MSNBC wrote: A new survey of Americans' knowledge of religion found that atheists, agnostics, Jews and Mormons outperformed Protestants and Roman Catholics in answering questions about major religions, while many respondents could not correctly give the most basic tenets of their own faiths.
Forty-five percent of Roman Catholics who participated in the study didn't know that, according to church teaching, the bread and wine used in Holy Communion is not just a symbol, but becomes the body and blood of Christ.
More than half of Protestants could not identify Martin Luther as the person who inspired the Protestant Reformation. And about four in 10 Jews did not know that Maimonides, one of the greatest rabbis and intellectuals in history, was Jewish.
The survey released Tuesday by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life aimed to test a broad range of religious knowledge, including understanding of the Bible, core teachings of different faiths and major figures in religious history. The U.S. is one of the most religious countries in the developed world, especially compared to largely secular Western Europe, but faith leaders and educators have long lamented that Americans still know relatively little about religion.
Respondents to the survey were asked 32 questions with a range of difficulty, including whether they could name the Islamic holy book and the first book of the Bible, or say what century the Mormon religion was founded. On average, participants in the survey answered correctly overall for half of the survey questions.
Atheists and agnostics scored highest, with an average of 21 correct answers, while Jews and Mormons followed with about 20 accurate responses. Protestants overall averaged 16 correct answers, while Catholics followed with a score of about 15.
Not surprisingly, those who said they attended worship at least once a week and considered religion important in their lives often performed better on the overall survey. However, level of education was the best predictor of religious knowledge. The top-performing groups on the survey still came out ahead even when controlling for how much schooling they had completed.
On questions about Christianity, Mormons scored the highest, with an average of about eight correct answers out of 12, followed by white evangelicals, with an average of just over seven correct answers. Jews, along with atheists and agnostics, knew the most about other faiths, such as Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism and Judaism. Less than half of Americans know that the Dalai Lama is Buddhist, and less than four in 10 know that Vishnu and Shiva are part of Hinduism.
The study also found that many Americans don't understand constitutional restrictions on religion in public schools. While a majority know that public school teachers cannot lead classes in prayer, less than a quarter know that the U.S. Supreme Court has clearly stated that teachers can read from the Bible as an example of literature.
"Many Americans think the constitutional restrictions on religion in public schools are tighter than they really are," Pew researchers wrote.
The survey of 3,412 people, conducted between May and June of this year, had a margin of error of plus or minus 2.5 percentage points, while the margins of error for individual religious groups was higher.
Yeah, this isn't really a shocker. If you know that your faith is right because authority told you so, why bother looking too deeply into it?
"The rifle itself has no moral stature, since it has no will of its own. Naturally, it may be used by evil men for evil purposes, but there are more good men than evil, and while the latter cannot be persuaded to the path of righteousness by propaganda, they can certainly be corrected by good men with rifles."
I think it is also because of the process of becoming and atheist/agnostic.
Most of us start out as people born into one faith, start doubting that one, and then take a look at all the faiths available before coming to the conclusion that they don't need any of the above...
People happy with their own faith rarely take a look at the menu.
A minute's thought suggests that the very idea of this is stupid. A more detailed examination raises the possibility that it might be an answer to the question "how could the Germans win the war after the US gets involved?" - Captain Seafort, in a thread proposing a 1942 'D-Day' in Quiberon Bay
Taken together with the knowledge that Americans are abysmal in their knowledge of mathematics and science, it offers a tragic picture of just what their understanding of the universe is and how enriched their lives are as a result. I'm sure many other countries aren't much better, though.
This just proves what I've said a long time: Most people aren't religious and don't have religion, they are superstitious and have folk ways (Please no atheist jokes about how religion *is* superstition). Most religious people are staggeringly ignorant of what is supposed to be their religion, but then again most people are just staggeringly ignorant.
Norseman wrote:This just proves what I've said a long time: Most people aren't religious and don't have religion, they are superstitious and have folk ways (Please no atheist jokes about how religion *is* superstition). Most religious people are staggeringly ignorant of what is supposed to be their religion, but then again most people are just staggeringly ignorant.
Considering most people like to cherry-pick their beliefs and gloss over anything about a religion they don't like it's hardly shocking.
"It's you Americans. There's something about nipples you hate. If this were Germany, we'd be romping around naked on the stage here."
Norseman wrote:This just proves what I've said a long time: Most people aren't religious and don't have religion, they are superstitious and have folk ways (Please no atheist jokes about how religion *is* superstition). Most religious people are staggeringly ignorant of what is supposed to be their religion, but then again most people are just staggeringly ignorant.
This actually goes hand-in-hand with how roughly irrelgious (but not outright atheist) people I've encountered seem to have folk beliefs about their own lives and how to lead them; enjoy the company of your friends, work sucks, make it through to another day, etc, whatever. How much of a proper and satisfying belief system in full you could call that, eh, but it reflects the same lack of focus on the big picture that local religious sects encourage on their folksy congregations.
Here is pew's 15q test http://features.pewforum.org/quiz/us-re ... knowledge/
It was relatively easy to get 13-14 out of 15.
