Seems for a country where religion is frequently on the front-burner in all manner of public discourse, Americans don’t appear to know much about the subject. Once again, a lot of folks have very strong convictions about subjects they know little about.
A recent Pew Forum survey on religious knowledge among Americans yielded some surprising (at least to some) results, notably that atheists and agnostics know more about religion than any other demographic group. It should be noted, however, that those with more education also scored higher and there’s a positive correlation between higher levels of education and atheism/agnosticism.
SPOILER ALERT: If you’d like to take a portion of the survey yourself, do it before you read the article as there are a couple of giveaways contained in the text.
Very interesting. I’ve found that many of my highly educated peers don’t read thus they don’t understand much - including the Constitution and Bill of Rights as well as the world’s religions (not just Christianity).
I don’t put too much stock in telephone polls. I would be interested in the results if the sampling was taken outside of a church where you get a clearer idea as to who is what they say they are.
Care to validate that statement? I may not know how to behead someone in the act of Jihad, but I do know it’s wrong. Subjective opinion presenting itself as objective fact.
A flawed statement. There’s a difference between knowing about religion vs knowing minor facts about multiple religions. Someone who knows that the Quran is Islam’s holy book and that the Bible is Christianity’s holy book doesn’t necessarily know more than the guy who can recite the Bible front to back, but has no clue what the Quran is; yet this “quiz” would rate the first individual above the second. Yet again, more subjective results trying to pass themselves off as objective truth.
I honestly don’t see how they can draw the conclusion they do after taking it (I got 1 wrong). (I understand that it was slightly different and only half as long as the phone survey)
Knowing random facts about religious history and dogma is not knowing religion. It says nothing of the motivations, feelings, spirituality, or anything of people. Those are the real measure of religion in America.
If you want to be argumentative, feel free, but there are literally dozens of surveys, polls, studies, ad nauseam, which demonstrate the average American’s lack of knowledge regarding our nation’s history, system of government, world geography, etc., etc., etc. But ask the average guy on the street his opinion about x,y, or z and you’re bound to get an earful. I’ll let you do your own Goggle search–it shouldn’t take long.
But just for a few laughs, here’s a poll (albeit a little dated–2006) that found that 77% of Americans surveyed could name two of the seven dwarfs from Snow White but only 24% could name two Supreme Court justices. They can identify “Homer” as Bart’s dad, but can’t name a poem written by Homer. And while 73% could name the Three Stooges, only 42% could name the three branches of American government.
I was merely referencing the results of the study (i.e. that, as a demographic, atheists/agnostics scored highest in terms of general knowledge with regards to religion). There’s nothing subjective about it; I simply paraphrased the conclusions of the study. As for what constitutes knowledge, I’m afraid that’s another discussion altogether.
This thread is going to get closed. MonataDave, Thanks for trying to bring this subject to the attention of the boards. I for one am staying out of this one.
14/15 here… i’m sure i missed the last one, not remembering what the Great Awakening was, nor recognizing those names.
i happen to be an educated, literalist christian, however… i would not expect most christians to have any clue about what religion “john smith” was, nor what the fuck ramadan is. why would they care? likewise, i wouldn’t even expect most christians to be all that up on the bible. nobody reads their bibles with any degree of scholastic determination… but being a literalist christian, reading the text, and the most literal translations of the text, is core to my faith.
naturally, people who are going to possess the broadest base of knowledge of Theology are going to be students/people with college educations. i don’t think the quiz told us anything we didn’t already know.
If you want to read a great book on the subject of the state of religious literacy/knowledge in America (as well as quite a bit of its history), pick up Stephen Prothero’s “Religious Literacy.” After studying religion for almost 10 years, I can say it is perhaps the book which best illustrates the sad state of religious knowledge in this country.
just kidding. i found them interesting, and the comment about Judah being but only 1 of the 12 tribes of israel particularly interesting- as i’ve also noticed this modern inaccuracy. what is so special about jews? are they the only surviving tribe? are there other tribes in israel today? how did we shift from calling israelites to calling all descendent’s of abraham “jews?”
As someone with a really expensive piece of paper from a university that says I know a thing or two about the study of religion, I’m not convinced that being able to score a 15/15 is necessarily indicative of anything.
To draw a rough analogy in gun parlance, I’d say they’re similar to the following questions:
What caliber is a traditional 1911 chambered in?
What is the stock trigger pull on an M&P9?
Is the Glock 19 barrel about 2", 3", or 4" long?
Where was gunpowder invented?
How many rounds does a standard M14 magazine hold?
What is the standard issue sidearm of the US Army?
What is the muzzle velocity of an M4 carbine?
Is the M14 more similar to an M1 Garand, a Thompson submachinegun, or a Sten gun?
I mean, can someone who knows a thing or two about guns answer all those questions? Absolutely. Does being able to answer all those questions indicate that you have some requisite level of gun knowledge or that you have any authority to speak on the subject? No. They’re just a bunch of questions, some easier than others, most the people probably know, but so what?
There have been surveys, however, where many Christians think Moses gave the Sermon on the Mount and where 9 out of 10 people who believe the Bible is literally true* have never read more than a few sentences out of it (but all of them have read the Da Vinci Code). I think those surveys are more indicative of requisite religious knowledge (that is, of your own professed religion) or it’s shocking absence.
*Edit: this was not a general finding, it was a survey given by a professor in his 100-level religion classes. Hopefully a larger percentage of people out there who believe the Bible is literally true have read more of it.
Also, the question about Job was incorrect, as he DID sin. I forget the exact wording, but the question said to select the Biblical person who’s known for their suffering while not sinning. Job DID sin, but somehow they selected him as the (in)correct choice.
Looks to me like the quiz was made by someone who skimmed over the highlights of religion without actually studying it, all in the name of showing people how little they supposedly know. Oh, the irony…
12/15, better than 87% of poll-takers, and I am an atheist who freely admits to have only superficial knowledge of religions of the world. Meaningless poll if you ask me.
True, but it’s sort of hard to remain “obedient” while sinning. The other thing is that there was nothing for Job to comply with through obedience during his ordeal, as he was given no commands or instructions, so where they came up with the term “obedience” to describe Job is beyond me. He was being tested and his “obedience” would be dependent upon him passing those trials without sin. He sinned and borderline blasphemed God at the end, so how was that obedience in any form?
Contrast that with Abraham, who went as far as to almost sacrifice his son to honor God (and did not sin in the process), he was clearly a better choice. Again, it seems like they skimmed the highlights without actually researching the answers.
