Army website: "Dear God. I am proud to be wed to one who defends freedom and peace. ...." |
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Subject: RE: BS: Canadian stats on belief in God... From: Little Hawk Date: 02 Jun 08 - 12:48 AM Yup. All American Indians invoked the aid of various spirit powers when they were at war, and they were extremely good warriors. They also felt that their actions carried on into spirit beyond death. I admire that a lot more than I admire people who profess to believe in absolutely nothing...and then pat themselves on the back for being so clever as to believe in absolutely nothing. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Canadian stats on belief in God... From: peteglasgow Date: 02 Jun 08 - 03:04 AM i have no believe in any supernatural beings -have you folk got round to discussing the flying spaghetti monster yet, or leprechauns or the man in the moon? but there are many things i do believe in -the goodness in people, the beauty of compassion and the fact that everyone needs to love and be loved. (and john martyn, henrik larsson, dylan, joe strummer and for my spiritual sustenance the - Father Ted Crilly. ringed plovers and curlews...... it is a beautiful world and i believe that seeing it fully helped cure me while i was ill. i have no understanding why anyone would think they can get any messages on how to live from an old confused often violent and immoral guidebook like the bible or any other book written by a bunch of scholars hundreds of years back ('they'll never going to believe that one 'just watch them...they'll believe any old crap....) who were clearly having a laugh and challenging each other to come up with more ludicrous ideas. they should have been a bit more careful. perhaps their best one is in deuteronomy 'if you have a disobedient child take him (or her?) to the edge of the village and stone him to death.' that should wipe out christianity within a generation. why do we hear little mention of this 'message from god' these days? killing children is god's word..... |
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Subject: RE: BS: Canadian stats on belief in God... From: GUEST,Shimrod Date: 02 Jun 08 - 04:39 AM "I admire that a lot more than I admire people who profess to believe in absolutely nothing...and then pat themselves on the back for being so clever as to believe in absolutely nothing." It's not a question of believing in absolutely nothing, LH. As you yourself said earlier there may not be a simple yes/no answer to a question like "do you believe in God?" And I've got no answer whatsoever, these days, because there's not a shred of evidence either way and I believe that there are more important things to debate/worry about! What annoys me intensely about religious people (or 'spiritual' ones as well) is their profession of certainty. It seems to me that to claim that you know everything there is to know just because you've read some ancient book, of doubtful provenance, is arrogant, prideful and stupid and profoundly 'unspiritual' and 'irreligious'. Writers like Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens are beginning to stand up and challenge the religious - and it's about time! Why should someone who wears special clothing, adopts a pious expression and spouts mumbo jumbo get a free ride? And especially when history suggests (and some of the contributions above confirm) religion has far too often been used as a tool to oppress and destroy people? |
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Subject: RE: BS: Canadian stats on belief in God... From: Little Hawk Date: 02 Jun 08 - 01:36 PM I make no such claims of certainty, shimrod. To the contrary, I feel as if life is posing great questions which I do not yet have an answer to...and I may never have an answer to. I do not rely upon any ancient religious text to tell me what to do and think. Nor do I rely upon present conventional science disciplines to tell me what to do and think. I am as annoyed as you are by people, either religious ones or atheistic ones, who profess certainty, and who act as if they already have all the answers. They are precisely the sort of people I can't stand. Some are members of a religion. Some are not. Some are extreme anti-religionists. But they all share this in common: when they walk into a room they say inside their own heads, "The most brilliant person here just entered the room." And then they proceed to bore the hell out of you and other people while they make it quite clear that if you would only listen to them you might, possibly, be lifted someday out of your wretched condition of ignorance. ;-) This applies equally to mouthy atheists, mouthy materialists, and mouthy religious blatherers and fanatics. Agreed? **** Say, this thread was launched to point out the stark differences between Canadian and American society when it comes to prevailing attitudes about religion! Why is no one talking about that???? Doesn't it stir any interest? And if not, why? I find it quite interesting. Is the problem that Americans are so ethnocentric that they can't even be bothered to hear about how people think in any other country but their own? Canadians are usually quite interested to know how Americans think, after all. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Canadian stats on belief in God... From: Peace Date: 02 Jun 08 - 01:44 PM IMO, folks have the right to believe what they want to believe. They also have the right to be quiet about it. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Canadian stats on belief in God... From: Wesley S Date: 02 Jun 08 - 01:50 PM Some folks believe in a higher power and some don't. So why should we care what the other guy thinks unless it affects his or her actions toward us? |
