BDx13
|
|
Guardian Angels Are Here, Say Most Americans
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1842179,00.ht...
More than half of all Americans believe they have been helped by a guardian angel in the course of their lives, according to a new poll by the Baylor
University Institute for Studies of Religion. In a poll of 1700 respondents, 55% answered affirmatively to the statement, "I was protected from harm
by a guardian angel." The responses defied standard class and denominational assumptions about religious belief; the majority held up regardless of
denomination, region or education — though the figure was a little lower (37%) among respondents earning more than $150,000 a year.
More Related
Iraqi Progress: The View from Baghdad
The American Exception
America’s Unfaithful Faithful
The guardian angel encounter figures were "the big shocker" in the report, says Christopher Bader, director of the Baylor survey that covered a range
of religious issues, parts of which are being released Thursday in a book titled What Americans Really Believe. In the case of angels, however, the
question is a little stronger than just belief. Says Bader, "If you ask whether people believe in guardian angels, a lot of people will say, 'sure.'
But this is different. It's experiential. It means that lots of Americans are having these lived supernatural experiences."
Sociologists may need further research to determine how broadly the data should be interpreted. The Baylor study tested other statements that might
indicate a similar belief in the supernatural intruding into everyday personal experience — "I heard the voice of God speaking to me"; and "I received
a miraculous physical healing." But far fewer people claimed to have had those experiences. This raises the possibility that guardian angels, which
famously support an industry of sentimental accessories, are just so darned attractive that they exist in a charmed belief niche of their own.
But other factors may be in play. On one end of the spectrum of American religion are the analytical churches, on both the right and the left
theologically and politically, which are primarily concerned with establishing Biblical principles to live by — and are suspicious of any modern-day
irruption of the supernatural into religious life. Their miracles all took place in the Bible. At the opposite end of the spectrum are the more
experiential churches, like many African-American denominations and those in the Pentecostal movement, that lay heavy emphasis on the workings of the
Holy Spirit, where the supernatural, through gifts like healing, prophesying and speaking in tongues, makes regular visits in the pews. In the middle
are sacramental faiths like Roman Catholicism, where the supernatural has a regular place on the altar (after all, the Eucharist is said to be the
literal body and blood of Christ) but one that occurs only within the restrictions of very specific ritual.
What's interesting about the Baylor findings on guardian angel experiences is that they cross all boundaries. They have scriptural writ (in Psalm 91
and elsewhere). They are clearly experiential. And guardian angels are a prominent part of Catholic belief that happens to float freely outside of a
sacrament. The cross-spectrum legitimacy of the notion of angelic interventions may free Americans to engage in the kind of folk faith that is part of
almost any religious system but is not always officially acknowledged.
Randall Balmer, chairman of the religion department at New York's Barnard College, says that the Baylor angel figures are one in a periodic series of
indications that "Americans live in an enchanted world," and engage in a kind of casual mysticism independent of established religious ritual,
doctrine or theology. "There is," he says, a "much broader uncharted range of religious experience among the populace than we expect." Just possibly,
Baylor has begun to chart it.
If I fail math, there goes my chance at a good job and a happy life full of hard work.
|
|
|
BKT
Posting Freak
Posts: 2476
Registered: 7-6-2004
Location: Canada
Member Is Offline
|
|
This makes about as much sense as believing in Santa Clause.
MM.
|
|
|
SS76
Posting Freak
Posts: 1586
Registered: 5-6-2008
Location: CT
Member Is Offline
Mood: RAMALLAH
|
|
or god.
Silence is golden but violence is platinum. |
|
|
xChino_Martinezx
Member
Posts: 232
Registered: 3-6-2006
Location: Panama, Panama
Member Is Offline
Mood: not waving, drowning
|
|
| Quote: | Originally posted by metal mulisha
This makes about as much sense as believing in Santa Clause.
MM. |
Santa is not real???
everything I've believed in is going down in flames
|
|
|
MarkV
Senior Member
Posts: 728
Registered: 9-16-2008
Member Is Offline
|
|
Someone stole my wallet once and they chased the dude and got it back. Love those red satin jackets.
|
|
|
JawnDiablo
Posting Freak
Posts: 12139
Registered: 4-21-2005
Location: 1902666
Member Is Offline
|
|
|
|
|
Mark Lind
Posting Freak
Posts: 1900
Registered: 9-18-2004
Member Is Offline
|
|
I'd like to take a giant shit on the people that believe in this stuff but it would be my luck that I'd be hit by a car on the way home for it.
|
|
|
BKT
Posting Freak
Posts: 2476
Registered: 7-6-2004
Location: Canada
Member Is Offline
|
|
| Quote: | Originally posted by juandiablo
|
hahaha these faggots came to Toronto for a minute. Fucking clowns need to mind their own biz.
MM.
|
|
|
DAK
Posting Freak
Posts: 3507
Registered: 5-13-2004
Member Is Offline
|
|
| Quote: | Originally posted by metal mulisha
This makes about as much sense as believing in Santa Clause.
MM. |
Are you saying there is no Santa Claus?????
|
|
|
BKT
Posting Freak
Posts: 2476
Registered: 7-6-2004
Location: Canada
Member Is Offline
|
|
| Quote: | Originally posted by DAK
| Quote: | Originally posted by metal mulisha
This makes about as much sense as believing in Santa Clause.
MM. |
Are you saying there is no Santa Claus????? |
hahaha no no no you never heard that from me.
