Don't know much about religion? You're not alone, study finds

[TheTrueCentrist]

religion.blogs.cnn.com/2010/09/28/dont-know-much-about-religion-youre-not-alone-study-finds/?hpt=C1

The survey is full of surprising findings.
For example, it’s not evangelicals or Catholics who did best - it’s atheists and agnostics.

 

[Tenofovir]

religion.blogs.cnn.com/2010/09/28/dont-know-much-about-religion-youre-not-alone-study-finds/?hpt=C1

The survey is full of surprising findings.
For example, it’s not evangelicals or Catholics who did best - it’s atheists and agnostics.

Well, religion is not something you shop for, you know, like buying a car, house or a computer. Let me see do I buy a PC or a Mac, do I get a notebook or a desktop machine, do I go for the LCD or LED monitor, do I get one with a hard drive or a solid state disk, Windows or Linux etc?

Knowledge alone is not enough to comprehend God, so even if some Christians don’t know which Biblical book came first or which religion the Dalai Lama is or how many gods Shinto has, that is irrelevant. That’s not faith. God does not give people an exam of world wide comparative religion theology in the next life before judging them. It’s more important to be devoted to God than to know the Bible by heart.

Secondly, these results
may show how some people are paranoid about religions and investigate each and every one in the attempt to find the right one or to prove them wrong. Then again some people just like to learn certain things.

 

[Mr_Skeptic]

I got 10 out of 10, first try.

 

[Totterman]

Jesus,our Lords peace be whit You.
First i agree whit the previus ansver,religion is not something you can buy or something like that,to be a believer whit true faith You need to find it first. By reading,I always recomend the Bible,gives You a lot of ansvers,but faith is another thing. No matter how much You know,if there is no faith,the knowledge is useless. If You have faith,as I wrote earlier,read the Bible,over and over. It is not only the key to knowledge of faith it is a wonderfull book about history[old Testament]and the true story about Jesus,our Lord[new Testament]and the letters gives much information about beeing a christian believer. But by ONLY reading,whit no faith,even The Holy Bible is useless. The faith comes first.then You need knowledge. But I advice You to attend mass,everone is welcome to a catholic church to pray and attend mass,but You cant receive communion,first You need to be a catholic,and listen,look,and if You feel something,it is Jesus who calls You to go further,I truly hope You find faith.
Blessings,Totterman

 

[masondoggy]

Barely half of all Catholics know that when they take communion, the bread and wine literally become the body and blood of Christ, according to Catholic doctrine.

Absolutely appalling.

 

[Karamazov]

Well, religion is not something you shop for, you know, like buying a car, house or a computer. Let me see do I buy a PC or a Mac, do I get a notebook or a desktop machine, do I go for the LCD or LED monitor, do I get one with a hard drive or a solid state disk, Windows or Linux etc?

Knowledge alone is not enough to comprehend God, so even if some Christians don’t know which Biblical book came first or which religion the Dalai Lama is or how many gods Shinto has, that is irrelevant. That’s not faith. God does not give people an exam of world wide comparative religion theology in the next life before judging them. It’s more important to be devoted to God than to know the Bible by heart.

Secondly, these results
may show how some people are paranoid about religions and investigate each and every one in the attempt to find the right one or to prove them wrong. Then again some people just like to learn certain things.

So you’re defending the fact that many Christians and Catholics are just plain ignorant? It’s a travesty. No wonder we get ridiculed by atheists. Believing in God is NOT an excuse for not being willing to learn new things. Look at some of the Church fathers and most notable people (the movers and shakers) in Christian history. They were educated, intelligent people. It seems that today most Christians and Catholics are happy just to go to Church on Sunday and watch TV the rest of the time.

 

[buffalo]

Survey: Many Americans Know Little About Religion

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.
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.

more…

 

[4Squarebaby]

So members of minority faiths know more about the majority faith where they live then the majority knows about all the different minority faith groups among them. Was there another result expected?

 

[Havard]

Smells like sloth to me.

Not that we should all become experts in comparative religion, but as this study suggests, complacency is a serious problem among Christians.

 

[buffalo]

Catholic Priests, Catechists and parents should be ashamed of themselves.

 

[Sabda]

So members of minority faiths know more about the majority faith where they live then the majority knows about all the different minority faith groups among them. Was there another result expected?

I just took the test in the link. One of the questions was what is the majority faith in Indonesia.

 

[Havard]

I just took the test in the link. One of the questions was what is the majority faith in Indonesia.

It’s a fairly relevant question. Indonesia is a very populous, predominantly Muslim country.

And there’s a recent history of tension/violence as a minority of radical Muslims demand the nation embrace Islam as its official state religion. You may recall the Bali nightclub bombings in 2002, for example.

 

[4Squarebaby]

I just took the test in the link. One of the questions was what is the majority faith in Indonesia.

Its the world’s largest Islamic poulation.
So if an American didn’t know its Islam what does that say about the Christians as oppose to other groups? What does it say about our geographical or world political knowledge. Can an average American even point to one of the islands which make up Indonesia?

