How Much of the Bible Have Churchgoers Read?

[zipplewrath]

12. Sorta

AS I've said before, tons of people "study" Newton without reading the original works. Hawking used to joke that thousands of students had his major published thesis on their shelves, but never really read, much less understood it. Darwin, Einstein, Laplace, and more are rarely actually studied in the "first person". Pick the yoga instructor at random and ask them the fundamental or original works of which they have read. I took a whole course in school about the bible. We read alot of it, but we read even more ABOUT it than we did the actual text.

One has to understand the nature of faith in order to understand this phenomenon. Is it really that surprising that people rely upon those more studied and talented in the topic to educate and lead them than the authors of the fundamental texts? You probably studied Euclidean geometry. Did you ever read his works, or did you rely upon the more studied and learned to guided you through the ideas? Yes, there are folks that study something and ultimately work their way BACK to the fundamental texts, but not everyone. Most folks in this forum have little understanding of faith, much less have read the fundamental texts of western Christianity. It doesn't stop them from opining at length however. Is that any different?