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Posted on 09/28/2010 6:06:14 AM PDT by lbryce
Researchers from the independent Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life phoned more than 3,400 Americans and asked them 32 questions about the Bible, Christianity and other world religions, famous religious figures and the constitutional principles governing religion in public life.
On average, people who took the survey answered half the questions incorrectly, and many flubbed even questions about their own faith.
Those who scored the highest were atheists and agnostics, as well as two religious minorities: Jews and Mormons. The results were the same even after the researchers controlled for factors like age and racial differences.
“Even after all these other factors, including education, are taken into account, atheists and agnostics, Jews and Mormons still outperform all the other religious groups in our survey,” said Greg Smith, a senior researcher at Pew.
That finding might surprise some, but not Dave Silverman, president of American Atheists, an advocacy group for nonbelievers that was founded by Madalyn Murray O’Hair.
“I have heard many times that atheists know more about religion than religious people,” Mr. Silverman said. “Atheism is an effect of that knowledge, not a lack of knowledge. I gave a Bible to my daughter. That’s how you make atheists.”
Among the topics covered in the survey were: Where was Jesus born? What is Ramadan? Whose writings inspired the Protestant Reformation? Which Biblical figure led the exodus from Egypt? What religion is the Dalai Lama? Joseph Smith? Mother Theresa? In most cases, the format was multiple choice.
The researchers said that the questionnaire was designed to represent a breadth of knowledge about religion, but was not intended to be regarded as a list of the most essential facts about the subject. Most of the questions were easy, but a few were difficult enough to discern which respondents were highly knowledgeable.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Conservatism is recognizing that there is an objective and unchanging basis for truth, and therefore for belief and policy.
If truth is based on changing and flawed human reasoning,
then you don’t have conservatism.
“Conservatism is recognizing that there is an objective and unchanging basis for truth..”
####
That’s it in a nutshell, isn’t it?
And therein lies the problem so many of the smugly “intelligent” on the Left have with moral clarity and judgmentalism.
There truly IS a right and a wrong.
Funny the bit about Martin Luther. I was just the other day explaining to a Christian who Martin Luther was.
**Once you learn all about the bible it’s pretty easy to come to the conclusion that it’s all just a bunch of bunk!***
When you compare the Bible to other mythology the bible is very tame. No cyclopses, Hydras, monsters, furies, Only people born into the arena of the real world and must survive, and somewhere along the way you suddenly find yourself in recorded history.
I find the Old Testament to be extremely interesting as it shows the beliefs and attempts to survive in a cruel world. Much of the things people don’t understand is the culture of the time which is reflected in their actions.
The New Testament gives us a look into the beginnings of the largest faith on the planet and how it survived at a very cruel time in history.
Don’t discount the bible. Why else would all the non Christian religions (including Liberalism and atheism) hate it so much!
***I had beliefs about Scripture that were completely blown away the first time actually picked it up and read it.***
Years ago it used to be fun to go down to the smoke filled cafe or barbershop and just listen to the old men expound on what they “heard somewhere” about something is in the bible.
They were mostly wrong.
But fewer than one of four knew that a public school teacher is permitted “to read from the Bible as an example of literature.” And only about one third knew that a public school teacher is permitted to offer a class comparing the world’s religions.Because in many schools, the principles and districts don't know what we are supposed to be allowed to do, and they ban these things. Atheists would naturally say these were permitted, because they think it's a bad thing and would like to stop it. Christians who see themselves being silenced would answer "NO", and Pew would call that a "wrong answer".
As a practical matter, most teachers are scared to death to use the Bible as "literature", and teachers don't get to decide what their classes are supposed to teach -- it would be a school system that would offer a "comparative religions" class. Although I'd be surprised if it spent much time on Christianity, much less covered all the different types of Christianity (which itself could take a year).
