On 4/23/06, Doug Pensinger <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Robert J. Chassell wrote: > > > An optimist -- and I am still an optimist -- will argue that in spite > > of forgone opportunities, the USA could help create a more civilized > > and sustainable world. > > Excellent post, Robert, you should have given it a Brin header. > > As for optimism, I'm afraid I've lost some of mine. Five years of W, the > packing of the SC with legal ludites, the knowledge that a solid majority > of the people in this country believe that the universe was created in six > (literal) days,
Eh? Cite, please! Or maybe not... I just searched a bit and found a few polls that put the numbers just over 50 percent. George Barna, who I think does some of the best research on this sort of thing, doesn't directly address it. From his stats, I would think the number is more like 30 percent. People believe all sorts of crazy things. Seventy-five percent of Americans think that the Bible teaches "God helps those who help themselves." It doesn't. For what it's worth, I think it is true, in some mysterious way, that the universe was created in six days. But I don't think that it really happened that way. I wonder if a poll that emphasized that word you put in parentheses -- "literal" -- would show numbers as high. Popular Christianity has become propositional and prescriptive, rather than relational and narrative. Some of us are doing our best to get it turned back around. Nick -- Nick Arnett [EMAIL PROTECTED] Messages: 408-904-7198 _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
