Canadians revealed their ignorance of God and Scriptures in a recent poll and in doing so, also gave us a clue why our laws and courts seem adrift..Ottawa-based religious think-tank CARDUS commissioned Angus Reid to poll over 4,000 Canadians on their faith. The respondents were from the Angus Reid forum group, and included 1,948 self-identified Christians, 88 from non-theistic faiths, and 1,567 with no religious identity. For a clearer picture, 211 Muslims and 202 Jews were intentionally added to the sample..The poll found that 58% of respondents had “read or engaged with” the Bible sometime in their adult years, while 12% had read the Torah and 16% had read the Qu’ran. The fact that people are nearly five times more likely to say they read a Bible but not a Torah shows ignorance already. The fact that people are nearly five times more likely to say they read a Bible but not a Torah shows ignorance already because the Torah is the also the first five books of the Bible including Genesis. "In the beginning, God...".Canadians showed more ignorance when three-in-five (63%) respondents said the scriptures of all major religions “teach essentially the same things.” This stance held true no matter how the sample was sliced. A majority of Christians (61%), Jews (61%), and Muslims (89%) held that view. Those who had engaged with at least one sacred text in recent years (62%) and those who have not (65%) also felt the same. This commonly held myth deserves to be corrected. The theistic religions (Islam, Christianity, and Judaism) are very different from Hindu and Buddhist faiths.. Lee Harding graph .While there may be some overlap on what constitutes virtue and morality, the religions differ greatly on their interpretation of existence, how to pursue their ultimate goals, and what the destination looks like. The theistic religions believe in a God that made people in His image and grants them one life. Buddhism and Hinduism don’t conceive of a singular Supreme Being and believe people could get reincarnated as anything. These concepts alone are irreconcilably different..Christianity, Judaism, and Islam disagree on who Jesus is. Christians believe he is the Son of God and his payment for sin by his sacrifice on the cross is the only way to salvation. Most Jews don’t name Jesus as their Messiah. Islam teaches that Jesus was a prophet but not God’s Son, and that Jesus never died on the cross (the cruci-fixion, they cutely call it). Does that sound like “essentially the same things” to you?.Three-in-ten people without religious identity believe that holy texts are “harmful to our modern Canadian society” and four-in-ten believe they are “outdated and irrelevant.” However, the poll showed the religiously “engaged” were more likely to donate money to a charity, volunteer time, or help a stranger in need than those who were unengaged with faith or had no religious affiliation. If that doesn’t show a positive, contemporary relevance, what would?.Another question was, “Do you believe what is taught in the Bible/Torah/Qu’ran should help define our laws and how we live together in society?” In the general populace, 14% said very much so, 34% said as a broad guide and not specifics, and 52% said no. Even 44% of Christians said no (in contrast to 21% of Muslims and 81% of those without a religious identity)..Here is the problem. The preamble to our Constitution and Charter says, “Whereas Canada is founded upon principles that recognize the supremacy of God and the rule of law.” Our western heritage, shared values, and the framework for our law is rooted in Biblical values. Reject that foundation, and the whole house crumbles..In 1987, Brayton Polka of York University explained this nicely in an article published in the McGill Law Journal. He warned that the “atheism of modernity” could become more “profoundly religious than the faiths of past and present ages…rationalized as supporting ideologies of domination and oppression.” He warned that without both the Supremacy of God and the rule of law, “domination of one over the other in terms of differences in class, race and sex” would follow..Here we are. Courts give special leniency to Aboriginals and hiring quotas discriminate against white males..Polka concludes, “It is only when judges, not to mention lawyers, legislators, administrators and citizens, recognize that the rule of law is not relativistic but involves…God, and that…our supreme values be worked out in the lawful relationship of freedom, equality and solidarity, that the prefatory words of the Charter will support fruitful interpretation of the thirty-four sections that follow (including their inevitable conflicts and paradoxes).”.Clearly that’s not happening, and the consequences Polka warned about continue to manifest..To recap, many people are losing faith. Most who claim a faith don’t know the texts of their faith well, let alone anyone else’s. In their ignorance, they think all the faiths are the same, and the texts lack relevance for modern life. Our constitution, crippled by the loss of its foundation, is misinterpreted, and our governments and legal system morph accordingly—to our own harm..Suddenly, the senseless state of Canada makes sense.
