In Pharyngula’s ongoing campaign of world-wide internet poll domination, how could I resist an opportunity to crash a poll in Romania? Scroll down a bit and look on the left side of the page to find this one.
Crezi in Dumnezeu? (Do you believe in God?)
da, el ma calauzeste! (Yes, he is guiding me!)
52.1%
da, dar in felul meu (Yes, in my own way)
34.1%
nu exista (Doesn’t exist)
9.3%
nu, dar o forta superioara exista (No, but a higher force exists)
2.9%
nu, cred in altceva (No, I believe in another thing)
1.6%
9.3% isn’t bad, but perhaps that number will shift a little bit.
I’m also pleased to have learned my first few words in Romanian, and am now prepared to travel there and have a 5 second conversation about atheism.
I was shocked it hadn’t shifted much, but then I saw that this is a new post and feel better that the numbers will shift more in a few hours.
Man, Romanian is weird. For someone familiar with French and Spanish, Romanian seems like Portuguese crossed with Martian.
Keep in mind that Romania is the only European country where evolution was removed from the science curriculum.
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=pharyngulate&r=f
you know what to do
30% nu exista now!
I was sure at one point that Dutch was English spoken backwards.
Then there was this one time I was a little under the influence of an inhaled substance and overheard my friend’s flatmate talking on the ‘phone in Finnish; I thought I’d gotten so wasted I’d lost the ability to understand speech…
My familiarity is primarily with Latin and Spanish. Romanian is surprisingly easy to follow if you ignore the endings.
It’d be well worth it just for those 5 seconds too.
Over 30% when I voted. I guess we showed them!
Great picture on the lower right……….
Now > 42% nu exista. I suspect we’re dealing with very low respondent numbers here (~ 525 at this time). Still, “doesn’t exist” is leading handily.
I tried to leave a comment, but I couldn’t understand the error message I got when my first attempt didn’t work. Checked everything and tried again, but no go.
did my pharyguloid duty and voted accordingly. more than 45 % now.
PZ, will you please publish the reply you get from them, once they fould out it was you who crashed the poll?
<obligatory>
Vrei sa pleci dar, nu ma nu ma iei,
Nu ma nu ma iei, nu ma nu ma nu ma iei,
Chipul tau si dragostea din tei,
Mi-amintesc de ochii tai.
</obligatory>
I can barely understand my native English sometimes, so a Romanian web site is just bizarre. ;)
That was quick!
57.3% when I voted!
haha
Over 60% “nu” now.
Pharyngula Power Rules!!!
(Except now we all will be getting Romanian spam mails ….)
;-)
I like, “No, I believe in another thing.” It reads like an admission that belief in god makes it impossible to believe in anything else.
“Sorry son, you have to choose. You can either believe in god, or you can believe in reality. You can’t have it both ways.”
“Dumnezeu” is a great name for a deity.
“Doesn’t Exist” is up to 68.5%
We did good!
Nu exista, nu exista…perhaps?
I am romanian. Imagine my surprise when I opened pharyngula today and I was reading romanian. I thought I didn’t wake up enough or somebody was messing up with my computer.
I like to say about romanian that it is a sort of italian spoken with an eastern accent. We are surprisingly capable of understanding italian without ever learning it. For us, the french language is the weird one in the family of latin languages.
When I was in school, in Romania, there was no controversy about evolution. We learned biology without any reference to any god or creationism and only the very old people would be reticent about evolution. I learned what creationism is only when I arrived to US.
Another poll to crash
This is going to be culturally insensitive, but: does written romanian look like lolcat italian to anyone else? (Yes, I know the languages are related).
The poll mentioned by Rob in #25 is going to take a lot longer to shift. . .
What makes me snigger is that crezi in dumnezeu has “crazy” amd “dumn” in it.
And what on earth are the Romanian newspaper going to make of us pharyngulating their poll?
Does that 5 second conversation sound like this?
You: Crezi in Dumnezeu?
Them: da, el ma calauzeste!
You: nu! nu exista!
…
That would be about the longest conversation I could have…
74% for nu exista!!
