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Offtopic, I know...but I just had to spout this off:

One of the core beliefs of our founding fathers (that I'll bet is making them turn over in their graves now) was that our government (and any decent government for that matter) should hold as one of its highest priorities the seperation of church and state.

Just about every one of the U.S. Presidents has had a religious background of some sort.

The problem comes in when they decide that their religion is the best for the entire country and therefore start trying to make legislation that includes/mimics their own religious values or beliefs.

Alderwood:
"Browse real estate and homes for sale by area! Washington State Snohomish County Lynnwood Alderwood"

Caswell County

Cascades?

[atheist or agnostic]... About 14%

From the above link I see that:

67% of the world's population are doomed to spend their afterlife in the Christian hell.

78% of the world's population are doomed to spend their afterlife in the Islamic hell.

97% of the world's population are doomed to spend their afterlife in the "Other" hell.

-kgj

The small percentage of the world that are atheist or agnostic

About 14%.

These folk say Hinduism is third best, while worshiping Kim Jong Il is tenth best--better than Judaism, Sikhism, Jainism, and even the Grand Daddy of Monotheism--Zoroastrianism. Let us hope their Juche principle serves them well in their current misfortune.

Actually, Christianity is the largest religion in the world by a wide margin. And they wouldn't be Illuminati, as that was (is?) a secular group opposed to the church.

Your other points were pretty well-argued, though.

Incredible photographs and narrative.

They are all fighting for the same pool of jewish votes

Which is lessthan 2% of the population. see here -- I dont understand why Isreal/Jews get so much attention....

P.S. - if this comment pissed you off, then contemplate living in a country that forces you to worship a God that you don't believe in.
What part of the pledge of allegiance defines God as Christian, Jewish or any other religion? The fact of the matter is (and I'm being modest) 90% of the world believes in some type of God. A study conducted in 2001 showed that 71% of the US claimed to be Christian link. The pledge of allegiance is a patriotic tradition of our nation in the public schools and has been for a couple of centuries. To say this is "OUR country" and choose to stand up against such a tradition shows me that you really have a beef against popular religion.

The constitution says that congress shall not make any laws prohibiting or establishing religion. There are no laws that say "the pledge of allegiance must be recited in every classroom". Congress should also make no laws prohibiting it on the grounds that it's a religious activity. It should not make laws pertaining to religion. I would say the lawsuit should be aimed at the school district in hopes that the person be allowed to move their child to a different school district.

As a father, I'll have to teach my children about an interesting but unproven theory called evolutionary biology before they learn about it in public schools because they are going to be taught it in public schools or will be failed. As a parent, you have to prepare your child for the world and the fact is, 71% of that child's classmates will believe in and talk about God. That's if you remove religions besides Christianity. For the past couple of centuries God == America. In the past 50-70 years there has been a serious assault on that fact. If you look at statistics the majority of America claims to be religious and believe in a deity called God. To remove a patriotic tradition on the grounds that is has the word God is in reality the promotion of the !God religion.

55%? Try 71%. What's your source?

Salt Lake City is only about 40%, making it a veritable den of iniquity. There are some counties in Utah where it's over 95%. 90% of the state legislature, 100% of the State Supreme Court, and--can you believe it--2/3 of the State Alcohol Commission are Mormon.

Now, Novell is located in Provo, where the Mormon population is about 90% (Salt Lakers call it "Happy Valley" (tongue entirely in cheek).

As to your claim that Novell would never push religious literature, even if they were owned by the Church:

1) It was a joke, man.
2) If it were owned by the Church, damn straight they would.

Yeah, a friend of me and I were discussing this after I took the quiz, and he found this graph. Interesting.

Looks like my buddhism guess was pretty stupid in any case. I vastly overestimated its penetration (or its reporting) in China.

Guess I'm an ignant American after all. : )

I know this is slightly off topic. But it is better than those Kharma whores who go back to the older news on SCO and paste in verbatium earliers +5 scored posts. Anyway, I have Kharma to burn.

