Americans woefully ignorant about religion, study says

[Bill Mattocks]

This comes as no shock to me. Atheists and Agnostics score the highest on the study's questions about religion.

http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2010/09/28/dont-know-much-about-religion-youre-not-alone-study-finds/

Odds are that you know Mother Teresa was Catholic, but what religion is the Dalai Lama?
How about Maimonides?
And - no Googling - what's the first book of the Bible? How about the first four books of the New Testament?
Americans who can answer all of those questions are relatively rare, a huge new study has found.
In fact, although the United States is one of the most religious developed countries in the world, most Americans scored 50 percent or less on a quiz measuring knowledge of the Bible, world religions and what the Constitution says about religion in public life.
The survey is full of surprising findings.
For example, it's not evangelicals or Catholics who did best - it's atheists and agnostics.

You can take the quiz yourself. I got 9 of 10 right. I didn't know that the Jewish Sabbath begins on Friday (at sundown; actually I had been taught that, but I did not recall it).

 

[Stac3y]

I got 9 out of 10 right, as well; I didn't know the main religion of Indonesia.

 

[girlbug2]

10/10

But I suspect that I'm more religion-oriented than most. Even so, those questions seemed pretty basic.

 

[Bill Mattocks]

10/10

But I suspect that I'm more religion-oriented than most. Even so, those questions seemed pretty basic.

Indeed; they apparently were not the only questions asked during the survey.

http://pewforum.org/U-S-Religious-Knowledge-Survey-About-the-Project.aspx

However, at the moment, I cannot get through; apparently their server is too busy. I'm sure things will get better soon.

 

[Tez3]

10/10

But I suspect that I'm more religion-oriented than most. Even so, those questions seemed pretty basic.

Indeed, they were what we'd expect children in primary school to be able to answer. I got 10/10 as well I'm not religious focused though other than on my own.

 

[Bill Mattocks]

Here's the actual quiz from Pew, if you can get through:

http://features.pewforum.org/quiz/us-religious-knowledge/

Also:

This one is good too:

I would have missed the question about Jonathan Edwards above.

 

[Empty Hands]

A common story from atheists I've talked to is that searching out and studying their religion and then other religions was part of their "awakening" to atheism. Their basic point is that it was easy to believe in a fuzzy way without details or thinking too hard about it, but studying their religious texts closely exposed them to the absurdities and contradictions, which they could no longer ignore. Most atheists and agnostics grew up in religious households after all, in a religious country, so it's no surprise that their development would take this course.

In my experience, most theologians and other scholars of their religion also tend to be less dogmatic and more thoughtful. It's hard to believe that the Bible is the inerrant source of all morality when you read it closely, you study how many different authors were involved, you realize the intent of stories like Lot and his daughters given political realities of the times, and so forth.

 

[Bill Mattocks]

A common story from atheists I've talked to is that searching out and studying their religion and then other religions was part of their "awakening" to atheism. Their basic point is that it was easy to believe in a fuzzy way without details or thinking too hard about it, but studying their religious texts closely exposed them to the absurdities and contradictions, which they could no longer ignore. Most atheists and agnostics grew up in religious households after all, in a religious country, so it's no surprise that their development would take this course.

Yes, I read that in the New York Times version of this news story.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/28/us/28religion.html

“Even after all these other factors, including education, are taken into account, atheists and agnostics, Jews and Mormons still outperform all the other religious groups in our survey,” said Greg Smith, a senior researcher at Pew.
That finding might surprise some, but not Dave Silverman, president of American Atheists, an advocacy group for nonbelievers that was founded by Madalyn Murray O’Hair.
“I have heard many times that atheists know more about religion than religious people,” Mr. Silverman said. “Atheism is an effect of that knowledge, not a lack of knowledge. I gave a Bible to my daughter. That’s how you make atheists.”

I have some basic disagreement with those who feel that deep knowledge of religion leads to atheism, although I could certainly understand how it could lead to agnosticism or lack of belief that any given religion is the 'right' religion. I, for one, consider myself reasonably well-educated on the world's great religions, as well as some of the lesser-known cults and historical religions. None of what I've learned has turned my mind away from the notion of a Creator, even if I can't quite adopt a wholesale adoption of the entire dogma of my own faith, Catholicism.

I find the gentleman's statement above (Mr. Silverman) offensive. But I do find it typical of some atheists who are not so much disbelievers as cult members of an anti-faith faith. I have an online friend who spends a great deal of time online tub-thumping against religion, as well as mouthing her continued hatred for all things religious and pinning all the ills of the world on religions and religious people. She even takes vacations to attend Atheist conventions (who knew there were such things) where she can rant and rave about how awful religion is. To me, that is way beyond simple disbelief. Her knowledge of religion seems good, and her points are salient. But the dogma is no different from any other fundamentalist religion. If knowledge of religion brought her to that, I'd say she'd have been a tub-thumper no matter what; it seems to be integral to her personality.

