Are *you* smarter than an atheist?

[Guinevere]

Atheists and agnostics, Jews and Mormons are among the highest-scoring groups in a 32-question survey of religious knowledge by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. On average, Americans got 16 of the 32 questions correct. Atheists and agnostics got an average of 20.9 correct answers. Jews (20.5) and Mormons (20.3). Protestants got 16 correct answers on average, while Catholics got 14.7 questions right.

Courtesy of AndyH -- he missed one, I surprised myself and my Protestant roots and got them all correct. How will you do?

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2011/0105/ ... bath-begin

[Lord Jim]

Easiest test ever...

You answered 31 of 32 questions correctly for a total score of 97%.

It was so simple...I kept waiting for the questions to get harder...

I missed the one about salvation through Faith...(and I want to protest that one)

On average, Americans got 16 of the 32 questions correct. Atheists and agnostics got an average of 20.9 correct answers. Jews (20.5) and Mormons (20.3). Protestants got 16 correct answers on average, while Catholics got 14.7 questions right.

Apparently I am not only smarter than the average Atheist, but I am so much smarter than the average Catholic, that I should offer myself up for the Papacy....

[MajGenl.Meade]

I'm with you LJ - simple-minded and anything less than 31 = brain dead. I would expect atheists to get at least that many.

Yes I got 32 and wondered when the questions would get difficult

Sorry though - Catholicism of the Roman variety teaches a combination of faith and works righteousness. Otherwise you couldn't have all those penancies, indulgences and so forth. So no dispute (other than the Roman church being wrong of course and as usual)

Meade

[dales]

You answered 30 of 32 questions correctly for a total score of 94%.

(Number 20 and 29 wrong....some Jewish guy and some Protestant guy.)


Guess I'll grab my asbestos union suit.

[MajGenl.Meade]

I'm with you LJ - simple-minded and anything less than 31 30 = brain dead

Fixed that for you dales...

[Lord Jim]

I always thought you Protestant heretic types thought you could gain The Kingdom through deeds...

I was taught that those of us in The One True Faith achieved salvation through Belief....

But no matter...


I guess it shouldn't come as a surprise to me that the "average" American got half the questions on that test wrong...

And that the supposed smarty pants Atheists managed to miss 12...

I learned a while back, that we live in a society that is far more ignorant than you and I would think it is...

I saw a poll done recently that showed that only 50% of the people living in this supposedly enlightend state of California, could name one of their Senators....

My 12 year old daughter has known the names of both of our Senators, and who has been our Governor, and the name of our Commie Congresswoman since she was six...

There are polls done all the time that show a stunning, staggering level of ignorance among "Average Americans" (or if you really want to slit your wrists, look at some polls taken of "College students"...especially when it comes to geography or history.... )

The one that always gets me, is the poll I saw a few years ago, that showed that 47% forty seven percent...nearly half the adult population...

In this country believes in alien abduction....

That statistic made feel like I'm living in a science fiction movie...(oddly ironic I suppose )

Nearly half of the adult population in this country believes something that is totally insane...

Think about that the next you're driving on the freeway...

Half of the drivers you're sharing the highway with as you hurtle down the freeway at 70 MPH...

Are completely insane....

[MajGenl.Meade]

Which reminds me to show you my new BMW...

[MajGenl.Meade]

Back to basic training with you LJ

http://www.catholicbasictraining.com/ap ... xts/1r.htm

Sola fides is Latin for “faith alone” and refers to a relatively large number of false doctrines held to a certain degree by a large number of non-Catholic denominations. There is a great degree of variation between these theological positions, and many people who hold to sola fides do not actually call it by that name.

In brief, sola fides is the teaching that mankind is saved by faith alone – simply “believing in Jesus Christ” or “accepting Him as your personal Lord and Savior” is enough to make one “saved”.

Sola fide (Latin: by faith alone), also historically known as the doctrine of justification by faith alone, is a Christian theological doctrine that distinguishes most Protestant denominations from Catholicism, Eastern Christianity, and some in the Restoration Movement.

and

The true distinction, therefore, between the Protestant and the Catholic view of Justification is not an issue of being "declared righteous" versus being "made righteous", but rather it is the means by which one is Justified. In Catholic theology righteous works are considered meritorious toward salvation in addition to faith, whereas in Protestant theology, righteous works are seen as the result and evidence of a truly Justified and Regenerate believer who has received these by Faith Alone.

Wikipedia

[Sue U]

Well, I'm not sure it's actually possible for me to be "smarter than an atheist" (or dumber, for that matter) unless you've got some other particular one in mind. I got all of the questions right but none of them were actually difficult, and many just identified particular personalities rather than something about an actual religion itself. I also note there was nothing about Jainism, Shinto, Zoroastrianism, Bahai, Sikhism, Unitarianism, Wicca or Santeria in the quiz, nor anything about the Eastern Orthodox church, for that matter.

[MajGenl.Meade]

Who?

[Guinevere]

No, the questions were not difficult, but it still surprised me --as someone who only goes to church on occasion, usually to please one or another of the parental units (honoring my mother and father, yes?) -- that I remembered more than I expected.

I don't really know what I believe any more, although I was raised in a family that migrated from Presbyterianism to Episcopalianism, and we've generally stayed there. If asked, I would identify myself as Episcopalian. I was confirmed in the Episcopal church, my parents still attend, my sister and her family attends, and I am an Episcopalian godmother so I occasionally attend services with my godson (I'm a Catholic godmother also, but that family does not attend church at all).

[Sue U]

Who?

He didn't say.

[Gob]

31/32 for me, didn't know what day the front wheelers started their Sabbath. (No offense meant by this.)

[Crackpot]

I got 32 though I admit to guesses on two.

would I have got them wrong if I answered "don't know"?

[Lord Jim]

Back to basic training with you LJ

Well General Meade, I am certainly not going to try to go toe to toe with you on matters theological...

As I have said before, this is not my area of expertise, and I certainly would never claim that it was...(beyond obvious things like "the Christians invented genocide"...I mean, really how much do you have to know to be able to dispute something as idiotic as that??)

But if you want to start swapping Bible passages, you have game set and match...just not in my wheel house...

I have done a little research here, and you are absolutely correct of the "Faith" versus "deeds" thing....

I stand corrected.

[kristina]

I gave up, because it was taking over a minute for each question to load...


But I got all the ones up to #8 correct!

[Rick]

31/32 Guessed at Maimonades(sp) and 1st awakening.

For some reason I marked hindu instead of buddist(sp) for nirvana.

Bone head...

[Gob]

Hey, BSG, do grammatical errors in titles get a pass?

[Guinevere]

That would be a typo, and it has been corrected.

[loCAtek]

You answered 31 of 32 questions correctly for a total score of 97%.


Only missed the first question