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Subject: RE: BS: Canadian stats on belief in God... From: Peace Date: 02 Jun 08 - 01:53 PM I think it's evangelistic types who give it all a bad name. So filled with their own sense of "bringing the word" that they forget some folks may not wanna hear about it. I don't know which part of PFO is lost on them. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Canadian stats on belief in God... From: Little Hawk Date: 02 Jun 08 - 01:58 PM Yeah, Peace. ;-) I like the attitude the North American Indians had in the frontier period of early contact with the Whites. They were very interested in hearing about any other people's religious ideas, and in explaining their own in turn. They had no desire to convert others or to be converted, but they found all religions interesting to discuss and consider. That's a tolerant and respectful attitude toward other people. It indicates natural curiosity and a desire to enlarge one's own horizons rather than an "I know it all already" attitude (which, unfortunately, was pretty typical of the Christians who the Indians encountered). Now I am not suggesting that the Indians were tolerant in every respect! Hardly. ;-) They could be very dangerous at times, and they were extremely brutal and cruel in war. But they were tolerant when it came to discussing alternative religious ideas with someone they were at peace with. The Christians, generally, were not tolerant...as their zeal was to "save" and convert "the heathen". That's what I call a seriously bad attitude, and one deserving a sharp rebuke. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Canadian stats on belief in God... From: Wesley S Date: 02 Jun 08 - 02:00 PM "I think it's evangelistic types who give it all a bad name" Exactly right. But I'll point out that some of the nonbelievers fall under that same discription of evangelstic. Both types are bores and often offensive. IMHO. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Canadian stats on belief in God... From: Riginslinger Date: 02 Jun 08 - 02:01 PM "So why should we care what the other guy thinks unless it affects his or her actions toward us?" Of course it affects us in many ways. In the case of George W. Bush, for instance, god told him to invade Iraq. Believers and non-believers alike had to pay for this, and are in fact still paying. Only the believers are getting anything out of it, however, because they go in for this sort of thing. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Canadian stats on belief in God... From: Peace Date: 02 Jun 08 - 02:02 PM I agree with you, Wesley. And LH, you nailed it in one, imo. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Canadian stats on belief in God... From: Wesley S Date: 02 Jun 08 - 02:18 PM Sorry Rig but you're just to dense to figure out the point I've made time and again. So - for the 500th time - It's not Bush's beliefs that are the problem - its how HE CHOOSES to act on them. I believe in a higher power too. But I won't be supporting the invasion of another country even IF I had the power. Read the numbers. LH's numbers say that 92 percent of Americans believe in some sort of God. But the President had approval ratings in the 30 some percentile the last time I looked. Do the math. Even if you have to take off your shoes. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Canadian stats on belief in God... From: Peace Date: 02 Jun 08 - 02:21 PM Guys, be cool. You are both really good people. It hurts in a strange way to see folks ya like fighting with each other. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Canadian stats on belief in God... From: Riginslinger Date: 02 Jun 08 - 02:28 PM "Do the math. Even if you have to take off your shoes." It wouldn't do any good. Some Christian shot off my toes. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Canadian stats on belief in God... From: Wesley S Date: 02 Jun 08 - 02:37 PM That's why I miss burning heritics at the stake.......... |
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Subject: RE: BS: Canadian stats on belief in God... From: Little Hawk Date: 02 Jun 08 - 02:40 PM Bush didn't go into Iraq because God told him to. LOL! What a hilarious notion! He went to war in Iraq because a large consortium of loyal corporate servants who put together the PNAC (Project for a New American Century) way back in the 90's told him to!!!!!! And why did they tell him to? Because Iraq is sitting on a very large chunk of the world's oil in a very strategically vital area of the Middle East, that's why. It's got nothin' to do with what "God" told George Bush. Now, I wouldn't be surprised if Mr Bush believes that God wanted him to go into Iraq...because if he believes in God at all, then he wil believe that God wants him to do what he himself wants most fervently to do. That's what people are like! ;-) But so what if he does believe it? What difference does it make? That is not why he went into Iraq. He would have gone into Iraq even if he believed nothing about God whatsoever, because he is a willing and well-coached employee of a huge neocon corporate plan that is way, way bigger than he is...and he does exactly what he was put there to do. **** Now, may I return to the original point of the thread? 92% of Americans claim to believe in God in opinion polls. Less than 75% of Canadians do. Religion is a hot and very divisive social issue in America that gets yakked about constantly in the mass media, and it's used to wreck people's reputations and careers. That doesn't happen in Canada. Every American politician must showcase his or her religious faith, and make public declarations of that faith to be electable in the USA. No Canadian or western European politician needs to do that to be electable. Interesting, isn't it? |