Congrats pharyngulites, we have just made Romania the new leader among the enlightened! Forget about Iceland, Norway and those losers!
The whole phrase translated by my built in anglobablefish sounds like ‘crazy in dumbass’?
Sounds like a FINE langauge to me, tells it like it is.
I’d update the results, but I don’t understand Romanian numbers :)
You might want to warn folk that this news site is not necessarily safe for work or children. Apparently they like boobies there too and find them news worthy.
Anyone find it funny that the poll about god was right above the link to your daily horoscope? “Mine” beings, “STOP MINCIUNII!”
Well done!
(doesn’t exist) nu exista 75.8%
(Yes, he is guiding me!) da, el ma calauzeste! 11.9%
(Yes, in my own way) da, dar in felul meu 7.4%
(No, but a higher force exists) nu, dar o forta superioara exista 4.5%
(No, I believe in another thing) nu, cred in altceva 0.4%
Fortunately, there is some NSFW pictures/articles in there to keep the blood flowing.
76.6%. Nice shot. :D
PZ, I would love to see a poll-crash competition between you and Steven Colbert. I think it would be epic.
The AOL news poll linked to by Gruesome Rob @ #25:
10 minutes ago, “no” was 25%
Do you believe the shroud of Turin is the burial cloth of Jesus Christ?
Yes 61%
No 39%
Total Votes: 260,473
Ah, that didn’t take long at all!
nu exista 77.1%
bună dimineaţa Domnul PZ!
I got distracted by the side articles and almost forgot to vote…
I wish I could read the comments at the bottom of the page. I might have to fire up Google Translator or Babelfish when I’m not at work…
It’s up to 78.2% now.
78.3% nu exista
Yes, we need a Romanian to pick the best comments and translate for us!
#33 & 35 –
You made me go back and try to read Romanian! – And still didn’t find the NSfW stuff!
But the poll is now 78.3% Nu exista. And if looks like it’s possible to vote multiple times.
i’m a romanian. and i’m ashamed to admit that my country is a nationalist, fundamentalist, theocratic republic with no respect for reason and science. the religious and superstitious thinking are so deep that romanians can be compared with the talibans (except they don’t plant bombs). even the university students ask for the service of priests and fortune tellers to “enhance” their learning abilities. the atheist percentage in romania is less than 1% and over 90% of school students think the world is 6000 years old and man originates from adam and eve. religion is mandatory in schools up until the 12th grade unless the parents formally request that the child should not attend, evolution is not taught in biology classes and astrology is officially recognized as science. i look forward to the day when the romanian people will grow up and give up the puerile, irrational beliefs that have plagued mankind for millennia.
I thought that it was saying something about “crazy” and “dumn” for a moment.
Not to distract from the matter at hand, but the headlines on that site indicate that Moldova is having a revolution…
@#47 Paul
“Not to distract from the matter at hand, but the headlines on that site indicate that Moldova is having a revolution…”
What, does a crowd attacking a parliament building constitute a revolution?
Now the Pharyngulization is at 79,1%. It’s time to stop by now. Nobody will believe Romania has an atheist prevalence like that.
They found a use for Twitter.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/moldova/5119449/Students-use-Twitter-to-storm-presidency-in-Moldova.html
i find it hilarious that in romanian “Dumnezeu” (=God) is a corruption of Dominus Deus, an attribute of Jupiter.
now 80%
80.1% nu exista
Hey PZ! How do you find these polls? For a moment I thought your blog was hijacked or something. Or that you really, really started to learn Romanian (and I was about to congratulate on your impressive level you achieved overnight — me, being a Romanian myself).
Anyway, I did my duty and voted on that site. Not that it matters now: it’s 78.9% for “nu exista” :-) (note that most Romanians are deeply religious, and proud of that; glad that I left the building meanwhile.)
And yes, evolution was removed from the science curriculum, although I *think* this has been corrected now (not 100% sure of that).
Oh, and you don’t have to travel that far to meet Romanians. You just have to come to Toronto, and I’d gladly offer you a beer or two, if that’s your poison. And you’ll learn some more words in the process — other than the swear words, although I can go this way :-)
Didac @49: Nobody will believe Romania has an atheist prevalence like that.
