Athiests know more about Religion

wingedbride

My H, who never discusses politics and religion, came home wanting to talk about this article today. I am not shocked at all the athiests and agnostics know the most, but I am shocked that Mormons know more than Protestants.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39397251/ns/us_news-life/

FallinAgain

J was quizzing me while making dinner.  Mostly, it just convinced me that Americans are stupid.

_Fenton

What did your hub want to say?

I'm not surprised just because if you question your own beliefs, you're more likely to look into what other people believe.

I took the quiz and got 15/15.  BAM!

Not shocked about Mormons.  Aren't LDS pretty suburban?  Protestants would include a lot of isolated, rural people.

ETA: the quiz wasn't hard at all, IMO.  Like Fallin, I think people are just dumb and know more about Lindsay Lohan and Kim Kardashian than Joseph Smith and Mother Teresa.

SarahBethBR

I'm not surprised either.  And not surprised at the Mormon thing, either, really.  I think of Mormons as a group that have to defend their faith pretty regularly.

I took the quiz and only got 1 wrong.  They were really basic questions, in my opinion.

There was some discussion of this on MM, and a lot of people were saying you shouldn't be expected to know these things unless you were close to people of that religion.  Like, how would you know what Ramadan is?  It just blows my mind that someone would have the perspective that, how would I know what the holiest (month-long at that) holiday for a fifth of the people on the planet is?

wingedbride

I see your point about the Mormons.

He just wanted to talk about how pitiful it is that people just don't search out more knowledge. His opinion of Americans continues to go down every year. I think being in Texas affects that greatly.

FallinAgain

I also got 15.  It doesn't have much to do with religious knowledge as* world cultural knowledge.

Mormons only averaged one answer better than Prostestants.  The fact that there appear to be at least 2 questions specific to Mormonism may account for that.

*edited to correct

_Fenton

So maybe the problem is partially that Americans are dumb, but partially that this poll is dumb.

I would like to take this opportunity to say that Dawg just deleted her post bitching about her sister.  I don't know how I feel about this.

shanollee

I love that the word moron comes up right before Moron when I use t9 on my phone to text.  It makes me giggle every time

noisy_penguin

I got 13/15. I'm a dumb atheist. 

modb1rd

i am too stupid to even locate the quiz

noisy_penguin

http://features.pewforum.org/quiz/us-religious-knowledge/

modb1rd

Also 13 of 15. But I admit I thought the Pakistan one was a trick question. so it should have been 14

PDXPhotoGrl

This agnostic got 15/15. I only knew the last one because of a conversation I once had with Fallin, though.

SarahBethBR

I bet almost all of the people who got 14/15 got the last one wrong.  I've never heard of that movement, so my guess was "not Billy Graham."

I liked that after the quiz you can see the results for each question broken down by religion.  I thought it was interesting how many Catholics missed the transubstantiation question.  I mean, I know that there are probably a ton of Catholics that don't actually believe they're eating Jesus, on Sunday, but you'd think they would know that it's one of the core parts of their religion.

_Fenton

In the history of this country, Catholicism was made up heavily of poor, less educated immigrants (Irish and Italian).  I'm guessing many of those people passed on the tradition of going to church to their kids without ever doing much explaining.  If I hadn't gone to private Catholic schools, I wouldn't have known that.  It's not like my parents ever talked about Catholicism at home.  In my experience, you go to church on Sunday, space out for awhile, sing some songs, all of a sudden realize you're in the middle of reciting the Creed or Our Father like a robot without thinking, shake hands, maybe slip out right after communion if you have somewhere to be, and then the rest of the week never really talk about God or religion unless the murder of unborn babies or premarital sex comes up.  Discussion of transubstantiation is not part of the equation!

samfish2bcrab

I scored a 13.   Considering the only time I really go to church is for weddings I thought that was a decent score.   Even the spaced out catholics should know more than I do.   Shouldn't they at least absorb some knowledge in their sub concious?

 

SarahBethBR

samfish2bcrab:

Even the spaced out catholics should know more than I do.   Shouldn't they at least absorb some knowledge in their sub concious?

 

Word.  I've never been to mass or taken communion, so I'm not giving lax Catholics a pass on not knowing that one.

oklagirl

I also got a 15/15.