(I needed to reload some of the Qs when they didn't load so I think its under stress right now)
It's worth noting that evangelical Protestants and Mormons outperformed atheists/agnostics and Jews when it comes to knowledge of Christianity. So it's not quite ignorance about one's own religion so much as insularity and ignorance of other religions. Of course, this isn't much better, but it's worth noting.
Invited by the new age, the elegant Sailor Neptune!
I mean, how often am I to enter a game of riddles with the author, where they challenge me with some strange and confusing and distracting device, and I'm supposed to unravel it and go "I SEE WHAT YOU DID THERE" and take great personal satisfaction and pride in our mutual cleverness?
Spoonist wrote:Nah, there is a distinction Hence the different terms. Religion is organized and rulified superstition.
So it's a particular category of superstition. 'Superstition' still applies perfectly well. Just like St. Bernard is a category of dog, but St. Bernards are still properly and accurately described as dogs.
I suspect that the distinction is there primarily to comfort people who take pride in their deep faith and adherence to something so magnificent as a religion but would be offended or hurt should someone suggest that they are merely superstitious (in fact I heard a priest put it in more or less those words, although to him it was a straight-faced comparison).
I find myself endlessly fascinated by your career - Stark, in a fit of Nerd-Validation, November 3, 2011
Not bad, I did 93% (missed one of the 15 questions). Puts me at greater than 97% of the population.
I blame the Judaism.
Remember, a "superstition" (or cult) is a religion that doesn't have political power.
Something about Libertarianism always bothered me. Then one day, I realized what it was:
Libertarian philosophy can be boiled down to the phrase, "Work Will Make You Free."
In Libertarianism, there is no Government, so the Bosses are free to exploit the Workers.
In Communism, there is no Government, so the Workers are free to exploit the Bosses.
So in Libertarianism, man exploits man, but in Communism, its the other way around! If all you want to do is have some harmless, mindless fun, go H3RE INST3ADZ0RZ!! Grrr! Fight my Brute, you pansy!
To most of us, these will generally be pretty "cake" questions. But a lot of us here are the types to think about these sorts of things, either to challenge them or to add credence to beliefs. We're used to having to attack and/or defend what is presented.
It is dismaying that these are "challenging" and even "stumping" to many.
Something about Libertarianism always bothered me. Then one day, I realized what it was:
Libertarian philosophy can be boiled down to the phrase, "Work Will Make You Free."
In Libertarianism, there is no Government, so the Bosses are free to exploit the Workers.
In Communism, there is no Government, so the Workers are free to exploit the Bosses.
So in Libertarianism, man exploits man, but in Communism, its the other way around! If all you want to do is have some harmless, mindless fun, go H3RE INST3ADZ0RZ!! Grrr! Fight my Brute, you pansy!
Yeah I got 14 out of 15 questions right too. I only got the Jewish Sabbath day question wrong.
My Political Compass: Economic Left/Right: -5.25
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -5.90
Designation: Libertarian Left (Social Democrat/Democratic Socialist)
Alignment: Chaotic-Good
Chris OFarrell wrote:Got 14/15, didn't have a clue about the last question, knew the answers to the rest.
Seriously, I was expecting something a LOT more hardcore then these questions...
That was the same question I missed. Looking at the breakdown on a question by question basis, it looks like no more than ten percent of people in any religion knew the answer to that one.
The Maimonides question is kind of tricky because he also went by the name Rambam and just "Moses" as in "From Moses to Moses there's no one like Moses." Maybe the results would have been better if they'd gone with Rashi.
Wes, the Sabbath (or Shabbat) question is a trick question as well, because the Sabbath is Saturday, but in the Hebrew tradition Saturday begins just after sunset Friday evening. In fact, I think Maimonides even made the transition more specific--the new day begins when at least three stars are visible after sundown.
"Gunslinger indeed. Quick draw, Bob. Quick draw." --Count Chocula
"Unquestionably, Dr. Who is MUCH lighter in tone than WH40K. But then, I could argue the entirety of WWII was much lighter in tone than WH40K." --Broomstick
"This is ridiculous. I look like the Games Workshop version of a Jedi Knight." --Harry Dresden, Changes
"Like...are we canonical?" --Aaron Dembski-Bowden to Dan Abnett
Bob the Gunslinger wrote:
Wes, the Sabbath (or Shabbat) question is a trick question as well, because the Sabbath is Saturday, but in the Hebrew tradition Saturday begins just after sunset Friday evening. In fact, I think Maimonides even made the transition more specific--the new day begins when at least three stars are visible after sundown.
I got 100% correct, although I must admit that I guessed the last one out of two possible choices. I knew that Billy Graham is a modern figure, but I had no idea about the other two. I do remember reading about the Great Awakening as part of some introductory text to US religious history, but I don't remember any names. I had to think a second about the Sabbath question. The rest were pretty easy, although I don't know if I would have gotten the Bible reading question correct if I hadn't read the article. On the other hand logic says that forbidding the reading of the Bible as literature would be quite insane, bot to mention bigoted, so perhaps I would have.
Got 14/15 correct. Knew everything except the last question, which I just guessed at, and guessed wrongly. I wouldn't have gotten the Jewish Sabbath question right had I not read about it fairly recently, though. My brain automatically assumes "Saturday", and I almost went for that until remembering that it technically starts friday night.
I wonder how many Christians thought that "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you" was part of the 10 Commandments.
