Posted on 09/28/2010 11:55:57 AM PDT by killermedic
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.... 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.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
...don’t know much about the French I took.
But I didn't know them personally.
Don’t mean to break up your “Elsiethon”, but....lol.
Seems like 3,000 were baptized on the day of the Descenet of Holy Spirit on the apostles.
Men of every nation could the apostles speaking in their own tongues, dialects, etc.
(Reversal of the Tower of Babel where the languages were all mixed up.)
Descent
That survey is not about religion as the religious understand religion. It is about “religion” as the secular statists define it.
I’m trying to find this survey to take it online, but alas, it was a telephone survey.
Too bad that people on FR didn’t get called!
The very first question he read was a multiple choice Q as to where Jesus was born...the choices included Jerusalem, Nazareth, Bethlehem, and Jericho.
Now, the Book of Mormon prophesied that Jesus would be born in Jerusalem (Alma 7:10). What's interesting about the survey is that a higher % of Mormons got this question right than the other groups.
What does that mean?
(1) It means Mormons openly disregarded the Book of Mormon and took the New Testament answer (Bethlehem) as legit. Why?
(2) It means that the standard Mormon apologetic answer -- when people point out the BoM claim about Jerusalem -- doesn't apply. I mean, basically, Mormon apologists try claiming that when the BoM says "Jerusalem," it's somehow close enough.
Well, if that was the case -- if 83% of Mormons chose Bethlehem -- and say another 16% chose Jerusalem -- by Mormon apologetic standards, the Pew Forum should have just said "close enough" -- and that 99% of Mormons got the question right by answering either Jerusalem or Bethlehem.
So are the Mormon apologists going to be consistent? Are they going to get on the Pew Forum survey testers' case for claiming that whoever answered "Jerusalem" in that survey's question was wrong?
Or is it yet more inconsistency from the Mormon apologists?
Well, that does it. Mormonism MUST be true. I’m rushing off to sign up right now, as soon as I burn all my pretty underwear, pour out that little bottle of bourbon I use for bourbon salmon, find my checkbook, and change into a calf-length skirt.
Oh my heck! Anybody know a good laser tattoo removal place?
Exactly.
1856 was the year that the fledgling Republican party decided its social agenda was to take on the two toughest social issues imaginable -- slavery and polygamy -- which it referenced as the "twin relics of barbarism" at that time.
Today? Wimpy Republicans say we can't even address social issues in light of the economy.
Here, slavery was tearing our nation apart in 1856...we were on the verge of a war that would kill more Americans than all the other wars put together involving America, and we didn't hear wimpy excuses like, "Oh, we can't address 'social issues' like slavery & polygamy because of the division and hostility they cause. Why, we might lose the Southern vote."
Nonsense. Just shows how many are Republicans in Name Only vs. the tried & true original Republican spirit.
No, the Book of Mormon says that Jesus would be born at Jerusalem, not in Jerusalem:
10 And behold, he shall be born of Mary, at Jerusalem which is the land of our forefathers, she being a virgin, a precious and chosen vessel, who shall be overshadowed and conceive by the power of the Holy Ghost, and bring forth a son, yea, even the Son of God. (Alma 7:10)
As you no doubt are aware, the preposition at can mean "near." Bethelehem, being about six miles from the center of Jerusalem, certainly qualifies as "near Jerusalem."
I wonder if anyone bothered to see if there was a connection between regular church attendance and knowledge about one’s faith. For instance the claim that a number of Catholics did not know that Christ is truly present in the Eucharist strikes me as downright unlikely for any Catholic who attends Mass regularly.
***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.***
And no test is valid unless it asks...
Who is the bound underworld god who shakes the earth when snake venom drips on him?
Who is the blind idiot god who dances to faceless flute players?
Who is the bat winged black faceless god at the earth’s center?
Inquiring minds want to know! ;-)
On questions about the book of Genesis & where Jesus was born, white Evangelicals scored the same as Lds...and only 2 % pts behind Lds on naming the 4 gospels, which is neglible.
Where white between 1-in-8 and 1-in-4 more (more 1-in-8) Evangelicals tended to "flunk" was key characters in the Old Testament.
One in four more Evangelicals failed by faultily identifying the Golden Rule as a commandment. That was at least more understandable, given verses where Jesus would say: 34A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. (John 13:34)
Overall of the dozen questions about the Bible, the avg. score distinction between Lds & Evangelicals was only half a question. And given that Lds study basic Bible tidbits, & tend to twist the key parts of the Bible into unrecognizable pretzels, no big surprise.
HE did NOT give [The Law] to 'man' but to HIS 'chosen people'
Nothing could be further from the Truth. The Law, though given through Moses on the tablets is also written on to the heart of every man, condemns all men of every nation of every time, head for head. For it is through the Law that we know what is sin and for why the sinner is condemned. If the Law was only given to the "His chosen people" then there would be no condemnation for without the Law there is no knowledge of sin. It is the knowledge of the law where sin can be imputed.
Failure to recognize Law and Grace make for an empty and ineffective Gospel.
Let's see...Bill Clinton parsed the word "is" --- and now you're parsing the supposed "distinction" between at or in.
But thank you for chiming up. 'Cause you made my point, which is, that per Mormon apologists, if a Mormon (or anyone) taking this survey answered "Jerusalem" -- one of the choices on this multiple-choice survey -- then they would be "correct."
I mean, what? They did a survey where answering either of two cities was the "correct" answer per your apologetic? So, yes or no, answering either of two answers was "correct?"
Well, 35% of Catholics didn't know Jesus was born in Bethelem -- the highest %. And of all the groups that scored the worst, even worse than those who don't any religious Identification at all, was Hispanic Catholics.
IOW, "social" generational Catholics...who are Catholics by mere family ID only...
That is why you are confused! you don’t know the difference (or how to read). based on this survey, Mormons demonstrated a higher knowledge of Christianity. Deal with it.
I guess it is hard for you to see the survey for what it was... A SURVEY. Mormons didn’t write it, neither did Mormonism. The fact that Mormons demonstrated more knowledge of things Christian (not surprising) than did other “Christians” is all that is pointed out. you can try to be apologetic about the results but it is what it is. Deal with it.
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