The statements in this article don’t surprise me much, to be honest; Preachers are little more than magicians, they create an illusion which many people will fall for—the difference being that most of them will not admit publicly that it is just that: an illusion. End the hypocracy now, please.

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I read somewhere—by an authority who would know, probably Bart Ehrman or Dan Barker—that during their studies at seminary a significant percentage of students there reach the conclusion that there’s no way that what they’ve been taught to believe, and are preparing to teach others to believe, could possibly be true. It’s plausible, given the correlation between increased factual knowledge about the Christian faith and its history, and disbelief (or its corollary, the correlation between ignorance and belief). It’s incredibly disappointing that so many of these disillusioned seminarians go ahead, complete their studies, and become ostensibly believing ministers anyway. This is the height of demagoguery. There’s no telling how many of them are out there, or what actual percentage of the total they comprise.

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The most telling bit was on page 23:

“Whatever their initial response to these unsettling revelations, the cat was out of the bag and both liberals and literals discerned the need to conceal their knowledge about the history of Christianity from their congregations.”

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Sharing this information is vital.  Thanks to both the architects of this study and to Project Reason for posting it.

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It’s funny, but I got the sense from reading Emerson back in high school that he was disillusioned, post-seminary.  In fact, he’s what started me on a path to agnosticism (I think… it’s been over 20 yrs now)

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most people that clam to be chirstians dont really belive it themselfs, they go to church read there bible but if what in was really i mean for real lived out it would be a wonderful world. but they go to church on sunday act like hell on monday i dont know who they think there fooling i think we like the idea theres someone who loves and takes care of us who can give us every thing we need even when we are dying i would love to meet people who really live out what they clam to belive the real GOD in church these days is MONEY.

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