Most Religious States

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And, compare this list with the education rate of each state.

I recently heard a news story that Catholic mass attendance in the US is down to something like 25% and down in the teens in Europe.
 
I ran across an interesting factoid (I dont' remember where, sorry) while I was rubbing Army Cowboy's nose in the dirt....

Southern States, which are the poorest, and most Christian, give a much higher percentage of their incomes to charity.

I just thought it was interesting. Everybody calls them backwards and stupid, as if income determines one's character...but when it comes to giving till it hurts, those communities are the ones who do it.

Not sure that's a valid conclusion -- perhaps the other way round? Also it's not universal that the South is the poorest -- true for Mississippi but not for, say, Georgia:

600px-Median_Household_Income.svg.png

It might be a point worth looking up, though it would also be hard to pin down what constitutes "giving to charity", which, like religiousness, takes other forms aside from the formal-institutional.

My point was that the left seems to think that the more $$ one has, the more character.
 
No, Jesus did not preach in the synagogues. He TAUGHT in the synagogues. Big difference in that era of history. He was basically handcuffed as his message that he did preach away from the synagogues was of love, do not judge and love thy neighbor, ideas FOREIGN to the Jewish doctrine.
Jesus preached in the cities to the poor, the sick, the oppressed and those that the Jewish religion looked down upon.
Jesus was a radical of his day. The leaders of the Jewish rabbis kept him in check.
No offense to you and respectfully I find it amazing you do not know this.

Um.. preaching and teaching are the same things. And I just cited scriptures that have Jesus preaching in the synagogues. He taught the same message in and out of the Synagogues. He boldly proclaimed Himself the long awaited for Messiah. He preached the truth about the Sabbath. He healed the sick. He raised the dead. He preached deliverance to the captives.

In fact, one of the first sermons He preached in a Synagogue was the following:

17 And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written,

18 The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,

19 To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.

20 And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him.

21 And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.(Luke 4:17-21)

Interesting that Christ would quote that scripture from Isaiah menting His Messianic call to preach the Gospel to the poor and preach deliverence to the captives and declare it fulfilled in a synagogue He was in if He wasnt really preaching there.

No offense to you and respectfully scripture about Jesus and what he supposedly stated came long after Jesus. It was manipulated to take away from the fact that Jesus was a Jew because of the anti semitic influences when the King James version was written.
 
][/quote]

And, compare this list with the education rate of each state.

I recently heard a news story that Catholic mass attendance in the US is down to something like 25% and down in the teens in Europe.[/QUOTE]

I scanned this article very briefly--if others wish to compare/contrast 'religion and education' it may be of interest.

[url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/10/quality-counts-education-rankings-2013_n_2451431.html]Quality Counts 2013 Education Rankings Come In: Maryland First, South Dakota Last[/url]

The report also ranks states: Maryland bested all others for the fifth year in a row, scoring a B-plus. Maryland was closely followed by Massachusetts, New York, and Virginia, which received B's. Completing the top 10 were Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, New Jersey, West Virginia, and Kentucky. On the other end were seven states that came in at C-minus: Arizona, Montana, D.C., Nebraska, Alaska, Mississippi, Idaho, and Nevada. California, which educates one-eighth of the nation's students, came in at a C. South Dakota came in dead last, getting D-plus.

I would really need to reread carefully to be clear about these rankings. GA has been placing in the 48% in rankings of test scores for a number of years---followed by, IIRC, MS. So they used a different means of assessment? I wouldn't begin to be able to correlate religious beliefs with school performance.

eta: another article---different fyi
[url]http://www.takepart.com/photos/5-worst-and-5-best-states-educate-your-kids#1-massachusetts-one-of-the-five-best[/url]

and

[url]http://www.usnews.com/education/high-schools/articles/2012/05/08/us-news-ranks-nations-best-high-schools[/url]
 
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No, Jesus did not preach in the synagogues. He TAUGHT in the synagogues. Big difference in that era of history. He was basically handcuffed as his message that he did preach away from the synagogues was of love, do not judge and love thy neighbor, ideas FOREIGN to the Jewish doctrine.
Jesus preached in the cities to the poor, the sick, the oppressed and those that the Jewish religion looked down upon.
Jesus was a radical of his day. The leaders of the Jewish rabbis kept him in check.
No offense to you and respectfully I find it amazing you do not know this.