Actually that is not the point of Pharyngulating the poll. The point is more that we can prevent the religionists from engaging in circle-jerk feel-good polls that they expect to show everyone how they’re right and we’re wrong.
80.3%
I wonder if I’m going to see hysterical articles soon about the atheist takeover of Romania?
That’s an unpleasant picture of your country keops. Gosh. There must be some good parts about it, surely? Incidentally the BBC just produced a good programme on Romania and the fall of communism, “The Secret History of communism”, which said, amongst other horrible details, that contraception and abortion were illegal and could lead to jail, and that schoolgirls and factory workers were pregnancy tested to make sure they gave birth. Kind of catholic heaven, yes? Of course this came from Mr and Mrs Ceausescu personally, but you just don’t lose influences like that overnight!
Vermont legalized Gay Marriage. Saw the link on the AOL Poll page.
http://news.aol.com/article/vermont-legalizes-gay-marriage-with-veto/417672?cid=12
“And yes, evolution was removed from the science curriculum, although I *think* this has been corrected now (not 100% sure of that).”
hmm. not really. let’s not perpetuate a media headline. even if romania is religious country compared to other european states (mainly because – especially older people – *fear* to publicly announce their beliefs and a phone or street interview from a pollster is regarded with much reservation), evolution was never removed from curriculum. only a specific course from the 4th year in secondary school which was dealing with mathematical foundations of evolution was removed (not that i agree with that, but you seem to perpetuate a wrong story). the whole biology is teached in the context of evolution and no mention of creationist claims is done (outside religion classes)..
keeping to the subject, we want more links like this one. pharyngulating stupid online polls about religion is fun.
“i’m a romanian […] my country is a […] theocratic republic […] romanians can be compared with the talibans […] even the university students ask for the service of priests […] 90% of school students think the world is 6000 years”
damn. it must be another country. are you sure that your neighbourhood is not having a small cardinality?
“nu exista” is now 81%, with 2412 total votes. Your tentacles are long PZ! ;-)
@ix: Ok, I’ll correct myself – *parts* of the evolution theory were removed from… (I do know some good guys fighting for making things right from this point of view; Remus Cernea is one of them).
That being said, you’re right, religion in Romania is a mix of old and young people blindly believing in sky gods (usually in the countryside, but you find enough men and women like this in the big cities), people who only pretend to believe, people who really want to believe (kind of belief in belief), and everything in between. Superstition is also another problem for parts of the population.
Atheism is probably a small minority in Romania (disclaimer: this is only my impression, I don’t have full statistics at hand).
I declare thisa baby FREEPED!
Crezi in Dumnezeu?
[07-04-2009]
* nu exista * 81.6%
* da, el ma calauzeste! * 7.9%
* da, dar in felul meu * 5.1%
* nu, dar o forta superioara exista * 4.8%
* nu, cred in altceva * 0.7%
Currently at:
nu exista 81.8%
da, el ma calauzeste! 7.8%
da, dar in felul meu 5%
nu, dar o forta superioara exista 4.7%
nu, cred in altceva 0.7%
Another Romanian chiming in here (and PZ: I got my PhD at the U of M, though in Twin Cities–still! Sorry I didn’t have a chance to meet you there!)–and I agree with ix: the whole removal of evolution from the biology curriculum story has been grossly exaggerated, and I don’t believe anything like “creationism” (of which I only learned when I moved here, about 10 years ago) is taught in schools. That being said, Romanians don’t seem to see a contradiction between science and religion, about 99.99% of them would say that one has nothing to do with the other, and as a whole they are a deeply superstitious and religious nation. Look at me, even after I’ve realized I’ve always been an atheist and could stop pretending I cared about religion (much to my mom’s chagrin!)–I still have to check myself not to do little rituals like crossing myself when I leave the house in the morning. It’s so deeply ingrained in us, it’s basically second nature! It took a while, but I think I’ve (mostly) retrained myself to be reasonable again.
Want to see a hot Romanian atheist:
I’m eventually going to feature her on my blog.
