Americans don't do well on religion test.

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Americans don't do well on religion test.

Posted: 9/28/10 at 9:59am

This is the part that made me giggle:

"The top scoring groups were atheists/agnostics, Jews and Mormons. These tiny groups, adding up to less than 7% of Americans, scored particularly well on world religion and U.S. constitutional questions. It's unclear why, although highly educated people overall did best on the quiz, researchers say."
Full article.

Americans don't do well on religion test.

Posted: 9/28/10 at 10:07am

Not at all surprised by this. As I have personally moved away from religion, I have become much more informed about it. There are many aspects to 'religion' that have little or no foundation. For example, the concept of the 'rapture' is fairly recent, and grew from the ravings of a man who was discredited in his time.

"It does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are 20 gods or no god. It neither picks my pocket, nor breaks my leg." -- Thomas Jefferson

Americans don't do well on religion test.

Posted: 9/28/10 at 10:20am

I was just about to post this. This doesn't surprise me at all.

Americans don't do well on religion test.

Posted: 9/28/10 at 10:21am

I got a perfect score on the "Test Yourself on Religion" quiz. Then again, I am highly educated, so...

Salve, Regina, Mater misericordiae
Vita, dulcedo, et spes nostra
Salve, Salve Regina
Ad te clamamus exsules filii Eva
Ad te suspiramus, gementes et flentes
O clemens O pia

Americans don't do well on religion test.

Posted: 9/28/10 at 10:54am

I, too, got a perfect score on the "Test Yourself on Religion" quiz. Despite my obvious genius status, I'm not sure how well I'd do on the actual quiz. This one seemed extremely basic to me, and although I wouldn't consider myself woefully uneducated about other religions, I don't know nearly enough about them. When I stop getting the "Server too busy" message from the Pew Forum, I definitely plan to go look at the full survey.

Although I'm kind of disappointed most Catholics don't know that the bread and wine become the body and blood. You think they'd remember that cannibalism is the focal point of our faith.

When I see the phrase "the ____ estate", I imagine a vast mansion in the country full of monocled men and high-collared women receiving letters about productions across the country and doing spit-takes at whatever they contain. -Kad

Americans don't do well on religion test.

Posted: 9/28/10 at 11:15am

I'm not at all surprised atheists, Jews, and Mormons scored highest... or that Americans, as a whole, scored poorly.

We already knew a great many fervent Christians don't seem to know a great deal about the specifics of their religion, except that it's the best.

"...everyone finally shut up, and the audience could enjoy the beginning of the Anatevka Pogram in peace."

Americans don't do well on religion test.

Posted: 9/28/10 at 11:18am

The results are fascinating (if depressing) to read:

http://www.pewforum.org/uploadedFiles/Topics/Belief_and_Practices/religious-knowledge-topline.pdf

More people knew that Zeus was king of the Greek gods than that Joe Biden is the current Vice President!

Americans don't do well on religion test.

Posted: 9/28/10 at 11:26am

One of the last classes I took as an undergrad was a sociology of religion class. We looked at a lot of surveys and maps from the Pew Forum and The ARDA (The Association of Religion Data Archives) and it was some of the most fascinating and depressing stuff I've ever read.

Americans don't do well on religion test.

Posted: 9/28/10 at 11:42am

If I read Jilani's posted report correctly, 40% of respondents are creationists?

#10

Americans don't do well on religion test.

Posted: 9/28/10 at 11:46am

Appears that way . . . in fact, Gallup previously reported poll results indicating that only 40% of Americans affirmatively believe in evolution:

http://www.gallup.com/poll/114544/darwin-birthday-believe-evolution.aspx

#11

Americans don't do well on religion test.

Posted: 9/28/10 at 11:51am

That's about what The ARDA's poll results were. (about 42% either agree or strongly agree that humans evolved from other primates)

http://www.thearda.com/quickstats/qs_23.asp

#12

Americans don't do well on religion test.

Posted: 9/28/10 at 12:05pm

That's the type of thing that makes me ask, "REALLY?!?"

And then I simply have no idea what else to say.

#13

Americans don't do well on religion test.

Posted: 9/28/10 at 12:08pm

What I find fascinating, and what I want to learn more about, is the school of thought that embraces both science AND theology. There are those who accept evolution, and accept that the earth is billions of years old, and accept that the bible is mostly fiction/folklore, but still have their faith.

"It does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are 20 gods or no god. It neither picks my pocket, nor breaks my leg." -- Thomas Jefferson

#14

Americans don't do well on religion test.