Canadians revealed their ignorance of God and Scriptures in a recent poll and in doing so, also gave us a clue why our laws and courts seem adrift..Ottawa-based religious think-tank CARDUS commissioned Angus Reid to poll over 4,000 Canadians on their faith. The respondents were from the Angus Reid forum group, and included 1,948 self-identified Christians, 88 from non-theistic faiths, and 1,567 with no religious identity. For a clearer picture, 211 Muslims and 202 Jews were intentionally added to the sample..The poll found that 58% of respondents had “read or engaged with” the Bible sometime in their adult years, while 12% had read the Torah and 16% had read the Qu’ran. The fact that people are nearly five times more likely to say they read a Bible but not a Torah shows ignorance already. The fact that people are nearly five times more likely to say they read a Bible but not a Torah shows ignorance already because the Torah is the also the first five books of the Bible including Genesis. "In the beginning, God...".Canadians showed more ignorance when three-in-five (63%) respondents said the scriptures of all major religions “teach essentially the same things.” This stance held true no matter how the sample was sliced. A majority of Christians (61%), Jews (61%), and Muslims (89%) held that view. Those who had engaged with at least one sacred text in recent years (62%) and those who have not (65%) also felt the same. This commonly held myth deserves to be corrected. The theistic religions (Islam, Christianity, and Judaism) are very different from Hindu and Buddhist faiths.. Lee Harding graph .While there may be some overlap on what constitutes virtue and morality, the religions differ greatly on their interpretation of existence, how to pursue their ultimate goals, and what the destination looks like. The theistic religions believe in a God that made people in His image and grants them one life. Buddhism and Hinduism don’t conceive of a singular Supreme Being and believe people could get reincarnated as anything. These concepts alone are irreconcilably different..Christianity, Judaism, and Islam disagree on who Jesus is. Christians believe he is the Son of God and his payment for sin by his sacrifice on the cross is the only way to salvation. Most Jews don’t name Jesus as their Messiah. Islam teaches that Jesus was a prophet but not God’s Son, and that Jesus never died on the cross (the cruci-fixion, they cutely call it). Does that sound like “essentially the same things” to you?.Three-in-ten people without religious identity believe that holy texts are “harmful to our modern Canadian society” and four-in-ten believe they are “outdated and irrelevant.” However, the poll showed the religiously “engaged” were more likely to donate money to a charity, volunteer time, or help a stranger in need than those who were unengaged with faith or had no religious affiliation. If that doesn’t show a positive, contemporary relevance, what would?.Another question was, “Do you believe what is taught in the Bible/Torah/Qu’ran should help define our laws and how we live together in society?” In the general populace, 14% said very much so, 34% said as a broad guide and not specifics, and 52% said no. Even 44% of Christians said no (in contrast to 21% of Muslims and 81% of those without a religious identity)..Here is the problem. The preamble to our Constitution and Charter says, “Whereas Canada is founded upon principles that recognize the supremacy of God and the rule of law.” Our western heritage, shared values, and the framework for our law is rooted in Biblical values. Reject that foundation, and the whole house crumbles..In 1987, Brayton Polka of York University explained this nicely in an article published in the McGill Law Journal. He warned that the “atheism of modernity” could become more “profoundly religious than the faiths of past and present ages…rationalized as supporting ideologies of domination and oppression.” He warned that without both the Supremacy of God and the rule of law, “domination of one over the other in terms of differences in class, race and sex” would follow..Here we are. Courts give special leniency to Aboriginals and hiring quotas discriminate against white males..Polka concludes, “It is only when judges, not to mention lawyers, legislators, administrators and citizens, recognize that the rule of law is not relativistic but involves…God, and that…our supreme values be worked out in the lawful relationship of freedom, equality and solidarity, that the prefatory words of the Charter will support fruitful interpretation of the thirty-four sections that follow (including their inevitable conflicts and paradoxes).”.Clearly that’s not happening, and the consequences Polka warned about continue to manifest..To recap, many people are losing faith. Most who claim a faith don’t know the texts of their faith well, let alone anyone else’s. In their ignorance, they think all the faiths are the same, and the texts lack relevance for modern life. Our constitution, crippled by the loss of its foundation, is misinterpreted, and our governments and legal system morph accordingly—to our own harm..Suddenly, the senseless state of Canada makes sense.