NYT: On Basic Religion Test, Many Doth Not Pass

[YankeyMCC]

(snip)

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.

(snip)

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/28/us/28religion.html?hp

Doesn't surprise me either.

[Cirque du So-What]

1. Perhaps that explains why so many elderly people

spend a good deal of their time reading the bible; they're cramming for their finals.

[markbark]

5. It doesn't surprise me

that Atheists and Agnostics scored the highest.
The best way to create an Atheist is to have them read the bible (...or koran or bhagavad ghita. pick one!)

[trotsky]

2. "Those who scored the highest were atheists and agnostics"

Yup, no surprises there. What's the next survey going to reveal - that most people breathe air?

[TZ]

4. Well

considering the right wing tendency to make shit up and for people just to unthinkingly believe it, this doesn't surprise me. The most religious folks aren't particularly known for fact checking..and that does not surprise me that it extends to biblical knowledge. I really have little specific knowledge of the bible but I have been surprised by how often I seem to know some of the OT better than some Christians. I was shocked to encounter people recently that didn't know that the Last Supper was a passover seder! :wtf:

[trotsky]

6. Oh absolutely. And there's another aspect -

you've got non-believers like myself who used to be religious. And nearly to a person, everyone I've met in that grouping became a non-believer after really reading and researching religious literature. Part of my awakening was reading the bible cover-to-cover, for instance. (And slugging thru Mere Christianity, which was so recommended. I want those hours of my life back!)

[dimbear]

11. Possibly because many authorities don't agree.

It depends upon who is accepted as an authority and also which gospel you consider to have priority. More or less 100% not clear whether yes or no.

[TZ]

17. Ah okay. Go one tell me about how Jesus WASN'T really Jewish

either. Because apparantly a lot of white supremecists like to go around claiming that as well.

[muriel_volestrangler]

18. The gospels disagree about it, it seems

One says it was the day before the Passover started.

The books of Mark, Matthew, and Luke all describe the Last Supper as a Passover Seder. Matthew 26:17, for example, addresses the debate about where to hold the meal: "Now the first day of the feast of unleavened bread the disciples came to Jesus, saying unto him, Where wilt thou that we prepare for thee to eat the Passover?" Mark, Matt, and Luke, however, are notoriously unreliable. Written in the early days of the church as evangelical tools, they focus more on the sayings of Jesus, not on the precise details of his life. The usually more dependable (at least in terms of biographical information) John places the Last Supper on the day before Passover. In John 18:28, the dastardly Jews who hand Jesus over to Pontius Pilate refrain from entering the impure palace as "they wanted to be able to eat the Passover."
...
http://www.slate.com/id/2248977/

This, of course, would be an important aspect of theology, and not just trivia that any old atheist might get right more often than a believer ... :evilgrin:

[dimbear]

19. That may be coincidental.

Modern Biblical scholarship has its roots in Germany and Holland. To some extent those studies were put to perverse uses.

For example, the notorious Jew hatred found in Marcion was welcomed by the Third Reich.

I don't personally sieve all my Biblical lore to remove politically sensitive views, but rather seek historical truth.

Typical sort of thing an unilluminated atheist like me would do.

[wookie72]

14. 65% is not that great a mark either.

And in this case it amounted to an average of four questions more.

[Bitwit1234]

3. AND pray tell why is it wrong not to know what it is the Bible

there are a heck of a lot of people who don't believe any of that stuff. I don't go to church anymore, because of the attitude of preachers and religious nutso trying to make you be religious. You should have the right to believe what you want. And this same guy, on the CNN site, says that we should teach the Bible and religion in our schools. WHY???? WITH IT BEING AGAINST THE PROVISIONS OF THE CONSTITUTION.

Remember, republicans are so gung ho on the second amendment and others they agree with, how come they want to change the ones they don't. After all with tea bags and republicans it is the Constitution and their religion all the time.

[YankeyMCC]

7. I and I think the article is not claiming it is right or wrong

Merely pointing out a statistic or a finding based on the polling process they used that they think is perhaps useful information in understanding ourselves, each other and how the human mind works in general.

I find it interesting and perhaps useful to know that the more adamant a person is that they know the "truth" the less likely they are to have actually studied the text they claim the truth is derived from.

[wookie72]

13. Actually,if you did the quiz...

You'd see that it is entirely within the constitution to teach the Bible as literature.

[Goblinmonger]

8. I got 6/6 on their little quiz

I can see how people would not know that. Not saying they shouldn't, mind you.

[GoneOffShore]

9. Took the NYT test questions.

Got 6 out of 6.

[Igel]

12. I looked up the survey itself.

Didn't know Jonathan Edwards was a big deal in the First Great Awakening, did know that Billy Graham and Finney weren't involved so got to the right answer by the process of elimination.

I knew who Maimonides was.

In other words, some of the "religion" questions are sort of not about religion but the history of religion and the religion of people in history. Others were geography based--what's the dominant religion in Indonesia, for instance? (Are these really facts about religion?)

On the other hand, I don't think it says what people think it says about the relative awareness of people in different faiths.

It shows that people with non-majority-religion status (weirdly worded so as to include atheists without impinging upon their sensitivities) know about majority religions more often than people in majority religions know about minority religions. In the US, that means if you're Muslim, atheist, Buddhist, you're likely to know more about majority religions than the typical Catholic is going to know about Islam or Buddhism. On the other hand, if you're Muslim, atheist, or Buddhist you're fairly to have been Xian at some point (but if you're Xian, you're unlikely to have been raised Muslim, atheist, or Buddhist).

In fact, the less minority your religion--Catholic, Baptist, Protestant--the lower your awareness of other sects. However, general education level also plays a role: If you're black or Latino, you're also going to be stupider when it comes to religion, you'd have to assume. Then again, if you're black or Latino you're going to be (a) lesser educated than Caucasian of most stripes and (b) you're very likely to be Baptist or Latino, so these aren't really three independent factors.

[jeepnstein]

10. In some denominations...

there is a willful ignorance of what the Bible actually says. It's easier to be spoon fed by some "pastor" who either makes it up as he goes or lifts things out of context to suit a worldly purpose. I know people who profess to be Christian who will freely admit to having never read even the New Testament.

[dimbear]

15. Not only is that true, it used to be a capital offense

to produce Bibles at all. A burning at the stake type offense.

[cleanhippie]

16. .