Dishonesty and thoughtlessness in believers.

[stone space]

17. Well, I'm not really used to using the terms "literalist" or "modernist".

I never hear either term used here on the street in Iowa. I'm using both of those terms here only because I see others using them.

Here in Iowa we talk about fundamentalists, mainly because that's what they call themselves here, I suppose, so that's what I'm familiar with. I think they are pretty much the same folks that are being referred to as "literalists" in this thread.

We don't really have a name for "modernists" here. They're just normal people who happen to be christians.

The atheist/agnostic thingie seems to get used a little differently here in Iowa than in some places on the internet, also.

If somebody (like myself) calls himself or herself an atheist, it pretty much means that they don't believe in the existence of a god or gods. If a person is unsure, they usually call themselves an agnostic. One can quibble about where to draw the line, and how strong that belief has to be (just as one can quibble about where to draw the line between a agnostic and a Christian having doubts), but we do see a distinction, and that distinction seems to get blurred on the internet for some reason.

The result is that some folks who call themselves atheists here and other places on the internet seem somewhat wishy-washy to me. Probably because in Iowa terminology, they're really agnostics.

Oh, well...