tell me something I didn't know (but wish wasn't true)

[Crackpot]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_rel_relig ... eracy_poll

Survey: Americans don't know much about religion

By RACHEL ZOLL, AP Religion Writer
Tue Sep 28, 3:42 pm ET

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.
[Related: Texas resolution on Islam]
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.
[Related: Marriages in '09 at record low]
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.
____
Online:
Pew online quiz about religion: http://features.pewforum.org/quiz/us-re ... -knowledge

[Crackpot]

I got 14 out of 15 on the quiz. I had no idea on the last one.

[Scooter]

Same here. I had never heard of Jonathan Edwards.

That 45% of Catholics believe the eucharistic elements to be merely symbolic is rather scary.

[Crackpot]

Well that depends how you look at it

[Scooter]

Let me rephrase - that 45% of Catholics believe that Church teaching says the elements are merely symbolic...

[dales]

14/15

I missed the Nirvanna Principle

[Gob]

13 for me.

[Scooter]

Sure Gob, bring down the atheist average and make us look bad.

[Lord Jim]

14 of 15....

Got nirvana wrong....

[loCAtek]

...and they say religion is dogmatic!

[Big RR]

I got 15, but I'll admit I guessed on Jonathan Edwards; I knew it wasn't Billy Graham and that Edwards was a preacher, but it was a guess.

[rubato]

15/15

Strictly slow-pitch questions.

yrs,
rubato


"...
But both in Brahma and in Shiva
I own myself an unbeliever.)
... "

[Crackpot]

I'd be interested in taking the 32 question version.

[dales]

15/15

Strictly slow-pitch questions.

yrs,
rubato


"...
But both in Brahma and in Shiva
I own myself an unbeliever.)
... "

I don't know where we'd be without you, rube.

[loCAtek]

13/15 My Judaism knowledge is not very in-depth.

[rubato]

15/15

Strictly slow-pitch questions.

yrs,
rubato


"...
But both in Brahma and in Shiva
I own myself an unbeliever.)
... "

I don't know where we'd be without you, rube.

Wallowing in crapulence, like you are now.

yrs,
rubato

[dales]

Same old bitter rubato.

Offer a compliment and is returned with a scornful insult.

Go hug your bees.

[Big RR]

Can someone asctually be said to be wallowing (rolling about clumsily) in gluttony (crapulence)? I know the "crapulence" word appears like it might connote something quite different, but crapulence has nothing to do with "crap" anymore than "niggardly" has anything to do with the "n-word". Now, to be fair, wallow may also mean to basque or luxuriate in something, such as "wallowing in one's own perfection", but such as use would make no sense here either.

[Econoline]

I got 15 out of 15, and I thought most of the questions were pretty easy...but I admit I had to guess at the last one. I knew Billy Graham was the wrong answer but I had no idea who the other two guys were and which was the right answer; so the odds were 50-50 and I guessed right.

[rubato]

Same old bitter rubato.

Offer a compliment and is returned with a scornful insult.

Go hug your bees.

If you wanted mindless flattery you should have asked someone else.

If you want the truth, ask me.

yrs,
rubato