I can't remember which Great Awakening is which off the top of my head - I think the First had the origins of evangelical revival tent type preaching?

[edit - nope, Google says I'm mixing it up with the Third. First was mainly the transition from read sermons to improv.]

Just goes to show you that aggressive driving isn't the same thing as dangerous driving.

Do the figures count the number of people who've died of heart attacks or strokes in reaction to other drivers? I think Massachusetts could work its way back up the list if those numbers are folded in.

I guess the people I know are different from those you know. Most of the religious people I know would rock that survey.

I grew up in a fundy, fire-and-brimstone Southern Baptist church and family. We certainly studied the Bible (a LOT) and Baptist beliefs. We studied the history of the demonination and Protestantism in general. And, we had Sunday evening classes and one of the series was World Religions where we studied different Christian faiths as well as non-Christian faiths. Judaism was always part of our learning because...well, Christian history.

I guess the people I know are different from those you know.

The people who knows? Aren't Pew surveys done by cold-calling?

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The people who knows? Aren't Pew surveys done by cold-calling?

I'm talking about the first hand experiences people have mentioned here. Such as:

My former roommate, admittedly a bit of a flake, went to Catholic School for *years* yet refused to believe me about the Eucharist being transubstantiation.

Most of the Protestants I've ever known wouldn't have known who Martin Luther was. While I never had any such conversation with any of them, I suspect that they identified much more as a member of their particular denomination than as a Protestant. I'm certain none of them ever wondered why they were called Protestants, why they were different than Catholics, or what if anything they were protesting.

I was raised in a pretty devout Catholic house and went to a school that was nominally public, but used to be run by our church and still had nuns and religious classes, and I don't ever recall learning about the transubstantiation until I went to an Anglican university.

I didn't realize that Catholics really thought that it was body and blood until I watched Tales of the City.

I learned about transubstantiation reading about the soccer players stranded in the Andes who cannibalized their teammates to survive and used the rites of communion to make it....uh, palatable.

I learned about transubstantiation reading about the soccer players stranded in the Andes who cannibalized their teammates to survive and used the rites of communion to make it....uh, palatable.

Huh.

So eating Jesus is better than eating your dead teammates?

I imagine it's more about using "this is my body, given for you" in context -- it's literally your friend's body keeping you alive.

Oh, and I learned about:

The Protestant Reformation in college history classes.

Judaism from a series of Jewish girlfriends.

Buddhism from a class on that subject in my senior year of college.

Islam from...maybe some early cyberpunk books. Then more recent interest in the Islamic Golden Age (8th to 13th century-ish). Which I'd known a bit about from cheesy historical fiction about the crusades, most probably Frank Yerby. And a bit gleaned from the El Cid myth and the Moorish era in Spain.

Catholism - I did catechism for a few years. But obviously not enough to understand Christ's body business.

Actually Jesus Christ Superstar figures strongly in that patchwork of gospel knowledge.