Why do Bible Belters think the way they do?

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These are things I've actually been told by those who live in the Bible Belt:

If we came frum munkies, wy do we still hav munkies?
We didn't come from monkeys. We just have a common ancestor with them. There is also no law that says the previous species has to go extinct.

Hendooism is uh branch uh Muzlum!
No, Hinduism and Islam are completely different faiths. Read a book already.

Hevy medul iz devul's moosic!
Did you know that Tom Araya of the band Slayer is a Catholic?

Homersechuls r bulliun Chrishuns!
Not getting your way when same-sex marriage becomes legal isn't bullying.

Der's so mutch vilance aginst Chrishuns these days!
Maybe if you stopped treating LGBT people, people with other nationalities, and non-Christians so badly, maybe there wouldn't be so much backlash against you guys.

Der wuz a Boodist in da hospitul nursury!
So what?

There's more but I am tired and need to hit the sack.

You seem to have your own personal issues with Christianity to make such a gross caricature of it

Why does anybody think the way they do? It's an almost infinite of factors that come into play, every moment of our lives has led up this moment right now and has us the person we are today. Your life experience, where you come from, how you were raised, who raised you, whatever can influence everything.

I imagine most Christians think the way they do because they were brought up that way and come from a culture that thinks that way just the same as you and your beliefs. There may be

this post wins a medal for funny one

Firstly, I live in the bible belt, and for the most part, the jesus idiots can be avoided. If you ever spend time in the bible belt, you will find that while the jesus morons are definately present, decent people greatly outnumber them.

Furthermore, I've lived in areas that are considered very 'progressive', and I've found that those areas are more bigoted and intolerant than the bible belt.

You can pick out the dumbest of any group and make it sound ridiculous.

Most of these statements are Bibically true. If you don't believe in the Bible that is your right not to in America. Just like it's these people's right to.

You obviously don't know what it means to have a devoted faith. Not everyone does or wants to. That's your choice. For people who do choose that, it means you don't get to pick and choose what you think right and wrong is like a buffet line. Big pile of this, no thank you and that and that, little bit of that, and some from over there. It means adopting beliefs regardless of how popular of views they are to the rest of the public.

Just because someone condemns certain behaviors and decisions people make doesn't mean they are abusing the individuals or hate the human beings. Scripturally. People can take any good thing way too far. It's the person doing that, not the faith.

What's funny is this post would not be allowed as a caricature of any other faith or race. If I had written this about how Black people are dumb and wrote it in ebonics-style street talk, I'd be called racist. If I did it in a lispy way and talked about the pro-gay arguments are mostly all dumb, I'd be run off of the site. Same with any other group. If I started railing on transgenders, I'd be in so much trouble... Yet Christians are a far larger group. But it's ok to say whatever you want about them.

For someone so open-minded don't you find that hypocritical?

And you obviously don't know anything about my life.

I was born in the Bible Belt and was raised up to be a Christian. I was constantly told "Don't do this, don't do that" by my elders at both the church and the private school I went to. I feared that God was watching me so I better not do certain things or I would go straight to Hell and I prayed for forgiveness for even the most minor transgressions such as looking at porn. I even thought God was punishing me when I was depressed for not being stronger in my faith.

However, I started seeing that most of the so-called Christians in my life were not practicing what they preached. They would say Christianity is about love while Islam is about hate but would condemn LGBT people and non-Christians in the same breath. Despite saying love your neighbor as your brother, they would find a reason to not like you or distrust you. I had a Sunday school teacher who bitched and complained about having a Buddhist co-worker watching the babies in the hospital nursery. How was his walk of life harming anyone? It wasn't.

I can't tell you how many times I've encountered those who picked and chose what verses applied to them, even the ones who kicked up the biggest noise about being Christian. My older brother would rage about how America was supposed to be a Christian nation and blah blah blah but it wasn't against his faith to abuse substances when the body is supposed to be a temple for the Holy Spirit, have pre-marital sex despite how sex is supposed to be saved for marriage, judge others when you are supposed to not judge lest be judged yourself, and disrespect our parents despite one of the Ten Commandments ordering to honor thy father and mother. However, when he got his ex-wife pregnant, he married her because he claimed it was against his faith to have a child out of wedlock. It was ok for him to indulge in his vices all he wanted but if something inconvenienced him, he would suddenly decide he was a true believer. Even as someone who doesn't have a faith, there are lines I won't cross.

Where did I ever say no one was allowed to be a Christian? It's their funeral if they want to go down that path. What I don't tolerate is being told I'd better be good now or I will be punished forever and even as I live I should be punished. I want to find my own truth, not someone else's.

Unfortunately, they get the most attention, especially from people looking for stereotypes to hold up as examples of 'normal' Christians.

Even so, almost half of the American population sampled on the questions of the age of the universe and the correctness of evolution of species by descent and modification hold with the biblical (or scriptural) account. They think the entire cosmos is of the order of ten thousand years old and that all animal and plant species were separately created -in their present form-. To see how deeply embedded this attitude is in American culture see what Eugenie Scott has to say about creationism. She testified in the Kitzuller Trial (better known as the Dover trial) in 2005 in favor of teaching evolution in the schools without giving equal time to so-called Intelligent Design (which is a form of stealth creationism). Look up Eugenie Scott on Youtube.

So, is that why NC, TENN, and AR have passed laws prohibiting civil rights protection for LGBT folks?

And why GA and many other states are trying to pass such laws?

The religious fanatics dominate politically.

I fancy myself a Christian, and I never thought the OP was bashing all Christian believers. Rather, he was poking fun at the ignoramuses who fill up the fundie and holy roller churches, and who seem to congregate in the more backward red states. Or in other words, the kind of people who my fellow church members and I criticize in Bible study.

Agreed, and it was even worse in the past as it is today, as history has shown.

From the Salem Witch Trials, to the Thirty Year's War and the Crusades, religion has been a source of misery and death just as much as wars born out of racism or conquer have.

You can't just say crazy religious fanatics aren't a threat to you at all when even today there's Al Qaeda and ISIS to worry about.

please consider the fact that many active site members are christians and/or southerners.

attacking a religion or belief is acceptable, attacking its adherents is not. just a reminder.

Regardless of the fact that the Thirty Years War had taken place in the 17th century, my dad had passed stories along to me about the horrors of that war that the German people had endured, which had been passed along to him by his grandmother.

Yesterday I went to town for some shopping and, while eating my hot dog, saw walking along:
- orthodox christians (women with colourful skirts and blouses, trousers not allowed, long hair), lot of kids
- orthodox muslims (long dark coats and head scarfs, men with little beard), lots of kids
- hippies
- bikers
- white trash (too many tattoos)
- rich folks (to neat for a Saturday)
- metrosexuals
- hockey girls
- rastafari man with guitar
- homeless

I wondered how come people are so different
I am affraid when something happens, they're all going to fight with each other. Nightmare.

Nothing to worry about. What you described is just the mural of a pluralistic America, which is what it's supposed to be.

As a student of social science, I find our current state fascinating (and a bit scary).

I think we are in for some social turmoil, but it won't be a nightmare.

White religious people used to be the dominant group in America. They aren't anymore. This is a scary, bitter pill for these folks, and they're acting out. That's why we're having such a backlash against LGBT rights, Political Correctness, etc. I think these are death throes.

Demographics and general attitudes are running against these people. That's how a black man got elected president, twice.

American society is due for a reset. If you what to see what that might look like, study the history of the 30s and/or 60s. It could, and likely will, get messy with more rioting, etc. but we're not going to fight each other on a large scale.