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<blockquote data-quote="Jeff Babcock" data-source="post: 66100" data-attributes="member: 46">Re: You&#039;re welcome.Having done some academic work in this area many years ago, one thing I found particularly interesting is how people can come to some pretty strong opinions about religious issues without having done a great deal of &quot;real&quot; investigation into the issues at hand.&nbsp; A large part of the population base their opinions on a collection of random news stories, conversations, a few people they know, etc, etc... just a collection of random stuff.&nbsp; Of course this is true on issues outside of religion as well.When you actually look at religious texts like the Bible and see what is said, you quickly discover that many of the greatest concerns and opposition is in reaction to things that the original text does not say or promote at all (for example, it is pretty clear about not killing people).&nbsp; In fact, what it shows is how lousy of a job most people do of accurately representing that which they believe in.&nbsp; As the public tend to base their opinion more on the actions of these people rather than the goals of the original texts, it is easy to come to a very low opinion of a particular religious group depending on who happens to be in your sphere of contact and their observed behavior.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Jeff Babcock, post: 66100, member: 46"] Re: You're welcome. Having done some academic work in this area many years ago, one thing I found particularly interesting is how people can come to some pretty strong opinions about religious issues without having done a great deal of "real" investigation into the issues at hand. A large part of the population base their opinions on a collection of random news stories, conversations, a few people they know, etc, etc... just a collection of random stuff. Of course this is true on issues outside of religion as well. When you actually look at religious texts like the Bible and see what is said, you quickly discover that many of the greatest concerns and opposition is in reaction to things that the original text does not say or promote at all (for example, it is pretty clear about not killing people). In fact, what it shows is how lousy of a job most people do of accurately representing that which they believe in. As the public tend to base their opinion more on the actions of these people rather than the goals of the original texts, it is easy to come to a very low opinion of a particular religious group depending on who happens to be in your sphere of contact and their observed behavior. [/QUOTE]

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