A new survey of Americans' knowledge of religion found that atheists, agnostics, Jews and Mormons outperformed Protestants and Roman Catholics in answering questions about major religions, while many respondents could not correctly give the most basic tenets of their own faiths.
Forty-five percent of Roman Catholics who participated in the study didn't know that, according to church teaching, the bread and wine used in Holy Communion is not just a symbol, but becomes the body and blood of Christ.
More than half of Protestants could not identify Martin Luther as the person who inspired the Protestant Reformation. And about four in 10 Jews did not know that Maimonides, one of the greatest rabbis and intellectuals in history, was Jewish.
The survey released Tuesday by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life aimed to test a broad range of religious knowledge, including understanding of the Bible, core teachings of different faiths and major figures in religious history. The U.S. is one of the most religious countries in the developed world, especially compared to largely secular Western Europe, but faith leaders and educators have long lamented that Americans still know relatively little about religion.
Respondents to the survey were asked 32 questions with a range of difficulty, including whether they could name the Islamic holy book and the first book of the Bible, or say what century the Mormon religion was founded. On average, participants in the survey answered correctly overall for half of the survey questions.
Atheists and agnostics scored highest, with an average of 21 correct answers, while Jews and Mormons followed with about 20 accurate responses. Protestants overall averaged 16 correct answers, while Catholics followed with a score of about 15.
Not surprisingly, those who said they attended worship at least once a week and considered religion important in their lives often performed better on the overall survey. However, level of education was the best predictor of religious knowledge. The top-performing groups on the survey still came out ahead even when controlling for how much schooling they had completed.
On questions about Christianity, Mormons scored the highest, with an average of about eight correct answers out of 12, followed by white evangelicals, with an average of just over seven correct answers. Jews, along with atheists and agnostics, knew the most about other faiths, such as Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism and Judaism. Less than half of Americans know that the Dalai Lama is Buddhist, and less than four in 10 know that Vishnu and Shiva are part of Hinduism.
The study also found that many Americans don't understand constitutional restrictions on religion in public schools. While a majority know that public school teachers cannot lead classes in prayer, less than a quarter know that the U.S. Supreme Court has clearly stated that teachers can read from the Bible as an example of literature.
"Many Americans think the constitutional restrictions on religion in public schools are tighter than they really are," Pew researchers wrote.
The survey of 3,412 people, conducted between May and June of this year, had a margin of error of plus or minus 2.5 percentage points, while the margins of error for individual religious groups was higher.
Survey: Americans don't know much about religion - Yahoo! News
This doesn't really surprise me, either. That is why I have always said to study your Bible, your chuch's statement of fiaith, and the history of not only your faith, but of other faiths. Most people don't know either that both Christianity and Islam were born out of the same jewish background. Both were conceive from Abraham.
I'm not sure the tile isn't a little misleading. If you read on into the article it states: "On questions about Christianity, Mormons scored the highest, with an average of about eight correct answers out of 12, followed by white evangelicals, with an average of just over seven correct answers. Jews, along with atheists and agnostics, knew the most about other faiths......"
So Christians actually knew more about Christianity than atheists and agnostics, they knew less about other religions bringing their OVERALL score under atheists and agnostics. Title and even part of the content is misleading.
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hmmm I only missed two of the fifteen so I must know more about my religion and more than others about their religion.
crack is whack
I got 14 out of 15. Missed the last one........
[img]http://www.lutte-wrestling.com/old-train2.jpg[/img]
missed that one also, let me guess you said Billy also. The other one I missed I actually changed my answer, I second guessed myself, wrong move.
crack is whack
Actually, I got all 15 correct. Two of the were lucky guesses though.
No, I knew it wasn't Billy, so it was a 50/50 shot and I picked the wrong one.Originally Posted by Monkeyhead
[img]http://www.lutte-wrestling.com/old-train2.jpg[/img]
I got 14/15, I thought Pakistan was mostly Hindu but its apparently mostly Muslim
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I think only the very southern part of Pakistan has a Hindu concentration. Once again the differences in religion has probably led to alot of their conflicts with India even though India has a pretty diverse religious history.
"Call me crazy, but I want to buy the Dallas Cowboys end zone and have the star right at the foot of my bed. That way when I score, I can spike the ball right on the star!" -Woody Paige, Around the Horn 10.9.08
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