Preachers who are not believers

[Peter Kirby]

Interesting piece from Daniel Dennett:

http://www.epjournal.net/wp-content/upl ... 122150.pdf

[Blood]

When we asked one of the other pastors we talked with initially if he thought clergy with his views were rare in the church, he responded, “Oh, you can’t go through seminary and come out believing in God!”

Says it all, doesn't it?

I guess the future education of pastors will not come from rigorous study of scholarship, since it leads to doubt and atheism, but from marketing gurus and personal trainers. Joel Osteen got his training by producing his father's church television broadcasts and studying marketing, not poring over Bultmann and Tillich or learning Koine. The faith will only survive, ironically, by not studying the scholarship on the Bible.

[Peter Kirby]

"Nearly 1 in 4 alums of leading U.S. interfaith organization are nonreligious"

http://chrisstedman.religionnews.com/20 ... um=twitter

According to their survey results, nearly 1 in 4 IFYC alums identify as atheist (4.7 percent), agnostic (7.1 percent), secular humanist (5.3 percent), or spiritual but not religious (6.5 percent).

[spin]

"Nearly 1 in 4 alums of leading U.S. interfaith organization are nonreligious"

http://chrisstedman.religionnews.com/20 ... um=twitter

According to their survey results, nearly 1 in 4 IFYC alums identify as atheist (4.7 percent), agnostic (7.1 percent), secular humanist (5.3 percent), or spiritual but not religious (6.5 percent).

Do you find this significant in some way, Peter? Perhaps, you could supply figures for other organizations that specifically religious and say what the percentage of non-believers join them and how many of those who join such an organization also join this interfaith thingy. Religions tend not to be so interfaith as they are faith, so the percentages will probably not be reflective of a general population.

If we can trust Demographics of atheism, more than 9 in 10 Americans are theists. It says, "However less than 2% of the U.S. population describes itself as atheist." I'd say the stats for IFYC are not even representative of those for university students in general.

[Peter Kirby]

Perhaps, you could supply figures for other organizations that specifically religious and say what the percentage of non-believers join them and how many of those who join such an organization also join this interfaith thingy.

Perhaps, if I knew.

I found it relevant to the same phenomenon that Dennett explores.

I don't know if it's relevant in any Big Idea kind of way. It's just some people in the USA and what they do, studied statistically.

[Maximos]

Here's an interesting blog

Preachers, priests quietly embrace the Christ myth

[Mental flatliner]

Interesting piece from Daniel Dennett:

http://www.epjournal.net/wp-content/upl ... 122150.pdf

This sounds like a no-brainer to me.

There are 2 1/2 billion Christians in the world, including 80% of Americans.

Expect scam artists to infiltrate.
Expect the religion to include all levels of faith, including non-faith.
Expect some leaders to have ulterior motives (like maybe they're great speakers who just want a salary).

Why would this warrant a psychology abstract?