"Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics"

"Why is there suffering and death? How can I achieve lasting happiness?"

i dont have an answer for this, but i thank for the words You do care.

twin of markus is thomas! : )

doctor, i had read about the hormones in animals during hammered knifed shocked, and in case these meats are intaken, it is similar to intaking the hormone into body which causes aging to leave body, decays because of breathless suffocation in the cells.

Eh, IF Opus Dei. Claiming numbers of Christians as a reason to claim conservative political influence.

'Statistics' can certainly be spun in many ways, but the fact that many traditional Catholics are cheesed off at you, only to be replaced by people who come from *other* countries you screwed-up and polarized...

Doesn't say you're doing OK by polarizing traditionally-Catholic ethnic and mainstream communites here in America.

Polls also show that most Catholics don't actually agree with the Church on the politics you push.

After a concerted effort to say, 'Believe it's good to walk into an AIDS epidemic and say 'Don't Use Condoms' or you're not a 'real Catholic,'

Is there any surprise that a number continue to say, 'Guess I'm not, off with you, then. '

I know all about the 'sheep' metaphor, but Catholics aren't dumb enough to not know when you're up to the old kingmaking tricks with the archconservatives stuff that got our nation into all this trouble.

Not to mention some other stuff that people were... Displeased how you handle, if you know what I mean.

You're polarizing. Clear enough.

"For me, however, the important thing is not the statistics. What matters to me is that Christianity provides a compelling answer to life's great questions. What is the purpose of my life? Why is there suffering and death? How can I achieve lasting happiness?"

That's one of the three reasons I don't have any interest in religious dogma. The answers provided by Christianity and every other religion I've studied to these questions are completely lame. They're circular, trivial, and mainly designed to perpetuate the religion in question. They're really non-answers dressed up with religious jargon and rhetorical tricks so that they carry a false air of mystery and depth.

The christian answers to these questions:
"What is the purpose of my life?"
To serve and glorify god through his son Jesus Christ. And don't let hunger, disease and poverty fool you. If you are in desperate need and suffering, that is when god loves you most, pray to him and glorify his name. It's not your suffering that matters, it's your unending praise of his holy name that does. Stop being so selfish.

Why is there suffering and death?
It's god's plan, we are too ignorant, too childlike to know his ways and intentions, but we must have faith that he can only do good. But we do know a little about god's mind, intent and plan. We do know that god hates condoms. The reasons for Hurricanes may baffle us, but we sure know that birth control is a mortal sin.

"How can I achieve lasting happiness? "
By serving and glorifying god through his son Jesus Christ. That is the only way. Any other happiness you may sense is not really happiness at all, it's satan at work in your heart and mind. So if you are happy, and it ISN'T because you are praising god then you are likely sinning. Stop it, right now.

Monsignor Bolin uses the "damned statistics" he chooses to spin the study results. From 1990 to 2008, the percentage of Catholics in America fell from 26.2 to 25.1 percent. The only area where Catholics gained in 2001-2008 was in Hispanics; they lost in every other ethnic group over that period.

Maybe that explains the "come back to the Catholic Church" radio ads I've heard lately.

The quote about lies and damn lies is from Disraeli, not Twain. Source: H. Huff, "How to Lie with Statistics" (Norton, 1954)

In my opinion, as an amateur in social science, the decrease in the number of people who claim to believe in religion is mainly caused by the reduced opprobrium toward atheists. People in past lied about their beliefs. I doubt the actual number of believers has decreased much.

However, severe social trauma such as wars and depressions tend to reduce belief in God, because -- as noted by the actual Twain quote above (below?) -- religion does no good when you are out of luck. So perhaps the numbers will decline if our economic troubles continue.

The decline of religion during the Great Depression was noted by F. L. Lewis ("Only Yesterday") and others. The precipitous decline caused by WWII is obvious in Europe and Japan, and needs no documentation.

"I have a religion--but you will call it blasphemy. It is that there is a God for the rich man but none for the poor.....Perhaps your religion will sustain you,will feed you--I place no dependence in mine. Our religions are alike, though, in one respect--neither can make a man happy when he is out of luck."

- Mark Twain, Letter to Orion Clemens, 10/19-20/1865