Um.. preaching and teaching are the same things. And I just cited scriptures that have Jesus preaching in the synagogues. He taught the same message in and out of the Synagogues. He boldly proclaimed Himself the long awaited for Messiah. He preached the truth about the Sabbath. He healed the sick. He raised the dead. He preached deliverance to the captives.

In fact, one of the first sermons He preached in a Synagogue was the following:

17 And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written,

18 The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,

19 To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.

20 And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him.

21 And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.(Luke 4:17-21)
Interesting that Christ would quote that scripture from Isaiah menting His Messianic call to preach the Gospel to the poor and preach deliverence to the captives and declare it fulfilled in a synagogue He was in if He wasnt really preaching there.

No offense to you and respectfully scripture about Jesus and what he supposedly stated came long after Jesus. It was manipulated to take away from the fact that Jesus was a Jew because of the anti semitic influences when the King James version was written.

What on earth are you talking about? We still have many of the ancient texts. The myth that christians bastardized the bible is just that, a myth.

And the first scriptures were put down within a few years of Christ's death. While there were still many, many people alive who had seen and heard him....none of whom objected to the veracity of the scripture.
 
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Jesus preached in the synagogues because that is where he was invited to preach. The gospel he preached was a Christian gospel but there was no Christianity yet and no Christian churches. He preached mostly to the Jews because that is mostly who came to hear him preach. And he read from and quoted the Jewish scriptures, and thereby confirmed those as being of the Father God of whom he preached, because that is what he had grown up with and what most of the people knew. And he put his own unorthodox twist and interpretation on those scriptures which of course is what put him in trouble with the Jewish heirarchy.

The Jewish faith was not and has not been static and without revision over the millenia any more than Christian beliefs have been static and without revision. Orthodoxy changes as new understandings (or political motives) change and that would include Catholicism as well as the Protestantism that evolved out of the Reformation.

And only the ignorant, prejudiced, and/or intentionally dishonest attempt to brand all Jews or all Christians or all Atheists, for that matter, by the actions of one relatively small group. It is for that reason that I doubt any set of rigid poll questions will determine the level of faith or relgiosity among all the states.
 
][/quote]

And, compare this list with the education rate of each state.

I recently heard a news story that Catholic mass attendance in the US is down to something like 25% and down in the teens in Europe.[/QUOTE]

I scanned this article very briefly--if others wish to compare/contrast 'religion and education' it may be of interest.

[url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/10/quality-counts-education-rankings-2013_n_2451431.html]Quality Counts 2013 Education Rankings Come In: Maryland First, South Dakota Last[/url]

The report also ranks states: Maryland bested all others for the fifth year in a row, scoring a B-plus. Maryland was closely followed by Massachusetts, New York, and Virginia, which received B's. Completing the top 10 were Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, New Jersey, West Virginia, and Kentucky. On the other end were seven states that came in at C-minus: Arizona, Montana, D.C., Nebraska, Alaska, Mississippi, Idaho, and Nevada. California, which educates one-eighth of the nation's students, came in at a C. South Dakota came in dead last, getting D-plus.

I would really need to reread carefully to be clear about these rankings. GA has been placing in the 48% in rankings of test scores for a number of years---followed by, IIRC, MS. So they used a different means of assessment? I wouldn't begin to be able to correlate religious beliefs with school performance.

eta: another article---different fyi
[url=http://www.takepart.com/photos/5-worst-and-5-best-states-educate-your-kids#1-massachusetts-one-of-the-five-best]Best and Worst States for Education[/url]

and

[url=http://www.usnews.com/education/high-schools/articles/2012/05/08/us-news-ranks-nations-best-high-schools]U.S. News Ranks Nation's Best High Schools - US News and World Report[/url][/QUOTE]

Kudos for actually trying to stay [B][I]on topic[/I][/B] amid all .... this. What a strange concept. :eek:

We can compare charts of incomes or of education, but we're still comparing to a flawed question. Gallup notes in its [URL="http://www.gallup.com/poll/153479/Mississippi-Religious-State.aspx#1"]survey of the same thing last year[/URL] that "These state-by-state patterns in religiousness have remained stable in recent years". It does not seem to occur to them that when they keep asking the same question they're going to get the same answer, and until they improve the question they're doing the same thing year after year and expecting different results.

If Gallup wants a meaningful poll they're gonna have to come up with a better definition of "religiosity", because the one they've been using doesn't mean the same thing in Mississippi as it means in Vermont. Until they make that improvement, these results are of little use except as fallacy generators.
 