Yes, I am a Romanian, just like Cris #24, only I don’t live in the US. I live in Cluj-Napoca, Transylvania but I was born in Piatra-Neamt (Moldova; not the Republic, the Romanian region) so I have a pretty good idea as to how my fellow countrymen think.
@keops #45
you fake sob. this guy is most certainly not romanian. Ours is a weird country. In school we have both science and religion in the curricula and amazingly almost never clash. Indeed most elderly people (50+) are very religious, but not fundamentalist and even if they don’t realise it most people my age (20-30) are agnostic.
@ix #51
Dumnezeu actually comes from “”Domnul” & “Zeu” which mean Lord and God. It’s basically like saying the Lord of Gods.
@AnthonyK #57
Considering that the Revolution of ’89 happened…20 years ago (I was 5 when it happened) I can tell you from personal experience that people my age which are basically starting to run things around here, not those old “ex” communist bastards, have no feel of the pressures of the communist years. So you do lose that kind of influence. Romania has been changing every year since ’89 taking more and more of western culture and it hasn’t stopped and I don’t think it is going to stop soon.
I see no one has translated any of the comments so I’m going to do my pharyngulated duty.
de catre: Claudiu | postat la 07 Aprilie 2009
ceea ce nu explica omul, pune pe seama unui zeu, oamenii sunt prea slabi pentru a crede in ei, le e mai usor sa creada in omuletii din nori care vegheaza asupra lor, desi nu fac nimic. oamenii au nevoie sa creada in ceva, daca nu se numea dumnezeu se numea pisica sau lemn, dar in ceva trebuie sa creada. “lemnul ne vegheaza”. Omul se naste ateu, dar este indoctrinat de mic cu religia. Daca s-ar naste pe o insula pustie nici nu ar simti “nevoia” de a crede in vrun zeu.
by: Claudiu | posted on 07 April 2009
that which man cannot explain he attributes to a god, people are to weak to believe in themselves, it’s easier for them to believe in the little men in the clouds that watch above them, even though they (little men in the clouds) are not doing anything.
people have a need to believe in something, if it wouldn’t have been called god it would’ve been called cat or wood, but they need to believe in something nevertheless. “the wood is watching us”. Man is born an atheist, but he is indoctrinated with religion ever since he’s an infant. If (a) man were born on a deserted island he would not feel the “need” to believe in a god.
How long do you think it typically takes a pollcrash victim to figure out who did it?
nu, cred in altceva. ia ia cthulhu f’thagn!
I’m presuming that this post will now become the top google hit for that particular collection of words.
Somebody remind me to check it in a few weeks.
Enjoy.
Bwahahahahaa!
# nu exista – 82.4%
# da, el ma calauzeste! – 7.4%
# da, dar in felul meu – 4.8%
# nu, dar o forta superioara exista – 4.7%
# nu, cred in altceva – 0.7%
The Tim Channel wrote:
Hmmm… Let’s do it this way:
HOT ROMANIAN ATHEIST
So that’s what Romanian looks like when it’s stripped of all diacritics. Strange that they still do that as if it’s 1995.
Basically, yes. There are Slavic words, and general Balkan features (like how the definite article is an ending), and a couple of very strange sound shifts, but almost all of the rest is very generic Romance, except for a few archaisms in the grammar.
It is. It has undergone so many sound changes that many words are only recognizable in hindsight.
I haven’t laughed like that for many weeks. And, I mean, I read Pharyngula every day, and several webcomics per week, and…
Well, it just means “Lord God”. Couldn’t be any more KJV.
(Except that Romania is Orthodox, not Catholic.)
Wow! I didn’t think it was possible to crash a poll so badly.
#74, You mean crash it WELL.
STephanurus
Well, I do believe in this other thing called objective reality. But somehow I doubt that’s what they mean.
#74, You mean crash it WELL.
STephanurus
Re: This is going to be culturally insensitive, but: does written romanian look like lolcat italian to anyone else?
Itarian? (as in: Engrish)? Or Ițalian, for good diacritic measure? RÂH!!! (LOL=Râd În Hohote).
