[extropy-chat] Atheists launch inquisition...

[Olga Bourlin]

From: "Spike" <spike66 at comcast.net>

> So I asked several of my office people today if they
> were familiar with the work.  I was terribly disappointed
> to find that few of them had even heard of Bertrand
> Russell.  Oy!  I thought *I* was the illiterate savage!

Hey, it's not just Bertrand Russell a lot of Christians have not heard of
...

A few years ago I was telling a co-worker about a poll that found more than
half of Christians in the U.S. didn't know who gave The Sermon on the Mount.
Another co-worker, upon hearing our conversation, testily retorted:  "That's
because it's in the Old Testament!"  (I could have died and gone to heaven
right then and there.)  I think I wrote about this incident here some years
ago - it's the funniest "unintended" joke that ever happened to me.

> Is Bertrand Russell really that obscure in modern
> times?  He had such an impact on my own thinking
> in my younger years.

If you're sensitive, I suggest you *never* watch "Jaywalking."  For those
familiar with this segment, do you think it's rigged for laughs?  Or would
most people have problems answering questions such as "What is a Homo sapien
(the answer given was "a ... frog?"); and "What did the Berlin Wall
separate?" (the answer given was "England from Russia.")

Olga