Here's a link to a discussion of the article you mentioned:

American Journal of Epidemiology

I think you need to rethink your idea that very few Christians are Catholic: http://www.adherents.com/adh_branches.html#Christi anity

Probably true in the US, though about ~25% is hardly very few.

Christianity and Science are mutually exclusive.

not all christians reject things like evolution. science has not disproven the existence of a deity.

albert einstein had a positve attitude toward relition and even used to visit christian science churches. i think he qualifies as a scientist, possibly one with deeper insight into science and its nature than all slashdot readers.

Einstein was quoted as saying "Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind."

crap, there went all of my karma. i just admitted to my fellow geeks that i believe in God.

OK, according to http://www.adherents.com/adh_branches.html (who knows how correct this data is), Catholics number about 1 billion. What fraction of them hang on to every word of the Pope? God alone knows (and maybe he told the Pope too).

Y.

Yeah, only difference is Stallman isn't a dogmatic leader to 2 billion people (see here for statistics). You wouldn't believe how much power over the masses the Pope has. I've seen people flock to the streets and wait for 2-3 hours just to catch a glimpse of his holiness passing by (yes, 2 hours waiting for a 5-second sighting). And people absolutely refusing to compromise on ANY point the Pope has decided on, is totally frustrating.

Plus, RMS's views are definitely more open to debate than the Pope's (or the church's for that matter). No chance of me getting excomulgated for saying RMS is an asshole (which i don't think he is, but anyway).

but if you seriously ask Him to prove Himself to you personally (ask, not demand), He often will. But you must be listening.

To the voices of hope from your subconscious.

Seriously, if god "revealed himself" to me I'd think about checking myself into the nearest mental health clinic.
Lets assume that you're right and that there is a god as depicted in the bible. In that case, the 53% of the world's population that believes in another god or religion is wrong.

Imagine a Hindu boy living in India, his god reveals himself to him and he is happy. Unfortunately at the same time, John, a christian has his god revealed to him. Now which one of these boys is right? Both would swear that they have glimpsed god yet both cannot be right.
This does not prove there is no god, but it makes the specificness of most of the world's religions seem rather arrogant.

Based on the fact that 95% of the world believes in said higher power, I'd say that people do want to believe in a higher power

You must be American.

The actual % of the *world* population that believes in 'said higher power' is closer to 55!

http://www.adherents.com/Religions_By_Adherents.ht ml

Repeat after me: "there's more to the world than the U S of A!"

According to adherents.com , in 1990 self-identified UUs counted for 0.3% of the population, Buddhists for 0.4%, and Hindus for 0.2%. I suspect those numbers are higher now, but can't find more recent numbers.

Numbers for neo-paganism are much harder to find, because a lot of pagans are still "in the broom closet." However, the Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance estimate that there are currently roughly 750,000 practicing neo-pagans in the US, which makes up about 0.2 to 0.3% of the US population as well.

So, we're over your 1% of religious people already, without considering a number of the other minority religions. But also, a number of studies such as a recent one done by the Covenant of the Goddess have found that members of these minority religions are more active voters. 86% of those who took CoG's poll had registered to vote - against 50% in the normal population, making them an even more significant voting block.

So, in short - "minority" religions are here, and we care about people who are going to try to infringe on our freedom to worship the Gods. Deal with it.

ian.

Have you ever used the internet to learn about your religion?

Other members experiences?

History and events?

Quite interesting.

"The truth shall set ye free"
"The gift of the Holy Ghost to discern truth from deception"

http://www.adherents.com/largecom/co m_lds.html - demographic stats, pretty detailed, but old (1990)

http://www.xmission.com/~count ry/reason/mormhist.htm - Mormon history by a mormon historian who had unprecedented access to church historical documents before they were again sealed (pretty much) back up in the archives.

http://www.teleport.com/~packham/templ es.htm - Temple info

Etc.

Hmm.. i bet AOL is working on a "Sunday Services" program. LOL