In my experience, most theologians and other scholars of their religion also tend to be less dogmatic and more thoughtful. It's hard to believe that the Bible is the inerrant source of all morality when you read it closely, you study how many different authors were involved, you realize the intent of stories like Lot and his daughters given political realities of the times, and so forth.

I agree. The Jesuits are often knwon as "God's Heretics" for good reason. I have always admired the Jewish tradition of challenging everything. Intellectual rigor impresses me, even when it leads to results that conflict with my stated religious beliefs.

Fortunately, I can compartmentalize my beliefs and my understandings.

 

[Bruno@MT]

9/10 I was unsure about indonesia.
As for my personal religion; I am something inbetween catholic, pagan and agnostic I guess.

 

[Omar B]

It's pretty accurate. I've found myself quoting bible verses to christian friends at times, stuff they honestly didn't know. I grew up in a house with 2 religious traditions, so I guess unconsciously I've made an informal study of it.

 

[WC_lun]

The thing that gets me is that so many people don't even know thier own religion, but are willing to judge other people upon thier religion.

 

[CanuckMA]

10/10.

I'm not overly surprised by the results. That members of 'minority' religious groups are more educated in other religions is more of a survival technique.

Bill, all Jewish days begin at sundown. It comes from 2 sources mainly. Religiously, every day in the account of creation end with '...and there was evening, and there was morning. Day xx'

Practically, if tou're going to have days with severe prohibitions like Shabbat and some of the festival, knowing when they start is important. In times before clocks, it's prety hard to figure out midnight. You may not be up at sunrise. So sunset is a pretty good demarcation point.

 

[Bill Mattocks]

Bill, all Jewish days begin at sundown. It comes from 2 sources mainly. Religiously, every day in the account of creation end with '...and there was evening, and there was morning. Day xx'

Yeah, I actually knew that, but muffed it on the quiz. I learned it from watching the movie, "The Frisco Kid," with Gene Wilder and Harrison Ford.

 

[BloodMoney]

I only got 2 or so wrong in the bigger test. Im surprised.

I scored better than 80% of the population lol, and I have no religious upbringing at all and live in a country with very little (now days at least). I wouldve thought Americans would have scored really high on this, given how much exposure religion gets on television etc..

I wouldnt say im an atheist, but I dont really get into organized religion, personally I feel the life lessons and advice therein is pretty damn obvious (ie: be nice to people, dont root your next door neighbors missus etc). I train to hard to find time to sit down, unfold little mats and pray or break bread and read aloud from a book etc...just not enough hours in the day for that carry on!

 

[Tez3]

The quiz cut me off half way through! Tad confused about the Jonathan Edwards thing as he's a British Olympic athlete though he is a practising Christian as well as world record holder lol.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Edwards_(athlete)


Bloodmoney, your post made me smile with your use of one particular word, think I'll have to start using it as it gets past the censor

 

[Carol]

10/10, but I have also practiced a few different religions in my own travels, before returning to the Roman Catholic fold earlier this year.

There were two aspects to the online quiz that annoyed me. 8 of the questions had background pictures pertinent to their religion. 2 did not.

The Indonesian question showed people celebrating Ganesha, which is a Hindu celebration. Bali is part of Indonesia, and the Balinese are traditionally Hindu, but Hinduism is a minority religion of the country...and the majority religion most certainly does not celebrate Ganesha.

The agnostic question showed an arial shot of a church congregation. Umm...

 

[Phoenix44]

Why am I not surprised?

 

[Ken Morgan]

9/10, and I changed my answer at the last second, because I thought it was a trick question!! Atheist.

It’s not surprising in many ways. The general population does badly on history/political/science quizzes too, that doesn’t necessarily make you a bad Canadian, American or Brit. It means you never bothered to learn it or keep up on it. Life is busy, kids, jobs, (hopefully), school, knowing extra “stuff” is just that, “extra”.

“Frank Sulloway of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Michael Shermer of California State University conducted a study which found in their polling sample of "credentialed" U.S. adults (12% had Ph.Ds and 62% were college graduates) 64% believed in God, and there was a correlation indicating that religious conviction diminished with education level.”

 

[Blade96]

Here's the actual quiz from Pew, if you can get through:

http://features.pewforum.org/quiz/us-religious-knowledge/

Also:

This one is good too:

I would have missed the question about Jonathan Edwards above.

I knew all of these except the last 3.

 

[Ramirez]

14/15 on the bigger test, I notice that the questions most Americans got wrong were those that were about religions in foreign countries. I am a bit surprised though at the lack of knowledge regarding Martin Luther.