From: ex_myst341	Date: October 25th, 2003 02:36 pm (UTC)		(Link)

Really? That many?? Oh, that's scary. *L* I certainly don't believe in Hell, except the type we create for ourselves here and now. The religiosity is getting really annoying over here. Everywhere I go, cars with the Jesus stickers and crosses in people's home windows, and the incredibly arrogant "God Bless Our Troops" or God Bless the U.S.A. I always want to ask those people if they don't think 'God' blesses the other troops or the rest of the world!

The British seem to have their heads screwed on a little straighter in that regard. ;)

So, do YOU believe in Heaven or Hell?

	From: vexen	Date: October 25th, 2003 02:47 pm (UTC)		(Link)

Me? God no, I don't believe in such things. Also if I found that there was a heaven, from the evidence I see about it's creator, I certainly wouldn't want to go there!

50 to 60% of us British still believe in a god of some sorts though! (And the vast majority they would not commit to anything less vague - it might as well be a Hindu or Bahai' god for all they care. (Although I would bet they'd all go for the Bahai' one if they only knew any religion!))

(Stats on God: http://www.vexen.co.uk/religion/rib.html#God )

From: ex_myst341	Date: October 25th, 2003 03:26 pm (UTC)		(Link)

I'd like to see statistics on the U.S. and compare them to Britain. :)

Actually, isn't the Ba'hai similar to Islam in some ways? They're fairly conservative, from what I've seen.

It seems how they word the surveys makes a difference in the results, but that's true of most polls.

	From: vexen	Date: October 25th, 2003 05:27 pm (UTC)		(Link)

Yes Bahai' has it's roots in Islam... it's simply liberal Islam (although that still makes it pretty conservative).

It's theology and philosophy is really cool though, it has one of my favorite universalist white light gods, and the religion was specificaly designed/progressed with inter-faith and tolerance in mind.

It comes first in the special godly olympics!

:

Yeah, wording is important, I was impressed with the poll that it asked the same question twice but worded it different the second time!

From: ex_myst341	Date: October 25th, 2003 07:41 pm (UTC)		(Link)

I admit I don't know much about Bahai (however it's spelled). What is this white light god you're referring to? I do remember hearing it's big on tolerance, and that's good!

People who design polls MUST've been English majors. *L*

	From: vexen	Date: October 25th, 2003 07:59 pm (UTC)		(Link)

Poll design is definately a whole area of study!

A "white light" god is a traditional all-good, all-powerful, all-knowing god such as the God of the Hebrews, Jews, Muslims, Christians, Bahai' and other religions.

I wrote a (kind-of poor) introduction to "white light" religion: http://www.dpjs.co.uk/white.html

The Bahai Faith believes that Buaha'ullah (who followed shortly after The Bab - both are mystic-prophet Muslims) is God's next major prophet, and that all other prophets were real prophets of god, suiting particular cultures at particular times, and that Bahai is to be a huge world religion of the future. So far it looks like they'll be proven right on that count!

From: ex_myst341	Date: October 26th, 2003 12:35 pm (UTC)		(Link)

I must not have been clear. I KNOW what a 'white light' god is! ;) It just sounded like there was something about the Bahai's particular god that intrigued you. I don't doubt that religion might become very popular!

	From: shuripentu	Date: October 26th, 2003 06:19 am (UTC)		(Link)

I was under the impression that Bahai is still stuck in the last century with respect to issues like homosexuality, though..

From: defcon9	Date: October 25th, 2003 03:24 pm (UTC)		(Link)
I see you've discovered Moonspell

Pretty, bad-ass!!!

	From: vexen	Date: October 25th, 2003 05:27 pm (UTC)		(Link)
	Re: I see you've discovered Moonspell

Moonspell are deeply good

From: defcon9	Date: October 25th, 2003 06:02 pm (UTC)		(Link)
Re: I see you've discovered Moonspell

I have ALL their albums. I think.

	From: mattlazycat	Date: October 25th, 2003 05:02 pm (UTC)		(Link)

Religiosity. Cool :)

	From: vexen	Date: October 25th, 2003 05:31 pm (UTC)		(Link)

Cool word, ya.

Try "Relism" - discrimination according to religion.

"Any attitude, action or institutional structure which systematically treats an individual or group of individuals differently because of their religion." [...] A secondary meaning is the belief that persons who follow one religion are inherently superior to those of other religions"

	From: bart666	Date: October 25th, 2003 05:38 pm (UTC)		(Link)

FYI, here is The Guardian's original source:

http://www.barna.org/cgi-bin/PagePressRelease.asp?PressReleaseID=150&Reference=A

They have a few other related polls too.

Americans = crazy. (But we know this already)

	From: vexen	Date: October 25th, 2003 06:10 pm (UTC)		(Link)

Thanks for that!

More on Americans!
http://www.religioustolerance.org/rel_impo.htm

The USA is the only rich/developed country to have the scale of religion associated with 3rd world countries - the USA is unique like that, when it comes to religion they're outstandingly messed up (evidenced also by powerful religious (Christian) pressure groups and religious (Christian, again) influence on the government, etc)

Page above is linked from http://www.vexen.co.uk/religion/stats.html

	From: shuripentu	Date: October 26th, 2003 06:22 am (UTC)		(Link)

It's things like this that make me incredibly glad I chose to study in the UK instead of the US.

*bounces freely as little European cubs can*

	From: vexen	Date: October 26th, 2003 09:15 am (UTC)		(Link)

So Greece was right out of the equation then?

I think you made a good choice!

From: (Anonymous)	Date: November 23rd, 2007 11:17 am (UTC)		(Link)
Foreign Fighters in Iraq Are Tied to Allies of U.S.

Saudi Arabia and Libya were the source of about 60 percent of the foreign fighters
who came to Iraq in the past year to facilitate attacks.