If you want to know about God, you might want to talk to an atheist.
Heresy? Perhaps. But a survey that measured Americans’ knowledge of religion found that atheists and agnostics knew more, on average, than followers of most major faiths. In fact, the gaps in knowledge among some of the faithful may give new meaning to the term “blind faith.”
A majority of Protestants, for instance, couldn’t identify Martin Luther as the driving force behind the Protestant Reformation, according to the survey, released Tuesday by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life. Four in 10 Catholics misunderstood the meaning of their church’s central ritual, incorrectly saying that the bread and wine used in Holy Communion are intended to merely symbolize the body and blood of Christ, not actually become them.
Atheists and agnostics — those who believe there is no God or who aren’t sure — were more likely to answer the survey’s questions correctly. Jews and Mormons ranked just below them in the survey’s measurement of religious knowledge — so close as to be statistically tied.
I do wonder where they got this bit from.
j.m.c.
Mormons do not believe in the Trinity. So while Mormons consider themselves Christian, most Christians would not consider them to be Christian.
It would have been helpful if the article gave the name of the Pew study (since they have published so many studies, and without the name, finding the particular study takes longer). Indeed, they could have provided a link – here is the executive summary. The study is fascinating, you should read ALL of it – the further parts of the study are linked in the right bar.
Interesting here is, e.g., comparison of Afro-American protestants to white mainline protestants. White mainline protestants show that they’ve had more educational opportunities in general, outscoring Afro-American protestants by 21% in the “general knowledge” questions which are not about religion. However, they significantly underperform Afro-American protestants when it comes to issues which are closer to the center of faith. E.g., Black protestants score 4.4/7 in general knowledge of the Bible, compared to White mainline protestants’ 3.9/7. 50% of Black protestants know the names of the four gospels, while only 43% of White mainline protestants knew. However, 46% of White mainline protestants knew that Luther inspired the reformation, while only 40% of Black protestants knew.
That means 25% more Black protestants know the names of the gospels, than know that Luther inspired the reformation. Whereas a few more white protestants knew that Luther inspired the reformation, than knew the names of the gospels.
White mainline protestants seem to ephasize the history of protestantism as a kind of “movement”, with this knowledge being more prominent than the gospels themselves; Black protestants, on the other hand, are focused more on the gospels than they are the “movement history.”
I would have liked to have known what the actual questions were. Martin Luther “being the driving force behind the Protestant reformation” seems a bit slanted. He was big and largely set the fire to the fuse, but that’s an open ended question.
[i]”American atheists and agnostics tend to be people who grew up in a religious tradition and consciously gave it up..”[/i]
Would that not make them apostate’s instead?
#4, the sample survey and a link to the actual questionnaire is on the pew forum website. (I scored 100%. yay me!)
15 out of 15 correct!
Having taken the quiz, however, I believe that Pew has, perhaps, overgeneralized its findings. The quiz tests one’s knowledge of history and comparative religion – there are very few questions concerning actual beliefs. Of course, if one limits oneself to a quiz of only 15 questions, and expands the possible test candidates to everyone, regardless of belief (so as not to show any bias), I suppose overgeneralization is not surprising.
I would like to see a test, directed at those calling themselves “Christian,” containing questions concerning grace, salvation, and the nature of God. It would be interesting to compare test performance by (non)denomination/evangelical/fundamentalist/mainline Christians.
It would also be interesting to know how many persons expressing themselves as members of one faith (eg, Hindu) were able to answer questions concerning other religions correctly.
#5 Roman,
Atheist (or agnostic) and apostate are not exclusive categories.
I got all 15 right. Does that make me an athiest/agnostic? I’m so confused.
I haven’t taken the quiz (and probably won’t), but I can say that a few of us actually do want to understand what it is we don’t believe. 🙂 We’re not all the same any more than you (Christians) are.
I actually do still read the Bible. Just last night I noticed an interesting similarity between Si 24:21 and Jn 6:53 that was worth thinking about in terms of unravelling “eat my flesh, drink my blood”.
regards,
JPB