best line of that lollypop kerfuffle:

It's about a generation that's so caught up in itself that everything it says it thinks is significant, even though it's not saying anything at all.

[link]

Jars, this one is funny. I'm still looking for the other.

Strega, the problem is, you'd be hard pressed to find two denominations, never mind two people, who use the same working definition of things like literalism or inerrancy. That's why the poll results are more sensationalistic than representive of trends in religion. The words are bandied about so much as a test of faith, that they're more trouble than they're worth.

So, what you're saying is, millions of religious people need to be beaten with a dictionary? Typical. I know a bunch of secular academics who have the same problem.

(Sloppiness of meaning-transfer via language is really a problem, in the humanities; that's why random people can pull a Punk'd on a literary journal every now and hten, and publish a whole essay about nonsense.)

Also when Dawn returns to the party, kisses Tim, and leads him out by the hand. So effin sweet!

Yeah, that's a pretty much perfect moment.

I wonder if they heard how Lou Reed got kids to cry on his recording of Berlin.

That was Bob Ezrin, wasn't it? Who would let Lou Reed around children?

That's why the poll results are more sensationalistic than representive of trends in religion.

Well, except that this charge can be levelled at just about any poll, but polls are still (when done properly) useful and indicative of general trends.

I get what you're saying Cindy, but just because the poll answers don't quite apply to you specifically, that doesn't nullify the poll data.

I'm not a fan of meatloaf, but meatcake is certainly prettier.

I get what you're saying Cindy, but just because the poll answers don't quite apply to you specifically, that doesn't nullify the poll data.

I thought she was saying that the poll questions aren't useful--not that they're not useful to her, but that they mean too different things to everyone.

I thought she was saying that the poll questions aren't useful--not that they're not useful to her, but that they mean too different things to everyone.

What I'm saying is that charge can be levelled at any poll. All poll questions are like that, for pretty much any poll on any subject. And yet? Polls still produce useful data, when interpreted correctly.

What I'm saying is that charge can be levelled at any poll.

Sure. Any charge can be levelled at anything. However wrt to that claim and polls, the charge can be levelled with varying applicability. How ambiguous are the terms? How granular the definitions? Cindy considers the threshold for those questions, it seems, to be exceeded, and therefore she doesn't regard the results with confidence.

I have actually had someone say to me, "Well, I know I wasn't descended from some ape!"

That's odd. Both of my parents are apes. My grandparents were too. I wonder what his parentage was.