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Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!harpo!eagle!mhuxl!mhuxm!pyuxi!u1100a!sr
From: sr@u1100a.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.followup
Subject: Re: phs.2144: Re: Educated religious people
Message-ID: <389@u1100a.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 11-Nov-83 14:27:56 EST
Article-I.D.: u1100a.389
Posted: Fri Nov 11 14:27:56 1983
Date-Received: Sun, 13-Nov-83 07:14:30 EST
Lines: 21

I'm not sure that a discussion of an individual's
impression that educated people tend to be less religious belongs
in this group. I'm not sure that it belongs in net.religion, since
contributors to that group are likely to have strong opinions about
religion and may not be objective ( here I assume that they would all
regard themselves as intelligent ). I considered calling my sister,
who is a PhD candidate in theology at Boston College for her opinions
on the subject, but I decided that there was some charity in sparing
her  exposure to that opinion. I recalled the individuals who took
their time to deal with my ignorance when I attended Catholic high
school, and wondered if they could present any statistics to show that
they had succeeded in inculcating any knowledge in their students
( one statistic that does stick in my mind is that 100% of the 181
students in my graduating class went to college ). 
Net.flame wasn't what I wanted either, since I didn't feel anger as
much as pity. It is narrow exposure that leads to such badly informed
generalization. The intelligent, broad-minded, religious individual
may not be common in our society, but on the other hand there is
no cause and effect relationship which causes critical thinking to decline
as adherence to religion increases. The burden of proof rests with that
person who chooses to propose such a hypothesis.