God, Family, and the Green Bay Packers

[Thomas Erdos]

Jim Maule writes "I think that most people tend to be less outspoken when
they feel less competent on the subject matter. Is it possible that Americans
are far less educated  theologically than athletically?"  Absolutely.  From
time to time, Jay Leno interviews people on the street about basic knowledge
about the Bible and it is astonishing to hear some of the answers.  I
regularly play an online trivia game with people around the country.  The top
scoring people often falter on Biblically oriented questions - although they
do well on questions from other religions and religious works.

There are a few topics I view as ice-breakers - weather, local sports, and
current movies - which evoke fairly uniform participation in settings where
people don't know each other, regardless of differing socio-economic status.
 The commitment level to exposing your inner self when engaging in these
discussions is low.  These communications offer an exterior view of the
people involved.

Getting into politics and more deeply, into religion, involves a direct
commitment to exposing your inner self.  By the nature of this discussion
group, you're getting the interior view of each other.

I think both views are important to different degrees.  I've viewed the foray
into sports as a refreshing step back, helping me find out more about the
rounded aspects of the people involved here in the midst of learning about
the issues being discussed.

Tom Erdos