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And, compare this list with the education rate of each state.

I recently heard a news story that Catholic mass attendance in the US is down to something like 25% and down in the teens in Europe.

I scanned this article very briefly--if others wish to compare/contrast 'religion and education' it may be of interest.

Quality Counts 2013 Education Rankings Come In: Maryland First, South Dakota Last

The report also ranks states: Maryland bested all others for the fifth year in a row, scoring a B-plus. Maryland was closely followed by Massachusetts, New York, and Virginia, which received B's. Completing the top 10 were Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, New Jersey, West Virginia, and Kentucky. On the other end were seven states that came in at C-minus: Arizona, Montana, D.C., Nebraska, Alaska, Mississippi, Idaho, and Nevada. California, which educates one-eighth of the nation's students, came in at a C. South Dakota came in dead last, getting D-plus.

I would really need to reread carefully to be clear about these rankings. GA has been placing in the 48% in rankings of test scores for a number of years---followed by, IIRC, MS. So they used a different means of assessment? I wouldn't begin to be able to correlate religious beliefs with school performance.

eta: another article---different fyi
Best and Worst States for Education

and

U.S. News Ranks Nation's Best High Schools - US News and World Report

Kudos for actually trying to stay on topic amid all .... this. What a strange concept. :eek:

We can compare charts of incomes or of education, but we're still comparing to a flawed question. Gallup notes in its survey of the same thing last year that "These state-by-state patterns in religiousness have remained stable in recent years". It does not seem to occur to them that when they keep asking the same question they're going to get the same answer, and until they improve the question they're doing the same thing year after year and expecting different results.

If Gallup wants a meaningful poll they're gonna have to come up with a better definition of "religiosity", because the one they've been using doesn't mean the same thing in Mississippi as it means in Vermont. Until they make that improvement, these results are of little use except as fallacy generators.

Yup. Which was sort of the point I was trying to make in my last post. As I sit here reading my Bible and cleaning my gun :))), I can assure you that I have been told many times how unChristian I am or that I am going straight to hell or that I have no understanding of God or Jesus or faith or the Bible. Many people will say they believe in God but only in the most vague, Deist kind of way. Are such people 'religious'? Many people are quite spirtual but never darken the door of a church or synagogue. Are such people 'religious'? And quite a few folks who don't believe in the divinity of Jesus and who have little or no faith in the Bible still attend church for social or political reasons. Do such people get counted as 'religious'?

The term itself is far too vague to have much meaning.
 
I scanned this article very briefly--if others wish to compare/contrast 'religion and education' it may be of interest.

Quality Counts 2013 Education Rankings Come In: Maryland First, South Dakota Last

The report also ranks states: Maryland bested all others for the fifth year in a row, scoring a B-plus. Maryland was closely followed by Massachusetts, New York, and Virginia, which received B's. Completing the top 10 were Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, New Jersey, West Virginia, and Kentucky. On the other end were seven states that came in at C-minus: Arizona, Montana, D.C., Nebraska, Alaska, Mississippi, Idaho, and Nevada. California, which educates one-eighth of the nation's students, came in at a C. South Dakota came in dead last, getting D-plus.

I would really need to reread carefully to be clear about these rankings. GA has been placing in the 48% in rankings of test scores for a number of years---followed by, IIRC, MS. So they used a different means of assessment? I wouldn't begin to be able to correlate religious beliefs with school performance.

eta: another article---different fyi
Best and Worst States for Education

and

U.S. News Ranks Nation's Best High Schools - US News and World Report

Kudos for actually trying to stay on topic amid all .... this. What a strange concept. :eek:

We can compare charts of incomes or of education, but we're still comparing to a flawed question. Gallup notes in its survey of the same thing last year that "These state-by-state patterns in religiousness have remained stable in recent years". It does not seem to occur to them that when they keep asking the same question they're going to get the same answer, and until they improve the question they're doing the same thing year after year and expecting different results.

If Gallup wants a meaningful poll they're gonna have to come up with a better definition of "religiosity", because the one they've been using doesn't mean the same thing in Mississippi as it means in Vermont. Until they make that improvement, these results are of little use except as fallacy generators.