Posted: 9/28/10 at 12:20pm

I do want to point out that Catholic teaching does not interpret the Bible literally. Not that it's fiction or folklore, as you say, madbrian, but that it's more metaphor for what really happened.

Updated On: 9/28/10 at 12:20 PM

#15

Americans don't do well on religion test.

Posted: 9/28/10 at 1:32pm

I'm a bit nauseated now, I admit.

Deet: Shira, I Love You!

#16

Americans don't do well on religion test.

Posted: 9/28/10 at 1:43pm

Brian- I belong to that school of thought.

I have a strong faith, yet I understand that our universe is built on science. What I find fascinating is those who argue that that higher power and science can not exist together. I tend to use the term higher power instead of God, because people think of a magic genie in the sky when you say God, but I believe in more of a force.

I truly believe that whatever force is out there does not care if you are gay or straight, or if you are a Christian (or religious at all). Rather this force tries to guide us to be the best we can be.

However, I fully acknowledge that people, especially groups of people, are idiots (which makes organized religion a mess).

The bible is a book, written by men and translated thousands of times (each with an ideaology, see the King James Bible). However, there are lessons in the bible that everyone can benefit from (be a good person and all that). There is also a lot of crap. Churches are run by men, many have alternative purposes. None of this means that faith is bad, just that some people are idiots.

David walked into the valley With a stone clutched in his hand He was only a boy But he knew someone must take a stand There will always be a valley Always mountains one must scale There will always be perilous waters Which someone must sail -Into the Fire Scarlet Pimpernel

#17

Americans don't do well on religion test.

Posted: 9/28/10 at 1:47pm

"this force tries to guide us"

It's the attribution of a kind of consciousness that leaves me baffled.

#18

Americans don't do well on religion test.

Posted: 9/28/10 at 1:54pm

Q- Have you ever felt something telling you to do something, to take a risk? That is what I mean.

#19

Americans don't do well on religion test.

Posted: 9/28/10 at 1:55pm

I got 100% on the quiz! Thank god for us atheists! We rule! WOOOOO!

Twitter @NamoInExile Instagram none

#20

Americans don't do well on religion test.

Posted: 9/28/10 at 1:57pm

Jacob - I don't see how what you decribe gets attibuted to some consciousness outside yourself.

#21

Americans don't do well on religion test.

Posted: 9/28/10 at 4:53pm

"What I find fascinating, and what I want to learn more about, is the school of thought that embraces both science AND theology. There are those who accept evolution, and accept that the earth is billions of years old, and accept that the bible is mostly fiction/folklore, but still have their faith"

That is essentially what I got out of four years of Jesuit high school. They didn't go so far as to say fiction/folklore, but they definitely stressed that the Bible, especially Genesis, was not a literal, fact-based story. Our science classes did not avoid evolutionary theory, the Big Bang Theory, or anything else along those lines in any way, nor did our theology classes.

#22

Americans don't do well on religion test.

Posted: 9/28/10 at 4:54pm

I have always been one of those people who claim to be "spiritual" while eschewing religion.

I will admit that recently I have been having serious issues with even that. I'm a lot closer to athesim now that I ever have been.
(thank you Stephen Hawking)

I honestly don't know where I stand on the whole "higher power" thing, my position changes daily. But I'd be lying if I said I didn't struggle with it.

....but the world goes 'round

#23

Americans don't do well on religion test.

Posted: 9/28/10 at 6:31pm

"That is essentially what I got out of four years of Jesuit high school."

I am also the product of a Jesuit high school. I chose the word 'folklore' deliberately, and I think there is a lot to it. For example, many ancient cultures have stories about a great flood, and the best current science dates them to the same approximate time period. So, there's probably a grain of fact behind the story of Noah.

"It does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are 20 gods or no god. It neither picks my pocket, nor breaks my leg." -- Thomas Jefferson

#24

Americans don't do well on religion test.

Posted: 9/29/10 at 12:28am

I see what you mean there, madbrian (and nice to meet a fellow alum of the Jesuit education system). Oddly enough, none of the Jesuits at my high school actually taught theology (at least while I was there, that may have changed since then). That department was made up entirely of lay people.

#25

Americans don't do well on religion test.

Posted: 9/29/10 at 1:50am

I'm reticent to even post in this thread, but I'm in the "spiritual but not religious" camp, and I understand perfectly what Jacob was trying to articulate.

ETA - it is an INTENSELY personal subject for me, so I wouldn't care to discuss it further in a public forum. I just agreed with what Jacob said and wanted to back him up.

And no one grew into anything new, we just became the worst of what we were."

Updated On: 9/29/10 at 01:50 AM

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