Chris Matthews Said 50% Of Americans Have A Fundamentalist View Of The

[DemocratSinceBirth]

Bible....

That sounds like a statistic one pulls out of their ass....


I once worked with a nice young woman whose father was a fundamentalist minister...

I asked her politely if he or she really believed in a literal interpetation of the Bible...


She explained that a lot of the stories in the Bible are metaphors...

I believe there's a passage in the Bible that says "mountains clapped"

Now I doubt 50 % of American believe mountains can clap...

Also, she explained to me about the fire that consumed Sodom and Gomorrah that turned somebody into a "pillar of salt"... She said the fire burned the person to a crisp... That makes a bit more sense...

[Quetzal]

1. Did you ever ask her about Moses splitting open the sea?

[DemocratSinceBirth]

2. It Was A Movement Of The Tides...

nt

[HysteryDiagnosis]

6. Coulda been a natural phenomenon.... check it....

http://www.para-normal.com/nuke/html/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=2027



Moses' miracle with the parting waters described in the Bible can in fact be explained from the scientific standpoint. Israelites could really cross the Suez canal from one shore to another, claim Russian scientists Naum Voltsinger and Alexei Androsov from the Institute of Oceanography located in St. Petersburg. That was the exact place of the Biblical sea, which Moses had crossed in order to get to the promised land, informs the article entitled "Modeling of the hydrodynamic situation of the Great Outcome." The article was published in "Izvestia RAN". "Echo of the planet" magazine offers several excerpts from the article. (read more)

[DemocratSinceBirth]

7. I Imagine Most Of The Accounts In The Bible Are "True"

but the vivid imagery has been added by the authors...

[DemocratSinceBirth]

9. Do You Know The Passage Where It Says Mountains Clapped Out Of Happiness?

[pelagius]

3. I doubt that 50% of the people who claim to have a...

"fundamentalist" view of the Bible even know what that means. But I suspect the figure includes the those who believe the Bible is "the authoritative Word of God" or something like that. And of lot of these folks so revere the Bible they feel unworthy to read it!

[DemocratSinceBirth]

5. I Doubt Jerry Falwell or Billy Graham Would Say Mountains Can Clap

nt

[zbdent]

19. Well, Jim Bakker would say

"Mounds got the clap"

[against all enemies]

4. I bet a higher percentage of Americans think Matthews is an asshole.

In fact, 95% of Americans believe that Chris Matthews is an asshole. It's fact now.

[Garbo 2004]

10. LOL Matthews just spews one thing after another.

He has no "filter" for consistency and accuracy. He just tosses stuff out there without regard.

[NightOwwl]

17. Sold his soul to keep his job.

Was it worth it, Chris?

[Ducks In A Row]

8. it's all out their asses

just stop watching because really they don't report on anything real.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

11. They had an intersting discussion of the Iranian nuclear program at the

beginning...


But thanks to Bush's feckless foreign policy our good options are reduced...

[evilqueen]

12. LOL

Polling data from the 2001 ARIS study, described below, indicate that:

81% of American adults identify themselves with a specific religion:

76.5% (159 million) of Americans identify themselves as Christian. This is a major slide from 86.2% in 1990. Identification with Christianity has suffered a loss of 9.7 percentage points in 11 years -- about 0.9 percentage points per year. This decline is identical to that observed in Canada between 1981 and 2001. If this trend continues, then by about the year 2042, non-Christians will outnumber the Christians in the U.S. (emphasis mine)

52% of Americans identified themselves as Protestant.

24.5% are Roman Catholic.

1.3% are Jewish.

0.5% are Muslim, followers of Islam.

The fastest growing religion (in terms of percentage) is Wicca -- a Neopagan religion that is sometimes referred to as Witchcraft. Numbers of adherents went from 8,000 in 1990 to 134,000 in 2001. Their numbers of adherents are doubling about every 30 months. 4,5

Wiccans in Australia have a very similar growth pattern, from fewer than 2,000 in 1996 to 9,000 in 2001. 10

In Canada, Wiccans and other Neopagans showed the greatest percentage growth of any faith group. They totaled 21,080 members in 1991, an increase of 281% from.

14.1% do not follow any organized religion. This is an unusually rapid increase -- almost a doubling -- from only 8% in 1990. There are more Americans who say they are not affiliated with any organized religion than there are Episcopalians, Methodists, and Lutherans taken together. 6

The unaffiliated vary from a low of 3% in North Dakota to 25% in Washington State. "The six states with the highest percentage of people saying they have no religion are all Western states, with the exception of Vermont at 22%." 6

Source: ReligiousTolerance.org

The problem with fuckheads like Chris Matthews is that they assert things that can be so easily checked on the internet. Even when presented with the facts, they will often continue to make wild assertions about things they know nothing about.

Now, out of the 76.5% who are Christian, who seriously believes that the majority of those believe in fundamentalism?

