American's religious IQ lacking

[Thor]

CNN and NY Times with this as one of their lead stories today. Mini 10 question quiz on CNN story as well.

Odds are that you know Mother Teresa was Catholic, but what religion is the Dalai Lama?
How about Maimonides?
And - no Googling - what's the first book of the Bible? How about the first four books of the New Testament?
Americans who can answer all of those questions are relatively rare, a huge new study has found.
In fact, although the United States is one of the most religious developed countries in the world, most Americans scored 50 percent or less on a quiz measuring knowledge of the Bible, world religions and what the Constitution says about religion in public life.
The survey is full of surprising findings.
For example, it's not evangelicals or Catholics who did best - it's atheists and agnostics.
It's not Bible-belt Southerners who scored highest - they came at the bottom.
Those who believe the Bible is the literal word of God did slightly worse than average, while those who say it is not the word of God scored slightly better.

http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2010/0...-finds/?hpt=C1


NY Times article:

¶ Fifty-three percent of Protestants could not identify Martin Luther as the man who started the Protestant Reformation.
¶ 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-three percent of Jews did not know that Maimonides, one of the foremost rabbinical authorities and philosophers, was Jewish.

lol wtf Protestants


http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/28/us/28religion.html

[Hemi-Cuda]

not surprising that atheists know more about religion than the bible belt does. the more you actually learn about a religion and everything that it preaches (not just the convenient bits) the less likely you are to have faith in it

[Thor]

Maybe this will spurn a demand for world religion history class in public schools.

[Redliner]

Pretty sad, really. As someone who would identify himself as being religious, I would hope that anyone who would claim belong to any religion would at least know what they are supposed to believe in. Many religions (if not most) are structured as though they are to be central to the lifestyle and choices of the adherent, so for someone to "stand up and be counted among the faithful", I would expect (rather naively, as it turns out) that they would have at least a basic understanding of what they are standing up for.

To have even a somewhat comprehensive knowledge of every religion out there requires a tremendous amount of study, but it would be nice if people could at least make an effort to learn the basics. I personally don't think that a world religion class would be out of place in a public school system. Not to indoctrinate, but to educate. I took several religious studies courses in University and they were some of the most interesting classes I had. Right or wrong, there isn't much out there that has had more of an effect in shaping the world through the ages than religion.

[Thor]

Australia was trying or has done just that. Added a world religions class.I think its important that more countries would do this, at least a basic understanding of the various world religions certainly couldn´t hurt in the tolerance and understanding column.I disagree that public school isn´t the place, I think that is the best place for it and in the religious schools as well.

[PIMking]

Thoughts and Prayers....

With how fanatical they are here really made me push further away from organized religon.

[photon]

During all my time going to church, almost always whatever was taught was a devotional perspective.. how does this scripture apply to your life kind of thing, so this isn't that surprising to me, I didn't learn about church history or any of that until I decided to do it myself.

[Cowperson]

Originally Posted by Hemi-Cuda

not surprising that atheists know more about religion than the bible belt does. the more you actually learn about a religion and everything that it preaches (not just the convenient bits) the less likely you are to have faith in it

I agree.

Organized religion across all spectrums is obviously a creation of man . . . . . so to believe in its mysticism requires an elevated level of "faith" to swallow the obvious hooey.

As I get nearer my death bed someday though, no doubt I'll give "faith" a lot more consideration, unlike Christopher Hitchens is doing right now.

Hey, you gotta believe in something. Right now I believe the government prints the money therefore even if the money is worthless the government will still be able to print me enough to pay me if I own one of their bonds.

And I believe I'll walk over to 7-11 and get a muffin and a diet coke right now.

Cowperson

[Flabbibulin]

One explanation for this might be that atheists are often more interested in religion than most religious people. Many atheists tend to be quite fanatical with their "belief system" that they go out and educate themselves in the areas of Christianity, Islam etc(although I would argue even atheists are afraid of attacking Islam in the same way they do Christianity). The devotion required to be man or woman of faith on the other hand is often difficult to sustain and believers often have Sunday Church as their only contact point to the religious realm (of course they never admit this). Educating themselves in their religion's history, basic principals is something that often doesn't happen- in other words, they want the blessings of their religion, but not the devotion to prayer, studying etc.. On the other side, many atheists are intellectuals, whose roots lie in a solid education and understanding of world history, science, ideologies etc...