And by the way, when it comes to a certain HOT ROMANIAN ATHEIST, I’ve got one of said HOT ROMANIAN ATHEIST’s youtubes embedded on one of my blog posts:
http://normdoering.blogspot.com/2009/04/pat-condell-and-nonstampcollector.html
So, it’s another way to see the HOT ROMANIAN ATHEIST.
“Dumnezeu actually comes from “”Domnul” & “Zeu” which mean Lord and God.”
actually is Lord of Gods (as you say later in your post). Jupiter had that too. greek painters also had him on a byzantine throne (just like Pantokrator). which makes it even funnier ;)
Some of its critics seem to have turned up here.
Nice to hear that keops wasn’t for real, and that evolution is taught in schools! And I bet it also turns out that Romania is much better than its tradional rival….
Err, you may want to note there are a couple NSFW thumbnails on the right side of the main page. Links to other content, I imagine.
I love this :)
i forgot to mention about the iron guard, which, in the 1940s, slaughtered and tortured jewish people in romania in such a manner that even the nazis were horrified. all that in the name of religion and with the tacit support of the romanian orthodox church (even active support by some clerics).
@Radu (#67)
“you fake sob. this guy is most certainly not romanian.”
ai’ sa mori u? :)
Sorry for the off-topic PZ, but we need your help to crash another poll. This is about abortion legislation in Argentina:
http://gente5.telecinco.es/encuestas/467.shtml
¿Do you think the government should take in consideration the (Roman Catholic) Church’s stance on abortion?
So far, the kooks are winning 80/20. Please vote!
Thanks in advance.
Regarding the Romanian language: The country was settled by Romans and Roman refugees, trying to preserve the culture of Rome, including their language, hence the name Rome-ania. So it’s Latin without some of the Germanic influences. I think.
Not that bad?!?!
When my new room-mate came he filled the room with pictures of Mary and Jesus. Now I’m confined with a Jesus-looney. When I told him I’m an atheist and I like rock music he turned pale and gave me an oh-you’re-so-going-to-hell look. And the Orthodox Church builds more churches on taxpayers money than ever, and kids are taught creationism, and religion is taught in schools, and paintings of Jesus adorn every classroom in the country (right below the flag), and no politician is a self-declared atheist. And so on.
Yeah, Romania is not Saudi Arabia, but considering it’s a secular state it IS bad. Very bad.
A proud 84 % as of this writing!
re “Dumnezeu”, from Latin “Dominus and Deus”: I hope everybody realizes this was the imperial title first used on behalf of the emperor Domitian by his slaves and freedmen. Yes, the long shadow of Rome…
keops:
if you mention the “Iron Guard”, you might as well give them their proper original name:
“The Legion of the Archangel Michael”. Now that’s a nice Christian label for a bunch of murderous kooks. I’m well placed to know what they were, given that they murdered my great-grandfather and maimed my grandfather. Upon these proceedings my father said “The question is not whether I believe in God, but whether He believes in me. As He clearly doesn’t, I see no further need to reciprocate,” happily parting henceforth ways with any sort of religious belief or practice. He never looked back.
My favorite Romanian is Andre Cordrescu. I met him from time to time at parties when we were both at LSU in the mid ’80s and early ’90s. Funny dude!
When asked what his name meant, he said “that crazy bastard who lives in the woods.”
“The Legion of the Archangel Michael”.
In the USofA, it’s called “The LEAGUE of St. Michael, the Archangel.” It is devoted to doctrinal purity and the persecution of gays, pretty much wherever it shows up. I ran into ’em down in Louisiana. A tiny-minded and therefore dangerous sect of the Xian SM cult of death and torture…
84.7%
#36 – I very much second this motion. It would be hilarious.
At 3,593 “Voturi,” it’s 85 percent “nu exista.” Voturi — wasn’t that a 1970s Plymouth?
Dunno about the Shroud of Turin, but I do know of the Shroud of Urine on the outside of the now defunct Newsroom bar in downtown Phoenix. I knew the guy who put it there and christened it. Come to think of it, it was being christened while it was being created. That’s kind of a chicken-and-egg thing, isn’t it?
