The Sun's not yellow it's chicken

Polls are rarely telling you what you think they’re saying

runawayfrom:

“Young Americans are drifting away from God, according to a new Pew Research Center poll. Only 67 percent of Americans under 30 say they “never doubt the existence of God.” That’s down from 76 percent in 2009 and 83 percent in 2007 — a 15 percentage point drop in just five years.”

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More often than not, polls are telling you what people think you want to hear, not the truth. For example, Mother Teresa often doubted the existence of God. Most people do at some point. Most of them get over it and move on. Other change faiths and still others are the atheists and agnostics. A few years back, as the religious right was still flying high, people were less socially inclined to admit their lapses in faith. A prime example of social attitudes (and not reality) influencing polling would be homosexuality.

If you went back to, say, the 1950s and asked everyone if they were gay you’d end up with a much, much smaller number of “Yes” replies than you would today. Has the gay percentage of the population gone up?

Nope.

What’s gone up is the number of people willing to admit the fact that they are gay. Back in the 1950s being gay carried such a huge social stigma that practically nobody identified as gay, at least not willingly. Even today this social stigma (though largely extinct in some quarters) plays a roll. and colors every poll/study on gay people.

So, again:  Nearly everybody carries their religious “Doubts” at times, including major religious figures like Mother Teresa. It’s normal.

Switching to Emulation Mode

What you’re claiming here is that you have legitimate reasons for being upset, so that makes anything you say legitimate.

I’d expect that kind of rationalization from a fundy….

Fallacious Argument: Individuals that Appall Me.

arabswagger:

The Orientalist scholar is quite baffling to their quotes and many on a daily basis spread lies and misinterpretations about Islam and Arabs every single day.

They are hidden under names like “Near East Studies” Professor or Middle East Analyst or other names.

If you are a Muslim, Arab, or have any connection to Islam, and you are personally insulted by any of these antagonistic Islamaphobes you must do the following:

When they spread lies or start interpreting quotes attributed to the Qura’n, Sunnah, or any Arab or Muslim scholar immediately tell them to do the following:

-Ask them to reference the Book they are using and ask for the validity of its writer.

-Ask them if they have even read a word in Arabic their whole lives.

-Ask them to Quote the entire Ayah, the Quran they are using, the Tafseer involved, the translation they are using, and their “extensive” information on the nature of the Quran, its revelations, the context of the verse they are quoting, and even the Sanad, and Mitin as well. 

-Ask them to list the major Tafseer, Muhaddiths, Quranic Interpretors, Arab scientists, and the like.

-Also ask them if they have even visited the Middle East in their entire lives, and even question their educational background and the sources by which they learned their information.

In all these cases, you not only dumbfound them, but you expose them for the morons that they truly are.

Do not sit silent, and let baffling Professors spread lies and hate that vilify and dehumanize you.

Stop them NOW. And show what Arab and Muslim civilization is actually really about.

This is a classic Fallacious Argument:  Moving the Goalpost.

You’re making a lot of ridiculous demands while failing to so much as suggest any relevancy for any of them.

One would think — operating under the mistaken notion that you are honest & principled and actually believe your own faith — that if you have an issue with someone’s characterization of the Koran you might actually point out what that issue is. Instead, you avoid the question entirely, hoping to raise the bar so high that you eventually trip them up…. just so you can dishonestly claim that it proves they are wrong.

(Psst. It doesn’t)

If you have any actual faith in your religion you should welcome a discussion, instead of overtly attempting to end all discussion with an ever expanding list of demands.

Oh, in case you missed it:  I am saying that you’re a small minded little twirp who has no real faith, and that’s why you’re actively avoiding any discussion with your insane demands.

You’re welcome.

You don’t need religion to have morals. If you can’t determine right from wrong then you lack empathy, not religion.

JTEM:

I have to disagree.

“Right & Wrong” are anything but universal. They don’t translate from one period to another within a culture, let alone between cultures. There are behaviors considered “Right” in some cultures today which would put you in prison in the United States. And, within the United States, there are some behaviors which were once perfectly “Right” that are now considered abhorrent.

Let’s take slavery, as an example. It was once not only perfectly “Right” but the Southern Baptist Convention was created specifically to counter all the moralizing of yankee abolitionists. Going the other way, birth control was “Wrong”. Yes, even for a married woman. Birth control meant sex for the sake of sex… pleasure… lust… SIN. And I don’t mean that a particular church felt this way, I mean society believed this.

Now to tackle the religious fallacy…

Don’t even get me started about religion. When God told Abraham to kill his son, “Right” (moral) was killing his son, “Wrong” (immoral) was not killing his son. With religion, not only is right & wrong, moral & immoral totally external, but they don’t even have to be comprehensible. All you have to know is that God — through the Priest, Minister, Rabbi, Cleric, etc — told you that he wants it.

Okay, rant over. For now.

(Source: imkaneforever)