Religious Knowledge Quiz

[portarica]

Here is an interesting little quiz about religion.

features.pewforum.org/quiz/us-religious-knowledge/index.php

Peace

 

[Pug]

Interesting. The Atheist/Agnostic was the most likely to know stuff about Vishnu and Shiva, also the most likely to know the religion in Pakistan, and the second most likely to know Joseph Smith. I wonder if it is because they are more likely to have taken a religious studies class?

Why weren’t Muslims or Hindu surveyed? Or were they? The breakdown it gave me about who answered what correctly didn’t include either as a category.

I got them all right (no googling, of course). I would have liked to see correct responses broken down by age. I would have missed some of those when I was younger, I think, anyway.

 

[Barbkw]

I wouldn’t test a Baptist or Buddist knowledge of religion by asking questions about the Catholic faith.

Sad however if true, that Catholics didn’t believe the Eucharist is the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Christ.

Really sad.

 

[Janet1983]

I got 15 out of 15, but that only tells me that I have some education concerning other faiths. That is (as far as I know) non-essential to Christians.
What does my knowledge about the religious background of adherents of other faiths have to do with my relationship with Christ?

 

[MademoiselleRue]

I got 14 out of 15 correct.

I recently read an article on Yahoo! which said that Protestants and Catholics score the lowest, with Catholics behind Protestants by one point. Atheists and agnostics score highest, and I’m not surprised, because most of the atheists I’ve encountered were very knowledgable about not only Christianity, but Islam and sometimes paganism as well. What I AM surprised about is that Catholics should score so low. The aforementioned Yahoo! article also said that most Catholics didn’t realize that the Presence of Christ in the Holy Eucharist was actual rather than symbolic. It’s sad and shocking.

 

[Soler]

I got them all right. Lucky me.

I was a bit doubtful about the “when does the Jewish Sabbath begin” one.
I made educated guesses on the SCOTUS ones (I’m not American).
I had absolutely no idea who was involved in the “First Great Awakening”, but I knew it *wasn’t *Billy Graham; from the other two options, I picked the one that sounded about right.

The rest were easy.

 

[FaustinaClare]

I got 15 out of 15 correct as well. I thought they were rather simple but apparently they weren’t. I agree that it doesn’t really tell anything except you know things about religion in general and culture but not how religious you are I guess.

 

[VetA]

Here is an interesting little quiz about religion.

features.pewforum.org/quiz/us-religious-knowledge/index.php

Peace

i think catholics got the most wrong and about half of the catholic respondents didnt get the one about the Eucharist right

 

[Janet1983]

i think catholics got the most wrong and about half of the catholic respondents didnt get the one about the Eucharist right

Now that sounds rather embarrassing (for the Catholic Church). Maybe they should make sure that their catechesis is upped a little.

 

[Pug]

I got 14 out of 15 correct.

I recently read an article on Yahoo! which said that Protestants and Catholics score the lowest, with Catholics behind Protestants by one point.

Did you notice that the Pew survey broke down Catholics into Hispanic and white and the scores were different between the two? I wonder if the poll being in English and not Spanish affected their score, or if that was accounted for in the poll? I also think a person’s country of origin could change which other religions a person would be likely to know random facts about.

 

[Dale_M]

Interesting. The Atheist/Agnostic was the most likely to know stuff about Vishnu and Shiva, also the most likely to know the religion in Pakistan, and the second most likely to know Joseph Smith. I wonder if it is because they are more likely to have taken a religious studies class?

Perhaps. The study did show a strong correlation between level of education and the number of answers gotten right. And previous studies have shown that persons who actively identify as atheist or agnostic (as opposed to “not much of anything”) tend to have higher levels of education. And awareness of world news tends to rise with education level.

However, I haven’t had any religious studies classes, yet got all the answers right. An active interest in the news probably is is sufficient to be knowledgeable.

Why weren’t Muslims or Hindu surveyed? Or were they? The breakdown it gave me about who answered what correctly didn’t include either as a category.

They were (and Buddhists too) but the number of respondents in those categories were too small to allow for accurate statistics.
pewforum.org/uploadedFiles/Topics/Belief_and_Practices/religious-knowledge-full-report.pdf
(see page 30)

I would have liked to see correct responses broken down by age. I would have missed some of those when I was younger, I think, anyway.

Yep, me too. I’m not sure that formal education helps so much as simply being willing and able to engage the world outside your own daily affairs. Young adults raising children likely have less time to consume news, in addition to having less cumulative exposure to it.

 

[Todd520]

Now that sounds rather embarrassing (for the Catholic Church). Maybe they should make sure that their catechesis is upped a little.

Other faiths only did Marginally better. Like 7% of Mormons didn’t know Joesph Smith was mormon

Considering Athiests did the best, it’s a broad condemnation of catechism and all the faiths need to up their game.

 

[Janet1983]

Other faiths only did Marginally better. Like 7% of Mormons didn’t know Joesph Smith was mormon

Considering Athiests did the best, it’s a broad condemnation of catechism and all the faiths need to up their game.

Well he was actually raised Protestant (though he might have not joined a church… his family did take part in revivals) and then later became Mormon… but that’s a whole new ball game.
I get what you’re saying. The individual groups should have gotten close to 100% in the questions that are asking essential facts about their faith or about honored people in their faith.

 

[John_Paul_Jones]

Other faiths only did Marginally better. Like 7% of Mormons didn’t know Joesph Smith was mormon

Considering Athiests did the best, it’s a broad condemnation of catechism and all the faiths need to up their game.

Actually it’s his son, Joseph Smith, Jr. who was Mormon - maybe that 7% thought it was a trick question…

I got 14/15 right, the last two were guesses.

 

[seeker57]

I answered 15 out of 15 correctly, and I’m not even athiest!

Of course, part of it could be a result of our studying various religions in our adult religious education programs. (We just finished Islam.)

But I am surprised more Catholics didn’t know the Catholic belief regarding transubstantiation.

Seeker.

 

[Janet1983]

Actually it’s his son, Joseph Smith, Jr. who was Mormon - maybe that 7% thought it was a trick question…

I got 14/15 right, the last two were guesses.

Well most people do assume that Joseph Smith Jr. is meant when talking about Joseph Smith.

 

[Janet1983]

I answered 15 out of 15 correctly, and I’m not even athiest!

Of course, part of it could be a result of our studying various religions in our adult religious education programs. (We just finished Islam.)

But I am surprised more Catholics didn’t know the Catholic belief regarding transubstantiation.

Seeker.

In my Catholic religious education course at school we actually had a book that was devoted to giving a glimpse into the other religions and comparing them to Christianity. We went through each book in a matter of 3 months, so it wasn’t very long until we got back to our solely Catholic religious education, but I guess that helped me in getting the answers right.
Just the information about the rights of teachers and the First Great Awakening was something I acquired in the past few years.

 

[VetA]

Now that sounds rather embarrassing (for the Catholic Church). Maybe they should make sure that their catechesis is upped a little.

that is the point i was trying to make…

 

[slave_of_god]

I got 8 of 15
For those who got full mark, what to do to increase religious info. what do you recommend ?

 

[Todd520]

Actually it’s his son, Joseph Smith, Jr. who was Mormon - maybe that 7% thought it was a trick question…

I got 14/15 right, the last two were guesses.

I thought Joseph Smith Sr (Dad to Joseph Jr.) was Mormon as well

• he was one of the 8 witnesses of the BoM
• he was name first Presiding Patriarch of the Church
• he was a member of the First Presidency