“Crezi in Dumnuzeu?”
Is that poll asking me if I believe in Dumuzi?
Damn it pharyngulites, stop insulting my native language.
BTW, great poll crashing.
Almost 86%
the romanian blogosphere and the romanian atheist forum thank you :D
we’ll send cookies!
nu exista 85.9%
da, el ma calauzeste! 5.3%
nu, dar o forta superioara exista 4.6%
da, dar in felul meu 3.5%
nu, cred in altceva 0.6%
METHINKS IT LOOKS LIKE NU EXISTA
How would a Romanian editor say, “Damn godless Americans!”?
From the same site: http://www.newz.ro/stire/82669/cum-sa-va-mariti-sanii-natural-fara-silicoane.html
This may point to the ecistence of a god, a pair of goddesses, or at least female pirates.
*unlurks for a bit*
A good friend of mine lives in Romania, and trust me, there are only about 9000 atheists there, including my friend.
Romania is a sad little country, really. Even Bucharest is fucked up. The politicians pander to the bots, they push pseudoscience on the kids, and shit, they have some of the most uncreative football hooligans ever. What some people described as happening education-wise there happens in the CITIES. It’s much worse in the countryside.
Romania, pentru cel mai mare partea, e proasta. FOARTE PROASTA.
That said, I still want to visit it, if only for my friend and everything about Romania that is non-human. Because besides the people, I hear it’s pretty. Cluj and Brasov, especially.
I am, however, going to have to make a point to have at least one spirited debate with an idiot there.
‘Nu cred. De ce? Nu exista.’
‘Ce?’
‘Nu exista, si tu esti foarte prost.’
Romania does have some good music, though. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gomv-HUQ4qo&feature=related
Nu Exista is at 84.6%!!
Ok, let’s translate some comments:
“de catre: dormicum | postat la 07 Aprilie 2009
Este o intrebare tampita , o intrare cu picioarele in gandurile omului . Nimeni nu indrazneste sa spuna ca nu exista D-zeu. Dar de multe ori fiecare dintre noi ne-am indoit . Primii atei au fost cei mai renumiti oameni de stiinta si dintre popoare , poporul francez . D-zeu a existat intotdeauna in constiintele oamneilor pentru ca desi se calatoreste in Cosmos nimeni nu-si poate explica universul decat prin existenta unei forte superioare pe care noi o numim Dumnezeu , iar altii o numesc altfel. Dar cu totii credem in aceasta forta extraordinara care ne creaza , ne conduce destinele si care ne ia vietile. Dar tot acest Dumnezeu , ne-a dat forta cunosterii . Trebuie sa fim insa atenti , sa nu ne batem jos de aceasta forta si s-o folosim pentru ce ne-a fost data : pentru binele omenirii . Pacat insa ca majoritatea dintre cei ce conduc lumea folosesc aceasta forta a cunoasterii contra omenirii. Aceasta ne va aduce sfarsitul . Sfarsitul va veni mai repede decat credem pentru ca si conducatorii lumii gresesc tot mai mult. Si indiferent de bunurile lumesti acumulate de ei, sfarsitul va fi acelasi pentru toti”
It’s a stupid question, with it’s feet in man’s mind. No one dares to say there is no God. But often every one of us has doubted. The first atheists were the most renouwned scientists and among the peoples, the french. God has always existed in man’s mind, because although we travel in space, no one can explain the universe except with a superior force that we call God, and others call something else. But we all believe in this extraordinary force that creates us, guides our destinies and takes our lives. But this God also gave us the power of knowledge. We must not mock this power and use it for what it was given: for the good of mankind. It’s sad that most of those who run the world use this power against mankind. This will bring us the end. The end will come faster than expected because the leaders make more mistakes. And regardless of material goods accumulated by them, the ending is the same for everyone.
…
Ok, is this guy a believer, agnostic or atheist? :-/
@Katharine #103
Yay! Phoenix is my favourite romanian (folk rock) band! pretty much love every song.
@#101
It’s fairly normal to see boobs in regular newspapers in Romania. No censorship of nudity here.