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Subject: RE: BS: Canadian stats on belief in God... From: Wesley S Date: 02 Jun 08 - 02:44 PM "Every American politician must showcase his or her religious faith, and make public declarations of that faith to be electable in the USA." I'm pretty sure that started with Jimmie Carter. It's silly and needs to stop. But I'm afraid it will be with us for a long time. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Canadian stats on belief in God... From: gnu Date: 02 Jun 08 - 03:02 PM "In God We Trust"... all others pay cash. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Canadian stats on belief in God... From: artbrooks Date: 02 Jun 08 - 03:16 PM Define god/God and I will tell you if I believe in him/her/it. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Canadian stats on belief in God... From: gnu Date: 02 Jun 08 - 03:28 PM A belief in a set of morals and codes within which you agree to be at peace with, and help, others. In other words, you are God. You decide. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Canadian stats on belief in God... From: Little Hawk Date: 02 Jun 08 - 07:15 PM Artbrooks - "Define god/God and I will tell you if I believe in him/her/it." Exactly my point, Art. ;-) Defining God is something that the architects of a public opinion poll would never dream of stretching their minds to even attempt. Nor would most people. That's the problem. Most people have some kind of vague, very inadequately thought-out notion of what God is (or is supposed to be) that they got from other people at some point, and beyond that they've never given it any real thought at all. They've never questioned the initial vague assumptions they hold. And then they assume that the vague assumption in their mind is what everyone else's understanding of God must be also!!!! That, to me, is simply astounding. It's lazy thinking like that that is responsible for most of the prejudice in this world. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Canadian stats on belief in God... From: Riginslinger Date: 02 Jun 08 - 10:04 PM God is what one goes to when one runs out of whatever substance he/she was abusing up until that time. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Canadian stats on belief in God... From: Slag Date: 02 Jun 08 - 11:28 PM I don't believe in poles, or polls, or Poles! Some of you are angry at Mommy or Daddy or someone else for making you go to church on Saturday or Sunday so it isn't that you don't believe in God. It's that you are mad at God. Or maybe it's Mommy or Daddy but you can't really bring yourself to hate Mommy or Daddy. Ah, but that wasn't one of the survey questions, was it? I think it was peteaberdeen(?) that stated that we are here to help each other. He preceded this by calling nearly 75% of Canadians and over 80% of US citizens, "dickheads". That's a really helpful attitude. And by his appalling ignorance of the history of the Bible and lack of respect for the centuries of scholarship associated with the Bible and the history of human thought in general, I think any debate with him would be out of the question. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Canadian stats on belief in God... From: Little Hawk Date: 02 Jun 08 - 11:51 PM Yeah, I also didn't bother responding to him for much the same reason, Slag. What would be the use? |
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Subject: RE: BS: Canadian stats on belief in God... From: Peace Date: 03 Jun 08 - 11:34 AM Wasn't there some old saw about 'never argue with an idiot because he'll drag you down to his level and beat you with experience'? |
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Subject: RE: BS: Canadian stats on belief in God... From: Little Hawk Date: 03 Jun 08 - 12:33 PM LOL!!! We should get Shane to argue with that guy, eh? I bet Shane could wear him down. He would be willing to take any side of the argument too if I paid him in beer to do it. Hell, I bet he'd do it for even one free beer. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Canadian stats on belief in God... From: Peace Date: 03 Jun 08 - 12:37 PM That guy would do it for the empty can. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Canadian stats on belief in God... From: Little Hawk Date: 03 Jun 08 - 12:49 PM Yeah, eh? You can get money for an empty beer can. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Canadian stats on belief in God... From: Wesley S Date: 03 Jun 08 - 12:53 PM Beer tastes better out of a bottle or tap. At least that's what I remember. Maybe Shanes problem is that he drinks canned beer. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Canadian stats on belief in God... From: Little Hawk Date: 03 Jun 08 - 12:57 PM Shane has a number of problems... You can't blame it all just on canned beer. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Canadian stats on belief in God... From: Peace Date: 03 Jun 08 - 01:32 PM Shane spends too much time IN the can (a Canuck term for jail). |
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Subject: RE: BS: Canadian stats on belief in God... From: Little Hawk Date: 03 Jun 08 - 03:01 PM Yes, it's like home away from home. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Canadian stats on belief in God... From: Slag Date: 03 Jun 08 - 08:41 PM Aren't you guys beating up the wrong idiot? |
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Subject: RE: BS: Canadian stats on belief in God... From: Slag Date: 03 Jun 08 - 08:42 PM ...with all due apologies to Shane. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Canadian stats on belief in God... From: Peace Date: 03 Jun 08 - 08:53 PM Look. I'm only gonna say this twenty-seven more times: Has ANYone got jujubes? |
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Subject: RE: BS: Canadian stats on belief in God... From: Peace Date: 03 Jun 08 - 09:10 PM Bugger it. I started a thread. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Canadian stats on belief in God... From: Riginslinger Date: 03 Jun 08 - 11:21 PM "Has ANYone got jujubes?" Describe them! |
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Subject: RE: BS: Canadian stats on belief in God... From: Slag Date: 03 Jun 08 - 11:56 PM Jujubes, the hard sticky candy gauranteed to pull your teeth out of their sockets if you try to open your mouth to quickly. |