I had an english teacher who decided to expose us to different things, so she invited people to find wiccans, atheists, buddists, jews, hindu, and other non-Christian religions and organizations to come speak to the clas (yes, we had a mother/daughter team of witches speak to our class back in the 70s -- which shows how stupid the mockery of O'Donnell is on that subject).
But no Christians. We all "knew" about that religion already, she claimed. However, we did talk her into going to church with us, as a compromise.
To answer your question, THEY DON'T. You just misread the article, and jumped to a false conclusion. The article explicitly states that Mormons and Evangelical Christians did best on the questions that pertained to the Bible.
Atheists tend to learn just enough about religions to mock them, and I've seen nothing in any of the questions that really suggests a "deep understanding" of ANY religion is required, just a passing knowledge of them.
***They actually studied it at some time.***
That doesn’t mean much. I can read the koran to learn about but not believe it.
Yup, exactly. You can learn about a faith without being a believer.
Awesome! I’ll be needing that!!
I wonder if they only called Sunday morning to get these results.
***Because in many schools, the principles and districts don’t know what we are supposed to be allowed to do, and they ban these things.***
There was no problem with this in schools before the 1960s.
It was a communist welfare queen who upset the applecart. She wanted to emegrate to the USSR since she was a communist but they rejected her as she had never had a real job.
She then wanted to put her children back in school in the US but had to wait a few minutes for morning “devotions” to end. She became so upset with this that she sued and won before the Supreme Court.
That was Madaline Murray (O’Hair).
Her foot slipped in due time and one of her own followers took her and most of her family out.
How does anyone score less than a 13 on this test?
Love this line and your tag line as well.
"If truth is based on changing and flawed human reasoning, then you don’t have conservatism."
This^
JW :)
I Corinthians 2:14
It's difficult enough to come up with a rationale for why atheists, agnostics, do so much better than religious folks in a Bible survey...
...the Pew organization has a Lefty outlook so I expect they loaded the questions to mock Christians.
I felt the need to actually read the survey and see the questions and methodology before commenting on this survey and it was worth the wait.
Several things are apparent, including the fact that I agree with your comments to a very insignificant degree.
That the Pew organization may have a leftist lean is inconsequential, the questions are legitimate. For example, the question on the Catholic doctrine of Transubstantiation may seem unfair, since other doctrines of other religions that might lend themselves to ridicule are totally absent. I am thinking specifically about mohamed's "trip to heaven" on Barack, the sacred white horse. I shall not comment further.
I took the abbreviated test which is on line and answered all questions correctly. This I know was not the result of anything I learned in college. Zero... zip. It was the result of my high school education (Jesuit) and a lifelong hunger for knowledge (to a fault) about anything and everything, mostly through reading constantly throughout my entire life. The questions can all be answered by in depth learning of history, cultures, geography, religions, politics, astronomy, mathematics, technology and the sciences. That agnostics and atheists are strong in this ability is not surprising. But this does not prohibit deeply religious people from similar learning. I am a lifelong Catholic, but my curiosity and skepticism genes are fully active. Blindly religious persons are driven by faith alone, and this closes all doors to the study of everyone else's religions. This need not be so, but that's the reality; the reason why the admonition exists about never discussing religion and politics among slight acquaintances. Too much depends on faith, which not only can be, but often is irrational.
Some arcane questions are unfair, but to the constant learner not a surprise. The "Great Awakening" question, for example, is fully discussed in the mistitled A Patriot's History of the United States. It should be titled " A Citizen's History of the United States." But all the answers are not there, either. The best un-PC discusssion of islam and mohamed, for instance, are in the first edition of the Encyclopedia Britanica, 1771.
To underscore the survey's schitzophrenia, for example, what does Susan B. Anthony have to do with religion?
The survey seems to be a combination of religious knowledge and general knowledge. Not necessarily a criticism, but the results being characterized as "religious ignorance" is indeed puzzling.
They're smarter?
but Jews and Mormons together on the same side as atheists, agnostics.....
I've noticed that some older Jews seem to follow news about the Pope a lot more closely than one would expect.
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