I will delegate it to one of the Romanians on the board to tell PZ Myers about the scum that is Gigi Becali.
@keops
clar, m-am inselat, si imi cer scuze pentru asta.
@everyone who is not from Romania
everyone knows at least one myth or prejudice about most countries in the world. We’re supposed to be rationalist, people that don’t blindly believe in that which is not proven to us so I hereby offer an official pharyngulated invite to all those who are not from Romania to come and visit.
Come to Cluj-Napoca for a visit and I shall be more than happy to act as guide, friend, mythbuster and drinking buddy with you guys. I’m sure more of us (Romanians) are willing to do the same.
P.S.: this one’s on your own expense. I can’t really afford to be the humanitarian debunker for _____enter least fav deity knows how many of you guys.
This should cover Gigi Becali (painfully dumb romanian fundie politician/football team owner):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gigi_Becali
Ah I see the fine Romanians have come to their senses
nu exista 86.6%
da, el ma calauzeste! 4.8%
nu, dar o forta superioara exista 4.8%
da, dar in felul meu 3.1%
nu, cred in altceva 0.6
:)
I decided to boycott most Romanian journalism years ago, because, to my knowledge, there is no mainstream periodical in Romania that isn’t half full of celebrity news, horoscopes, sensationalism, and plain insanity (“Chicken gives birth to live snake.” No joke, as my fellow Romanian natives might confirm.) You might find a brilliant analysis of the latest geopolitical developments in South-East Asia on the same page with the chicken story. Too much to bear, so I switched to less “hip” publications.
And now I’ve been exposed again. But it’s been a pleasure crashing the poll with you all.
And allow me to echo prior comments from Romanians. It was extremely surprising to see The Old Language on Pharyngula. I thought someone was getting funny with my computer, I automatically started looking for the rig. Took me a little while.
Dear Community,
We thank you for interest in our poll, still correction had to be done since it was clearly an organized action to crash some content of the newz.ro website.
Now, we respect your “religion”, please respect also the opinion of others, it doesn’t mean they are wrong and you are right and you have to show them like this .
We want to see exactly how our Romanian readers are feeling about God.
And it is like this, at the moment we post this comment here:
da, el ma calauzeste! (Yes, he is guiding me!) 29.4%
da, dar in felul meu (Yes, in my own way) 18.6%
nu exista (Doesn’t exist) 22.0%
nu, dar o forta superioara exista (No, but a higher force exists) 26.7%
nu, cred in altceva (No, I believe in another thing) 3.3%
This would be a better image on Romania from that point of view.
And still, you do have 22% (of our readers) sharing your opinion.
All the best,
newz.ro
drat. you should’ve told me last summer :p
Anyway, speaking as a tourist and as a ‘cousin’*, I’ve to say that Romania is beautiful (with the exception of Bucuresti, which, imho, sucks). Cluj-Napoca, Sibiu, Brasov and the region of Maramures are great places to visit.
*regardless of what, sadly, lots of italians think, we are a lot like romanians :)
Poll closed, results and comments still available at http://www.newz.ro/poll/269/crezi-in-dumnezeu.html
I can say some people had quite a shock this morning. Last two comments:
From Vasile:
For me it’s incredible to find that the belivers percentange is so low. For me God is my Father because I become his child, “born again from water and spirit”, and Jesus God is my Groom, because I’m part of His Church which is His Host, his Bride, which he loved and give Himself for it. Through reborning ” I died for this word” and I “revived” to a new life in obedience to My God and Groom, and the Holy Spirit living in me guide me throught the World shown tu us in the Holy Scripture.
Of course, what I’ve written here connot be understood by the “worldy” ones, those listening by the urges of the “worldy nature”, but only by the ones “born again again from water and spirit” and who listen to the Spirit inducements.
I’ll add that man is a trinity: he is body, soul and spirit, and usualy the spiritual part ( soul and spirit) is neglected, altought is eternal.
From nicol:
I CAN’T BELIEVE IT !