 

[Sabda]

Its the world’s largest Islamic population.
So if an American didn’t know its Islam what does that say about the Christians as oppose to other groups? What does it say about our geographical or world political knowledge. Can an average American even point to one of the islands which make up Indonesia?

I can pull up the 10 question quiz but for some reason can’t pull up the 15 question one.

Truthfully it doesn’t say anything about Christians. It does say something about Americans though.

That type of question is a question best saved for world history or world religion courses when your in high school or college. It’s not something a Catholic, Protestant, Jewish or any other faith is going to learn about when studying their own faith.

In regard to the questions that are geared to certain faiths. Did they ask the all important question of how devout that person was to their faith? I’m guessing not. For all we know the people they called up may have been cultural types who where born into that faith but don’t practice. Another thing there are times when they will write a question in such a way that it will trip up even the most knowledgeable person. I haven’t seen the actually questionnaire so I can’t really say if that was the case.

As far as the findings go. Well obviously the atheist and agnostics are going to know more about the various different faiths. They are the ones who are searching. The Catholics, Protestants, and the others of different faiths aren’t really searching because they have, for the most part, already found it.

Take St. Justin the Martyr’s story. He learned about many different faiths before he finally came to Christianity? Why, because he was searching, and he finally found it in Christianity. The atheist and the agnostics are simply doing the same thing. So it makes sense that they would have more knowledge about the various different faiths.

 

[TheTrueCentrist]

As far as the findings go. Well obviously the atheist and agnostics are going to know more about the various different faiths. They are the ones who are searching. The Catholics, Protestants, and the others of different faiths aren’t really searching because they have, for the most part, already found it.

Take St. Justin the Martyr’s story. He learned about many different faiths before he finally came to Christianity? Why, because he was searching, and he finally found it in Christianity. The atheist and the agnostics are simply doing the same thing. So it makes sense that they would have more knowledge about the various different faiths.

So you are saying that atheists are, on average, more intellectually rigorous than Christians.

 

[Sabda]

So you are saying that atheists are, on average, more intellectually rigorous than Christians.

No, this has nothing to do with intellect. What I said is that agnostics and atheists are going out and learning about the different faiths because they are searching for something. Those who have a faith, such as Christians, Muslims etc. don’t usually go out and learn about different faiths because they feel they don’t need to go searching for anything.

That’s just my take on it anyway.

 

[Dale_M]

I can pull up the 10 question quiz but for some reason can’t pull up the 15 question one.

Here is the link to the 15 question quiz. All of the questions are pretty basic, except the last one.
features.pewforum.org/quiz/us-religious-knowledge/index.php

Truthfully it doesn’t say anything about Christians. It does say something about Americans though.

That type of question is a question best saved for world history or world religion courses when your in high school or college. It’s not something a Catholic, Protestant, Jewish or any other faith is going to learn about when studying their own faith.

I agree. These sort of questions have more to do with general knowledge and awareness of current events. As such, its not surprising that agnostics and atheists score highest, since persons who identify as such (as opposed to “nothing in particular”) typically have higher education. And persons with with more education, according to the study, are better informed about religions.

In regard to the questions that are geared to certain faiths. Did they ask the all important question of how devout that person was to their faith? I’m guessing not.

The Pew survey did distinguish between levels of religious commitment, although I don’t think those findings are being reported in the media. Overall, the survey found:
Pew survey:

While people with a high level of religious commitment do better than average on the religion questions, people with low levels of religious commitment do better than average on the general knowledge questions.

pewforum.org/Other-Beliefs-and-Practices/U-S-Religious-Knowledge-Survey.aspx

 

[didymus]

How many of those polled are college graduates?
How can you get a bachelor’s (esp. w/all the campus “diversity”) without having heard of Maimonides, Shiva, Luther or Ramadan?

I dropped out but just from reading I’ve picked up a fair bit about Islam, Judaism & some, but not as much about other faiths. How can anybody who even watches the news not know Pakistan and Indonesia are Muslim?

 

[Charlotte408]

religion.blogs.cnn.com/2010/09/28/dont-know-much-about-religion-youre-not-alone-study-finds/?hpt=C1

The survey is full of surprising findings.
For example, it’s not evangelicals or Catholics who did best - it’s atheists and agnostics.

I read this article this morning on yahoo and I was SO irritated by it. They wait, allll the way till the end of this long ol’ article - to mention they only surveyed 3400 people.

That’s like, the population of an elementary school…hardly representative of any one religion or ‘religious america’…whatever.

But elections are coming!! Expect AP to come up with all kinds of distractions away from the real issues at hand and to continue to discredit ANYONE talking about honor, values, and faith.

 

[Dale_M]

I read this article this morning on yahoo and I was SO irritated by it. They wait, allll the way till the end of this long ol’ article - to mention they only surveyed 3400 people.

That is actually a sizable number for a national survey. Granted though, if you break down the number into smaller demographics, say, Catholics who attend Mass weekly, then the results might be questionable.

That’s like, the population of an elementary school…hardly representative of any one religion or ‘religious america’…whatever.

An elementary school with an enrollment of 3400 students? That would be quite a large school.