[BrklynLiberal]

18. Chris Matthews

The frustrating part is that no one was there at the moment to challenge Chris Matthews. Judging from past history, most people who watch that crap take it at face value and believe every single word.. They even believe FAUX News don't they???
I watched him as he was "narrating" the ceremony at the opening of the Clinton Library yesterday, since MSNBC was the only channel showing it. He was downright nasty! I could not believe that even at a time of recognition like that Matthews still had to spout the talking points. He was making really disparaging comments!

[evilqueen]

20. Also...

Many conservative Christians believe that one has to be "born again" in order to be counted as a Christian. Using this definition, only about 35% of Americans would be counted as Christians.

Religions of the World

[seabeyond]

13. was 17, went to 24, saw a month ago 38

and thought wow fundamentalist are taking over fast. and now 50

hm

[quaker bill]

14. 51 percent of people voted for Bush

Lord only knows what else these folks believe. Some of the Bible stories are far more credible than the notion that Bush is a moral man.

[A HERETIC I AM]

15. Instead of "Fundamentalist view" call them "Bible literalists".......

that might be more accurate. Those are the folks that think the Bible is literally true ie: creation occured in 6 - 24 hour days, Adam and Eve were the first humans created out of dust, Jonah really spent time in the belly of a whale, etc.

Next time you meet one of those types, ask them to explain where the 2nd woman came from. I am referring to the second woman mentioned in the bible in Gen 4:17, namely Cain's wife.

Vs 16 says Cain went out from Eden and dwelt in the land of Nod
Vs 17 says: "And Cain knew his wife .........
If adam and Eve were the first and only humans, and they bore only 2 sons before Cain knew this lady, WHERE DID SHE COME FROM? In fact, the subsequent verses indicate a plethora of women were around. WHERE DID THEY COME FROM?

Answer? The bible gives no answer, which goes to show the bible is flawed and little more than a collection of allegorical tales that no rational, thinking person would take literally.

[mcg]

23. According to Pew poll 40% say Bible is literal word of God.

"In response to another question, 40 percent of Americans say the Bible is the literal word of God, while 42 percent say it is the word of God but should not be read literally."

http://www.rickross.com/reference/fundamentalists/fund135.html

Here's a possible compromise regarding the stickers on biology books regarding evolution: allow them if there are also disclaimer stickers put on Bibles.

I was thinking that the stickers on biology books should be allowed but now I'm not so sure. I have doubts about some of the tenants of Darwinism, but accept the theory of evolution in general. It's likely that the majority of the people pushing for the stickers don't believe in evolution at all.

[spooky3]

27. Probably 80% of those 40% don't know what "literal" means.

[The Backlash Cometh]

16. Did he pull that out of his flabby ass?

What an idiotic thing to say. I would say that 50% have a racist perspective, but they're certainly not all fundamentalist.

[mcg]

21. Religious Affiliations of American Founders

Table of the Religious Affiliations of American Founders

http://members.tripod.com/~candst/tnppage/qtable.htm

Here are some who were Deists or Unitarians:

Signer State Doc. Office Affiliation (Ref.)
Adams, John MA D President CO(b)UN(a)
Franklin, Benjamin PA D/C EP(n)DE(j)
Harnett, Cornelious NC A EP(f)DE(f)
Jefferson, Thomas VA D President DE(a)
Morris, Gouv. NY(A)PA(C) A/C EP(j)DE(i,n)
Rush, Benjamin PA D PR(c,e)UN
Williamson, Hu NC C PR(f,n)DE(j)
Wilson, James PA D/C Ch. Justice* EP(a)PR(e,n)DE(j)

DE = Deist
UN = Unitarian

http://www.uua.org/uuhs/duub/articles/thomasjefferson.html

"Jefferson never joined a Unitarian church. He did attend Unitarian services while visiting with Joseph Priestley after his immigration to Pennsylvania and spoke highly of those services. He corresponded on religious matters with numerous Unitarians..."

[Loki]

22. Little Chrissy is never encumbered by facts.

Facts just slow him down as he travels through LaLa Land. Best response for Little Chrissy is the mute button. That's when he makes the most sense.
:evilgrin:

[Lydia Leftcoast]

24. Maybe it's 90% in the rural South, but in other parts of the country,

no way. For one thing, only 1/3 of Oregonians have ANY religious affiliation at all.

[floridadem30]

25. I don't agree with Matthews, but Wallis at least said they need to look

further than abortion and gay marriage and include all loss of life.

[checks-n-balances]

26. Yes, and unfortunately that's all he's been able to say

Once again, the conversation has been dominated by a member of the Religious Right (this time, Richard Land). It's really the fault of the host, since he began the conversation with the topic of abortion.

Now after the last commercial, the next question he asks is one about "gay marriage" to - guess who - the right winger!

Oh, OK, FINALLY - we hear the voice of Jim Wallis, after CM asks him if "we will ever get away from these hot-button issues?"

Well, for one thing (even though it's not true on this episode), the media should stop having wingnuts like Falwell on as the sole "authority" on religion! It's about time they started doing that with someone like Wallis, who can actually give Jesus' point of view instead of the literalistic one.

[floridadem30]

28. My thoughts exactly.