Who knows about religion?

[claidheamhmor]

The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life in the US conducted a 32-question survey on religion (specifically, knowledge of the Bible, world religions and what the Constitution says about religion in public life), and polled 3400 Americans.

Some interesting results: atheists and agnostics scored highest (no surprise there). Bible-belt Southerners scored lowest. Only half of Catholics were aware of transubstantiation. Educational level was the best predictor of results.

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

Comments

[jadedflame.livejournal.com]

Not sure if I agree with the education level. I know people with degrees and honours degrees who quite possibly couldn't answer most of those questions. I'm basing this on previous conversations I've had with them, where all they know is the little bit of the one bible they follow, and they could never tell me the similarities or differences with other religions... it was a little frustrating to say the least. AND they were part of a bible studies youth group (you've also met and chatted with them before).
:)

I'm going to steal that article and put it on Twitter - hopefully get my one friend's attention! :)

[claidheamhmor]

LOL. You're so sneaky!

[seawasp]

Their statement is that education level is statistically associated with or predictive of the results of the test. That is, on average, people with higher education levels did better. It is a statement that has nothing to do with any individual person. Note also that you give, in your statement above, reason to expect they WOULDN'T do better -- namely "... the one bible they follow" -- those who are religious did worse than those who aren't. Which effects were dominant? They don't say, so we have no idea if being of certain religious persuasions trumps being highly educated.

[surelle.livejournal.com]

Seems like the atheist communities are all saying "well, duh" this morning. ;)

You know what was interesting when I was at university? Reading the Gospel according to Matthew as a literary text, at a predominantly Jewish university. Most people in the course had not read the New Testament before. Fascinating.

[claidheamhmor]

That must have been really interesting; people tend to not read religious books (that aren't from their own religion), meanwhile they can be very interesting from a literary point of view.

[ubet-cha.livejournal.com]

If you ever want to have fun with your average religious consumer and you believe they'll be honest with sharing the results point them here;

http://www.selectsmart.com/RELIGION/

[claidheamhmor]

"Secular humanist". What a surprise... :)

[jcd1013.livejournal.com]

We Mormons did almost as well as you atheists. :) But nobody did very well.

The Pew Forum discussion of the results is fascinating:
http://www.pewforum.org/Other-Beliefs-and-Practices/U-S-Religious-Knowledge-Survey.aspx

And here's a link to the actual survey (unfortunately, it's the script that they read, so some of the answers are already marked.
http://pewforum.org/uploadedFiles/Topics/Belief_and_Practices/religious-knowledge-questionnaire.pdf

There's also a breakdown of percentages of answers:
http://www.pewforum.org/uploadedFiles/Topics/Belief_and_Practices/religious-knowledge-topline.pdf

I missed 2. I'll admit that I had no idea who Jonathan Edwards or Charles Finney were when I first read the question about the First Great Awakening, so I missed that one (although, upon googling, I instantly recognized Edwards famous sermon. Who could forget the imagery of God pinching little humans like spiders? And it was the Second Great Awakening that lead to the formation of the Mormon church, so maybe I should know more!). And I didn't know who Maimonides was either.

What bothered me the most was that 36% of responders thought that antibiotics killed viruses as well. That's a huge percentage! No wonder I struggle all the time with convincing patients that they don't need antibiotics!

[claidheamhmor]

That was fascinating - thanks for posting the links. The questions were certainly interesting to read through.