Yup. Which was sort of the point I was trying to make in my last post. As I sit here reading my Bible and cleaning my gun :))), I can assure you that I have been told many times how unChristian I am or that I am going straight to hell or that I have no understanding of God or Jesus or faith or the Bible. Many people will say they believe in God but only in the most vague, Deist kind of way. Are such people 'religious'? Many people are quite spirtual but never darken the door of a church or synagogue. Are such people 'religious'? And quite a few folks who don't believe in the divinity of Jesus and who have little or no faith in the Bible still attend church for social or political reasons. Do such people get counted as 'religious'?

The term itself is far too vague to have much meaning.

Well spake, and yes I know you were bringing the topic back in your last; I was referring to a couple of other hijackers (not that it's their religion that makes them hijackers... oops, wrong thread :evil:)

On another note Foxy, I can't help noticing that your rep count ends in "666". :eek:
Wait 'til I tell Gallup about that...!
 
Jesus preached in the synagogues because that is where he was invited to preach. The gospel he preached was a Christian gospel but there was no Christianity yet and no Christian churches. He preached mostly to the Jews because that is mostly who came to hear him preach. And he read from and quoted the Jewish scriptures, and thereby confirmed those as being of the Father God of whom he preached, because that is what he had grown up with and what most of the people knew. And he put his own unorthodox twist and interpretation on those scriptures which of course is what put him in trouble with the Jewish heirarchy.

The Jewish faith was not and has not been static and without revision over the millenia any more than Christian beliefs have been static and without revision. Orthodoxy changes as new understandings (or political motives) change and that would include Catholicism as well as the Protestantism that evolved out of the Reformation.

And only the ignorant, prejudiced, and/or intentionally dishonest attempt to brand all Jews or all Christians or all Atheists, for that matter, by the actions of one relatively small group. It is for that reason that I doubt any set of rigid poll questions will determine the level of faith or relgiosity among all the states.

The Jews correctly point out the inaccuracies in The Bible that were from translations by anti semitic influences.
Every Hebrew scholar out there states that translations other than the King James version be used when reading the Old and New Testament because of the latent anti semitism that was injected or left in by either the ignorance or bias of the translators.
They do not jive with their Tanakh which is essentially the Christian Bible before the King James version and others that were "translated" or as they put it when they added their bias to it "inspired by God" which was only an excuse to change it to what they wanted in it.
The New Testament was written in Greek and none of the original manuscripts exist. Where KG gets that one I do not know.
The original works were written, some, as far as over a century after the disciples died and contain 27 books. Many books were not included because of politics of the day, they were left out. All that remained were 3rd and 4th century copies and later.
Ancient scribes make errors and many manuscripts and were lost and many transciptions were incomplete and contained errors.
Not all manuscripts came from ancient Christian writers and many of the manuscripts were held by groups that were labeled as heretics in that day by other Christian groups.
Interpretations is the correct labeling of the New Testament which is why we have so many different denominations and so many opinions within the Christian church as to real meaning of Jesus and what he stood for.
Which I believe to be a good thing as I respect all religious beliefs.
 
Jesus did preach his gospel to the poor but it was not in the synagogues.

What evidence is there for this when the scriptures directly contradict it?

He also taught to poor in the synagogues, that was not my point. In fact most that attended were poor.
His message to the world ABOUT THE POOR, and what others should do to help the poor was not mainstream religion in the synagogues and that message he took to the streets.


Jesus' realized his message was to the people so he took to the streets. Many parts of Jesus life are incomplete as to where he was and exactly what he was doing.
 
Um.. preaching and teaching are the same things. And I just cited scriptures that have Jesus preaching in the synagogues. He taught the same message in and out of the Synagogues. He boldly proclaimed Himself the long awaited for Messiah. He preached the truth about the Sabbath. He healed the sick. He raised the dead. He preached deliverance to the captives.

In fact, one of the first sermons He preached in a Synagogue was the following:

Interesting that Christ would quote that scripture from Isaiah menting His Messianic call to preach the Gospel to the poor and preach deliverence to the captives and declare it fulfilled in a synagogue He was in if He wasnt really preaching there.

No offense to you and respectfully scripture about Jesus and what he supposedly stated came long after Jesus. It was manipulated to take away from the fact that Jesus was a Jew because of the anti semitic influences when the King James version was written.

What on earth are you talking about? We still have many of the ancient texts. The myth that christians bastardized the bible is just that, a myth.

And the first scriptures were put down within a few years of Christ's death. While there were still many, many people alive who had seen and heard him....none of whom objected to the veracity of the scripture.

None of the originals exist. All we have are copies that were translated and manuscripts incomplete fro the 2nd and 3rd century.
 

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