MM.
|
|
|
clevohardcore
* Kick\'n ass on the wild side *
Posts: 12937
Registered: 9-19-2004
Member Is Offline
Mood: Sick Of It All, Youth Of Today
|
|
This topic always comes out around election time. It did in 1996, 2000, 2004 and now. Its like the media busts this out every election for some weird
reason. I have bring this up in my SOCIAL CONTROL class next week.
Each aspect of the soul has it's own part to play, but the ideal is harmonious agreement with reason and control.
|
|
|
DaveMoral
Posting Freak
Posts: 4334
Registered: 1-24-2006
Location: Ardmore PA
Member Is Offline
|
|
Just a thought... but is all there is to life/existence that which can be seen with the naked eye or percieved with scientific tools such as
microscopes and the like? Is all there is to existence materiality?
People have believed in unseen worlds and beings since man had the capacity to form a coherent thought and this has only been marginally supplanted in
the last 100 years by a materialistic view of existence. The way people who deny the existence of unseen worlds and beings think is merely a drop in
the ocean of human thought, one so insignificant that it will likely NEVER take permanent hold.
I believe in angels, jinn and unseen worlds. Can't really say why, it's not necessarily rational in the sense that I've had concrete experience of
such things or tangible evidence... it just seems irrational to completely discount and disbelieve in, and even ridicule, ideas that have neither
proof for OR against them. You can no more prove that angels do not exist than I can prove that they do. Just as you can no more prove the
non-existence of God than I can prove it.
I'm just not clear on why the belief in something YOU can't see means that people should be ridiculed and considered foolish. When there's really no
reason you should've come away from something unscathed, it kinda makes you think there might be something or someone watching out for you.
|
|
|
Barnesey
Member
Posts: 286
Registered: 3-30-2005
Location: San Diego
Member Is Offline
|
|
| Quote: | Originally posted by DaveMoral
Just a thought... but is all there is to life/existence that which can be seen with the naked eye or percieved with scientific tools such as
microscopes and the like? Is all there is to existence materiality?
People have believed in unseen worlds and beings since man had the capacity to form a coherent thought and this has only been marginally supplanted in
the last 100 years by a materialistic view of existence. The way people who deny the existence of unseen worlds and beings think is merely a drop in
the ocean of human thought, one so insignificant that it will likely NEVER take permanent hold.
I believe in angels, jinn and unseen worlds. Can't really say why, it's not necessarily rational in the sense that I've had concrete experience of
such things or tangible evidence... it just seems irrational to completely discount and disbelieve in, and even ridicule, ideas that have neither
proof for OR against them. You can no more prove that angels do not exist than I can prove that they do. Just as you can no more prove the
non-existence of God than I can prove it.
I'm just not clear on why the belief in something YOU can't see means that people should be ridiculed and considered foolish. When there's really no
reason you should've come away from something unscathed, it kinda makes you think there might be something or someone watching out for you.
|
Well, you might as well believe in Unicorns, Centaurs, etc. I'm sorry but I usually do believe in things that are proven, but that's just me. Feel
free to believe in what you want but I'm a little too old for imaginary friends.
Live Fast Die Young
Push It To The Limit \'Til The Coffin Calls
|
|
|
newbreedbrian
Posting Freak
Posts: 2616
Registered: 9-2-2004
Location: Hell
Member Is Offline
Mood: doc watson
|
|
angels...
The very existence of flamethrowers proves that sometime, somewhere, someone said to themselves, ?You know, I want to set those people over there on
fire, but I?m just not close enough to get the job done.? George Carlin
|
|
|
DaveMoral
Posting Freak
Posts: 4334
Registered: 1-24-2006
Location: Ardmore PA
Member Is Offline
|
|
| Quote: | Originally posted by Barnesey
| Quote: | Originally posted by DaveMoral
Just a thought... but is all there is to life/existence that which can be seen with the naked eye or percieved with scientific tools such as
microscopes and the like? Is all there is to existence materiality?
People have believed in unseen worlds and beings since man had the capacity to form a coherent thought and this has only been marginally supplanted in
the last 100 years by a materialistic view of existence. The way people who deny the existence of unseen worlds and beings think is merely a drop in
the ocean of human thought, one so insignificant that it will likely NEVER take permanent hold.
I believe in angels, jinn and unseen worlds. Can't really say why, it's not necessarily rational in the sense that I've had concrete experience of
such things or tangible evidence... it just seems irrational to completely discount and disbelieve in, and even ridicule, ideas that have neither
proof for OR against them. You can no more prove that angels do not exist than I can prove that they do. Just as you can no more prove the
non-existence of God than I can prove it.
I'm just not clear on why the belief in something YOU can't see means that people should be ridiculed and considered foolish. When there's really no
reason you should've come away from something unscathed, it kinda makes you think there might be something or someone watching out for you.
|
Well, you might as well believe in Unicorns, Centaurs, etc. I'm sorry but I usually do believe in things that are proven, but that's just me. Feel
free to believe in what you want but I'm a little too old for imaginary friends. |
See, the problem I have will your whole perspective is how just how fucking arrogant it is. I'm not telling you what to believe, and yet you're
telling me I'm an idiot or childish for believing in what is very real to me. What is more real than the world we live in. And the irony is, top level
science has gotten to the point that many of their theories sound more like the mystics of the past than it does the "concrete" sciences of the
present. When you get into the very foundations of existence the differences between science and mysticism/metaphysics just start to disappear.
Both are pursuing the Reality behind everything. Long as you believe only in what has been "proven" you're going to be missing out on what is actually
cutting edge science. Dark matter, dark energy, other dimensions, string theory... everything.
Poopooing religious believe... 
|
|
|
![[*]](images/thorp/default_icon.gif){kind=icon}
