Suggested Answers to the Second Short Quiz

[johnkarls]

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Suggested Answers To The Second Short Quiz – “Christian” America and Its Permanent 30% Under-Caste


Question 1

Have college courses in “comparative religion” traditionally focused on the FIVE so-called “great religions” of the world?

Answer 1

Yes.

Question 2

Were those FIVE religions called “great” because each had more than 1 billion followers?

Answer 2

Only FOUR religions were called “great” because each of them had more than 1 billion followers.

Please read on Q&A-3 re the FIFTH.

Question 3

Was Judaism (the only one of the FIVE that did not have 1 billion followers) always included because two of the others (Christianity and Islam) are based on it?

Answer 3

Yes.

Question 4

For example, is “Allah” simply the Arabic word for the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob?

Answer 4

Yes.

Question 5

Were the other two also “joined at the hip”?

Answer 5

Yes.

Question 6

For example, did the first Buddha die still thinking he was a Hindu monk?

Answer 6

Yes.

Question 7

BTW, has Buddhism fallen from the ranks of the FOUR religions that have more than a billion followers?

Answer 7

Yes.

The CIA’s World Factbook (www.cia.gov > World Factbook > World > People and Society) reports that of the world’s population of 7,684,292,383, the most prevalent religions are Christian 31.4%, Muslim 23.2%, Hindu 15%, and Buddhist 7.1%. [Judaism is 0.2%.]

Doing the math, that’s Christian 2.41 billion, Muslim 1.78 billion, Hindu 1.15 billion and Buddhist 0.55 billion. [Judaism is 15.4 million.]

Question 8

Was this the result of the success of The People’s Republic of China in stamping out religion?

Answer 8

The CIA’s World Factbook (www.cia.gov > World Factbook > China > People and Society) reports that today only 18.2% of China’s population of 1,394,015,977 is Buddhist – with Christianity in second place with 5.1% and the majority “unaffiliated.”

Since the majority that is listed by the CIA as “unaffiliated” used to be virtually all Buddhist, simple math indicates 50% * 1.39 billion = 0.70 billion.

Which, when added to the world’s current Buddhist population of 0.55 billion (please see Q&A-7), would make 1.25 billion.

Question 9

Does every one of the world’s so-called FIVE “great religions” feature a version of “The Golden Rule” (do unto others as you would have them do unto you)?

Answer 9

Yes.

Question 10

For example, does Hinduism believe in reincarnation up and down the animal chain (and within the hierarchy of castes for the human species) based on how well the spirit has treated its fellow inhabitants of the earth in its most recent incarnation?

Answer 10

Yes.

Question 11

Does Judaism feature 613 Commandments?

Answer 11

Yes.

Question 12

Is one of them to “Love Your Neighbor As Yourself”?

Answer 12

Yes. Leviticus 19:18.

Question 13

Did Christ say that to “inherit eternal life” there are TWO Commandments – To Love God and To Love Your Neighbor As Yourself – immediately following which is the Story of the Good Samaritan to drive home that EVERY human being is your “neighbor”?

Answer 13

Yes. Luke 10:25-37.

Question 14

BTW, is this the reason why so many religious orders down through the centuries have required a “vow of poverty” – because you can NOT truly love your “neighbors” as yourself until, inter alia, you have shared with them your wealth so that you are as poor as the poorest Bangladeshi (no offense intended toward Bangladesh or its inhabitants)?

Answer 14

So it would appear.

Question 15

Did Christ ON A DIFFERENT OCCASION answer the question of which of the 613 Jewish Commandments were the most important by saying that “the greatest” was “Loving God” and the “second greatest” was “Loving Your Neighbor As Yourself” (WITHOUT mentioning a “third greatest)?

Answer 15

Yes. Matthew 22:35-40.

