Re: Missionaries (was: "Mormon Asshole?" re: GAK)

["Timothy C. May" <tcmay@got.net>]

At 12:44 AM -0700 10/9/96, Dale Thorn wrote:

>Why is it that 95-plus percent of all people stay with their parents'
>religion (more-or-less) when they grow up, instead of abandoning it, or
>finding one on their own?  Simple.  The uncountable zillions of "bytes"
>of information that go into your brain before you become more-or-less
>conscious, so controls your mind by the time you are conscious, that
>very few people can overcome this programming to any significant extent.

This is of course not true. Lots of statistics show that nowhere near "95%"
of people stick with the religion they were raised in. In America, at
least. Large numbers become nonbelievers, others become Vegans, Pagans,
Buddhists, Bahaiists, Baalists, etc. This is well-documented and has been
discussed for several decades. I don't know what the current correlation
is, but I'd guess it's less than 50%.

As the old joke goes, what's the surest way to make your kid a nonbeliever?
Send him to a religious school.

Nothing to do with Cypherpunks, but complete errors like this "95%" figure
ought to be corrected, if anybody is still reading this thread.

--Tim May, Acolyte of Baal the Unmerciful






--
[This Bible excerpt awaiting review under the U.S. Communications Decency
Act of 1996]
And then Lot said, "I have some mighty fine young virgin daughters. Why
don't you boys just come on in and fuck them right here in my house - I'll
just watch!"....Later, up in the mountains, the younger daughter said:
"Dad's getting old. I say we should fuck him before he's too old to fuck."
So the two daughters got him drunk and screwed him all that night. Sure
enough, Dad got them pregnant, and had an incestuous bastard son....Onan
really hated the idea of doing his brother's wife and getting her pregnant
while his brother got all the credit, so he pulled out before he
came....Remember, it's not a good idea to have sex with your sister, your
brother, your parents, your pet dog, or the farm animals, unless of course
God tells you to. [excerpts from the Old Testament, Modern Vernacular
Translation, TCM, 1996]