IMO, it seems as though atheists are just as interested in converting as religious people are. I am somewhat in the middle in this ongoing feud and just bash both sides. ;-)

[FlamingLonghorn]

The best part of this is the test on cnn.com which gives you a sampling of the test given out. After you answer a question it shows an image depicting the religion that answer was or was about. After you answer that Indonesia is a mostly Muslim country it shows a Hindu shrine.... Epic Fail CNN...

[burn_this_city]

Originally Posted by Sowa

The best part of this is the test on cnn.com which gives you a sampling of the test given out. After you answer a question it shows an image depicting the religion that answer was or was about. After you answer that Indonesia is a mostly Muslim country it shows a Hindu shrine.... Epic Fail CNN...

I laughed at that, I wondered if they did that to make it harder.

[MacGr3gor]

Originally Posted by Flabbibulin

although I would argue even atheists are afraid of attacking Islam in the same way they do Christianity

Care to elaborate? I've always assumed Christianity was the primary target for us atheists because its the predominate religion in the west, and chances are, was the religion they have since departed from.

Islam isn't challenged as much here because it hasn't affected North American culture as much as Europe's has been. If it had a bigger piece of pie, it probably would be challenged more. No atheist I know of is afraid of Islam.

[Flabbibulin]

Originally Posted by MacGr3gor

Care to elaborate? I've always assumed Christianity was the primary target for us atheists because its the predominate religion in the west, and chances are, was the religion they have since departed from.

Islam isn't challenged as much here because it hasn't affected North American culture as much as Europe's has been. If it had a bigger piece of pie, it probably would be challenged more. No atheist I know of is afraid of Islam.

This is true, but I would argue that the focus (on Christianity) of an atheist's scorn often has more to do with personal bitterness because of past experience- And not so much because it is the western, more local
tradition. Islam is growing at a faster rate, arguably has more followers (certainly devout ones), and I would argue is the cause of more strife in the world than Christianity. Regardless, I am very cynical towards all of the major religions, and am ok with the criticism that atheists throw out.

With regards to the fear of Islam, and the retribution one may face because of criticism/mockery directed towards Islam, I don't see how anyone can argue- but this is a commentary directed at everyone, and not just atheists... Taking jabs at Islam in our country, regardless of the medium, is not generally accepted. The same cannot be said for Christianity.

Edit- when I refer to jabs at Islam not being "accepted", I am of course referring to reception on a mass scale, in the media/political sphere.

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by photon

During all my time going to church, almost always whatever was taught was a devotional perspective.. how does this scripture apply to your life kind of thing, so this isn't that surprising to me, I didn't learn about church history or any of that until I decided to do it myself.

ditto, with my experiences, I don't think they really wanted to teach actual church history because of the contradictory and often hypocritical, and bloody aspects of Christianity.


The other possible reason is that the history of the church is all about mans actions in following their devotion in what could be interpreted as a flawed manner whereas the scriptures and bible studies and lessons taugh in the church are considered to be above debate and flaw.

[Red_Baron]

I got 6/10 and I automatically tune out as soon as any type of religion is mentioned as I have no interest in it whatsoever. The ones I got wrong I was guessing at, the ones I got right I did know.

[troutman]

9/10 - missed the Jewish Sabbath (thought it started Saturday)

[Weiser Wonder]

Originally Posted by troutman

9/10 - missed the Jewish Sabbath (thought it started Saturday)

Exactly the same.

[driveway]

Here's the link to the Pew Centre test: http://features.pewforum.org/quiz/us...edge/intro.php

I got 14/15 on this test, placing me in the 98th percentile of respondents. It's pretty cool as they give you a breakdown of the results of the survey by age, gender, religious and ethnic affiliation once you've finished. Hispanic Catholics know jack all about religion.

[Fozzie_DeBear]

Wow...that is so ironic

[SeeBass]

Originally Posted by Weiser Wonder

Exactly the same.

me too