God is the one who made us. God, how many times we call him, how we pray to Him for every success. Either school exam, college exam or driving licence exam, bu mostly when a dear one dies…
God forbid! May God pardon you for you DON’T ACKNOWLEDGE HIM. Maybe he’ll NOT ACKNOWLEDGE YOU AT THE LAST JUDGEMENT or , who knows, EVEN EARLIER, when you’ll net it more.
At last, the editors chimed in:
This poll was atacked by a atheist comunity from the USA and for about 10 hours the votes were modified up to 80% for the “doesn’t exist” option.
We made the necessary correction and canceled the votes from the respective community, especially since it’s a manifest organized action to attack the content of our poll.
With love,
newz.ro
I find it amazing that a lot (I believe most) of romanian web sites don’t even bother to write proper romanian. What I mean is that they don’t write with diacritics.
Corect would be:
Crezi în Dumnezeu?
da, el mă călăuzește!
da, dar în felul meu
nu există
nu, dar o forța superioară există
nu, cred în altcevă
You might think that omitting diacritics isn’t a major deal, but this way fata could mean fată=”girl”, fata=”the girl”, față=”face”, fața=”the face”, făta=”gave birth” or fâță and fâța (which I’m not sure how to translate).
And look, it’s a miracle! da, el ma calauzeste! is #1. God prevails again (with a little help from the vote-altering site admin).
Greg, you didn’t tell us you ran newz.ro, too!
We can surely faith that he “adjusted” the votes completely fairly:
Hmm, I’ll delete the ones with their referrer set. Nope, still not quite what I wanted. Ok, I’ll delete IPs from the US. Nope, still not quite… Maybe if I get rid of Asia and Australia… Nope. Well, they won’t notice if I delete a hundred Romanian votes or so… Ok, there we go. Now, “da el ma calauzeste!” is arbitrarily #1!
Oops, +have.
Also, thanks, Mike, for the comment translation.
The Turin Shroud one still needs more work though. Only 39% of respondants say it isn’t real (for a miraculous rather than physical definition of reality). See post 25 for the link.
Romanian news is fail.
Where’s the “What is God? That word doesn’t mean anything.” option?
Not even slightly.
Yes (for example, the word “fresh” is still missing; instead they use rece, straight from Latin recens), but, to (over?)compensate, it has taken up plenty of general Balkan features, Slavic words and other features, and so on. As I’ve already mentioned.
A deist.
How stupid, stupid, stupid of you to conduct an Internet poll to find this out!
The sample is inevitably self-selected! Hello-o!
There is such a thing as a reliable poll. Yours isn’t, no matter which big websites find out about it.
So? I, for example, didn’t follow the link. I opened it in a new tab. And I’m in Austria – forget about that stupid “from the USA” shit, this is the Internet!!!
@David Marjanović:
“for example, the word “fresh” is still missing; instead they use rece, straight from Latin recens”. Romanians are so back in time, they don’t have a word for train, they say the iron horse that runs along the metal lines. They also shoot at airplanes (which they named stiff birds) and they run when they see a camera, because in Romania it is a well known fact that a camera can steal your soul.
For your enlightenment, we (romanians) use the following words for fresh:
proaspat, rece, nou and several other synonims, depending on the kind of freshness we want to refer in a sentence.
@all of you: nice work with the poll, that was extremely funny.
Railways are called chemin de fer, “iron path”, in French. And the German term Eisenbahn is just a little more abstract.
That’s the one I explicitly mentioned. What you lack is the very word fresh itself, a Germanic word (at that time frisk or something) that has entered all of the Western Romance languages (Italian and Spanish: fresco/-a, French: frais/fraîche, and so on) and completely replaced all synonyms.
Sorry I didn’t make myself clear enough.
“Rece” isn’t used much to mean fresh in Romanian, apart from refering to water sometimes ( “apa rece” may be “fresh water”, but most likely is “cold water”).
Usually “rece” means “cold”.
And of course, “cald” means “warm”, but also “fresh” when refering to bread and other cooked foodstuff.
Missing some Germans around here to get a new world for “fresh” we had to settle with the Greek prósfatos.
So the Romanian world for “fresh” is “proaspat”.
From latin “recens” we still have “recent”, but not directly, we imported it from French recently.