:::shines former Catholic now agnostic gold star:::

When I first heard about this, I thought the reason athiests and agnostics scored higher was because they had really examined religion before making a decision to reject it. I know I did. But, after reading the questions, it seems like anyone with a basic knowledge of history and culture should be able to answer.

And while I know this is not true of all religious people or Christians, I think they often live in their bubble of righteousness and see no need to seek out new knowledge that isn't of their beliefs.

CaptainSerious

So how are people who identify as "nothing in particular" different from agnostics?  Is it the line of "too ignorant to know there's a name for not caring much about or identifying with a religion?"

Which leads to my next question, why are agnostics and atheists lumped together?  They are far more different than "White Catholics" and "Hispanic Catholics."

ETA:  I got 14/15.  The last question got me.

wingedbride

I got 13/15.

My H grew up Catholic. I mean, he grew up in New Orleans. You are pretty much Catholic if you are from New Orleans. he knew a lot about Catholocism but didn't know one thing about any other religion or even know people who were a different religion.

The article does seem to make the association that agnositics and atheists are more educated. I can see that. While I know many intelligent Catholics, Protestants, etc. (myself included), I know many who are not. But, I don't know a single backwoods yokel that claims to not believe in God.

CaliopeSpidrman

I only got 12.  I admit that I only knew the answer about when the Jewish Sabbath begins from the movie the Frisco Kid.  I was raised Methodist, but they're so laid back that we didn't do any Bible study at all.  So I totally got the question wrong about who suffered for God. 

pdxmouse

15/15 atheist here.

When I'm taking about my classes with Mr M, I frequently end up filling him in on different aspects of Catholic belief/tradition. Although he's agnostic now, he was raised and confirmed Catholic, went to Catholic school through 8th grade, and took AP History and English. Bottles my mind.

tastyburger

PUBLIC SCHOOL TEACHERS CAN LEAD THE CLASS IN PRAYER???? color me surprised.  that's not very seperate church/state.

that was the only one I got wrong, but I also took enough religion classes in college to end up with a minor just because of how many I took.  I find them FASCINATING.  I have a TON of books at home from everything from Hinduism to speaking in tongues and snake handling.  and I'm kind of athiest (though more leaning towards agnostic lately). 

however it does look like I need to brush up on my supreme court rulings.  I was AGHAST to learn that public school teachers can pray in classrooms.

FallinAgain

I think you read that wrong.  They can't lead prayer.  They can teach the Bible as a literary test.  

CaliopeSpidrman

No no no, Tasty.  They can't lead prayer in the classroom.  They CAN read the Bible as an example of literature.

oklagirl

Tasty, I think maybe you read that question wrong. Teacher's aren't permitted to pray in the classroom*, but they are permitted to teach the Bible as literature.

*Although, the year I spent teaching in public schools last year, I heard WAY too much prayer for comfort.

pdxmouse

IIRC, the standards are that students can pray, schools can reserve a spot for prayer/meditation on school grounds, and teachers can lead a moment of silence. Teachers can also wear religious jewelry and symbols.

For this atheist, I have to say I don't think it's so much that I felt the need to study religion before rejecting it. I enjoy studying religious movements because I don't have to figure out if it's true or not, what the right way of doing things are or have my faith challenged. I can just enjoy watching ideas disseminate and the cultural response.

tastyburger

*whew*  I must have read it wrong.  I'm glad our forefathers' expectations have not been shaken down like a house of cards.

ftnups

I took this yesterday. It bottles my mind that ~90% got the prayer in school one right, but only ~25% know that a public school teacher can read a passage from the bible in a literary context. 

14/15, Catholic, missed the last one. Not sure why I didn't just go with the WASPy sounding name, der.

 

SarahBethBR

tastyburger:

I'm glad our forefathers' expectations have not been shaken down like a house of cards.

Um, you should probably not ever spend time in a public school in the Bible Belt if you want to hang onto this notion.

wingedbride

SarahBethBR:

tastyburger:

I'm glad our forefathers' expectations have not been shaken down like a house of cards.

Um, you should probably not ever spend time in a public school in the Bible Belt if you want to hang onto this notion.

You know, I know this happens.Not denying.
But I went to school in the Bible belt and work in a school district here (althoguh I am not sure Texas is the bible belt) and have never personally experienced this.