Question 16

On YET ANOTHER OCCASION commonly known as The Story of the Rich Young Ruler even though there is no evidence that he was either young or a ruler, did Christ “call the bluff” of the Rich Young Ruler who wanted Christ’s assurance that he would “inherit eternal life” because the Rich Young Ruler was claiming that he had kept all 613 Jewish Commandments “from his childhood up” -- by saying “then sell all your worldly assets and give the proceeds to the poor”???!!!

Answer 16

Yes. Mark 10:17-27.

BTW, when the Rich Young Ruler has departed “grieved for he had great possessions,” Christ makes the famous statement to his disciples “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.” Mark 10:25.

The casual reader might be pardoned for thinking that Christ was saying it is IMPOSSIBLE for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God – because the eye of a SEWING needle is impossibly small when contrasted with the size of even a baby camel.

HOWEVER, many a sermon has been based on what “the eye of a needle” meant in common parlance in that time in that culture.

Fortified cities in Israel at that time had one or more regular gates to keep out the enemy.

And at least one of the regular gates, and perhaps as many as all of them, had a narrow, low gate next to the regular gate.

Its purpose???

Your own people might be out in the fields tending their flocks or crops when the enemy suddenly appears.

And your own people run for their lives to the fortified city.

With the enemy in hot pursuit, perhaps even overtaking some or all of them.

As soon as the first of the enemy approaches the regular gate, it is slammed shut.

But the narrow, low gate is left open.

As people come through the narrow, low gate, they are forced because of the gate’s small size to enter one-by-one. And there were armed Israelites crowding around the inside of the narrow, low gate to welcome each entrant who was an Israelite and butcher on the spot any enemy soldier who appeared.

The name of these narrow, low gates???

The eye of a needle!!!

And their relationship to camels???

The most formidable enemy force would be one riding camels – similar to horse-mounted cavalry of that day in non-desert cultures.

When arriving at “the eye of a needle,” a camel-mounted enemy soldier would have to dismount and, for the camel to accompany its master, it would have to get down on its knees after the dismount and try to scramble through “the eye of a needle” on its knees.

The conclusion of such sermons???

You need only be WILLING to give up all your worldly possessions AND THEN YOU DON’T HAVE TO!!!

When Yours Truly sat through such sermons as a boy, he could feel the palpable excitement in the congregation over a sermon that seemed to be saying “You do NOT have to ‘Love Your Neighbor As Yourself’ after all”!!!

Question 17

Does the CIA’s World Factbook (www.cia.gov > World Factbook > United States > People and Society) say that 46.5% of the 332,639,102 estimated population of the U.S. is Protestant and 20.8% is Roman Catholic – for a total of 67.3% “Christian”?

Answer 17

Yes, it does list 46.5% of the U.S. population as Protestant and 20.8% Roman Catholic.

However, the CIA goes on to list Mormon as 1.6% and “Other Christian” as 0.9% -- for a total of 69.8% “Christian.”

[For the curious, the CIA’s Worldwide Statistics (discussed in Q&A-7) do NOT list Mormonism. However, https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.or ... statistics lists worldwide Mormon membership at 16,565,036, which would be 2 tenths of 1% of the world population (per the CIA) of 7,684,292,383.]

Question 18

Is the U.S. being 70% "Christian" the reason why The U.S. Supreme Court, as the nation’s highest but unelected legislative body, has NEVER DARED to remove “In God We Trust” from American currency? Or was the U.S. Supreme Court’s reason that when the U.S. went off “The Gold Standard” in 1933, there was nothing else to support U.S. currency?

Answer 18

What do you think??? Let’s discuss!!!

Question 19

Did the First Short Quiz review the sad facts of, and surrounding, America’s Permanent 30% Under-Caste that has existed for more than half a century?

Answer 19

Yes.

Question 20

So how is it that in a predominantly “Christian” society that knows that to “inherit eternal life” its members are required to (1) Love God, AND (2) Love Their Neighbors As Themselves – America has had for more than half a century a Permanent 30% Under-Caste???

Answer 20

What do you think??? Let’s discuss!!!