Atheists Score Higher Than Catholics On Basic Religion Test

[HCC]

nytimes.com/2010/09/28/us/28religion.html?_r=1&src=ISMR_HP_LO_MST_FB

Is better catechesis the solution?

 

[timotheos]

nytimes.com/2010/09/28/us/28religion.html?_r=1&src=ISMR_HP_LO_MST_FB

Is better catechesis the solution?

I don’t know, it could be. The best solution is the one that stimulates a hunger for knowledge about the truth. And you know, being “atheist” may be just a point along the way, a bit further down the road from “born Catholic, not yet interested”. So it may not be all bad.

 

[JackVk]

How do we know it’s not just cursory knowledge of basic beliefs, as opposed to every nuance of every teaching?

To be a true “expert of religion”, you would have to have personally believed in every single religion there is, to be a high authority in every heirarchy. So, the atheists who claim to be so much more learned than theists would have to be rabbis, Catholic priests, Protestant ministers, Muslim imams, Hindu priests, and buddhist monks to be “experts”.

As for myself, I was not properly catechized. I didn’t get much out of pre-confirmation classes, and after Confirmation, I just kinda forgot about my faith. I came back to the faith thanks to a friend who was there for me. She is one of the best Christians I know.

 

[rciadan]

One thing to note is that what they claim in the article, namely, that the bread and wine become the body and blood of Christ when the person takes Communion is according to Church Doctrine, is not true!
It becomes His Body, Blood,Soul, and Divinity at the moment of Consecration, not when it is received in Holy Communion.
I have reservations as to the validity of this “study”…

 

[John_Paul_Jones]

One thing to note is that what they claim in the article, namely, that the bread and wine become the body and blood of Christ when the person takes Communion is according to Church Doctrine, is not true!
It becomes His Body, Blood,Soul, and Divinity at the moment of Consecration, not when it is received in Holy Communion.

That wasn’t in the two articles I’ve read. They both said pretty much the same thing. It doesn’t say when, it only mentions that the bread and wine becomes the Body and Blood of Christ.

Forty-five percent of Catholics did not know that their church teaches that the consecrated bread and wine in holy communion are not merely symbols, but actually become the body and blood of Christ.

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.

I have reservations as to the validity of this “study”…

I don’t think it was the “study” but how it was reported. The writer of the article, Laurie Goodstein, starts off by saying "Americans are by all measures a deeply religious people, but they are also deeply ignorant about religion." Then further on she writes “… 51 percent knew that Joseph Smith was Mormon” Well, she’s wrong, it’s supposed to be Joseph Smith, Jr. - I can’t believe the ignorance of some people, too.

The ones I’ve heard are pretty much soft ball questions. I saw it on the news where a TV reporter asked people coming out of Church right after Mass “What are the first four of the New Testament or the Four Gospels?” and two people didn’t know. Well that doesn’t mean they didn’t edit out those they ask that did know and only show the ones that didn’t know. Still, seeing a guy flub such a simple question, seems unbelievable, imo.