Results of Religious Knowledge Survey In

From today's NYT: On Basic Religion Test, Many Doth Not PassExcerpt: Survey summary: U.S. Religious Knowledge SurveyThe survey itself: Appendix B: Survey ToplineIf Mignat is still around he might want to take a look at this to see how real surveys are conducted and how their results are presented and summarized.--Percy

Here's another report on the same survey:Don't know much about religion? You're not alone, study finds – CNN Belief Blog - CNN.com BlogsThe finding should come as little surprise to many evcforum participants. One of the things that shows up clearly in our debates, is that many Christians do not know their Bible. Perhaps they have been relying too much on soundbites.

It should come as no surprise that outsiders would be more knowledgable about a religion than members themselves. Outsiders need to make an effort to learn about a religion, whereas many members (in a number of cases, most members, sometimes even the vast majority of members) grew up in the religion and thus their only knowledge comes from having "put in their pew time" (as Mike Doonesbury had put it to his daughter). As a result, not only did many-or-most members put in much effort to learn (eg, actually reading the Bible), but most of those members end up with partially-formed and childish understanding of their religion -- childish, because those understandings were formed in childhood and then never got revisited in order mature as the individual matured.Another thing working against members may be what a forum member had described some time back. Baptists had a long tradition of reading and studying the Bible and would raise their children to do so as well, such that upon reaching adulthood they would have considerable knowledge about the Bible. But then when, starting with the "Jesus Freak" movement, new members, adult members, started pouring in, the old educational approach no longer worked. Those new members had to be brought up to speed, fast. So actually reading the Bible was replaced by being spoon-fed doctrine and verses lifted out of context. The new members learned what they were supposed to believe and a few verses that purportedly supported those beliefs, but they knew nothing of the context of those verses. And except for those who would go on to actually study the Bible, most new members would remain largely ignorant of their new religion -- one question that raises is whether Bible study sessions are also conducted through spoon-feeding.

I suppose whether or not Bible study consists of spoonfeeding depends on quite a few things, like who is teaching the material, the social context of the teacher and students, the age and maturity of both, their previous knowledge of the Bible, etc.Doubtless many Bible study groups would do nothing more than get preached at. And then there would be groups who actually do read it, but get told what to think about it. And then the groups where everybody is asked to present what they think, with guidance from the teacher. And then places where there's no teacher at all, just a small circle of people who wish to discuss the book with each other.I think the two reasons you presented are probably the biggest factors accounting for that difference.
Another might be sheer laziness; they believe something without even reading the Bible at all. They simply can't be bothered actually thinking about the question of whether and what to believe. For many these days, religion is just a security blanket: having it is the only thing that matters, not how you got it or how to use it.

U.S. Religious Knowledge Quiz | Pew Research CenterThe above is a 15 question sample from the 32 question poll. After taking the sample quiz one can see the results of these questions, and a %tile rank (I was greater than 99% (all 15 questions correct)
Only 2 of the questions did I have to think about, the last 2)

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There is no better love between 2 people than mutual respect for each other WT Young, 2002Who gave anyone the authority to call me an authority on anything. WT Young, 1969Since Evolution is only ~90% correct it should be thrown out and replaced by Creation which has even a lower % of correctness. W T Young, 2008

I got them all correct as well.

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Religious belief does not constitute scientific evidence, nor does it convey scientific knowledge.

Like I said the questions weren't too imposing. Did you happen to check the percentiles of the answers, particularly the last question?

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There is no better love between 2 people than mutual respect for each other WT Young, 2002Who gave anyone the authority to call me an authority on anything. WT Young, 1969Since Evolution is only ~90% correct it should be thrown out and replaced by Creation which has even a lower % of correctness. W T Young, 2008

Yay, 93% and I'm not even a Yank!

99%. Olnly tough one was the last one, since I had no idea what it was referring to. So, I guessed, and guessed right ^^.

Put me down for a 100, wife for 93. However, she did the TV test instead and complains there was not enough time to read the whole question and all possible responses.Seemed awfully easy to me, but I have largely read their books and even saw Power of Myth with Joseph Campbell, so have an honorary three units in comparative religion.Sure also appears to be proof that some churches need to assign homework or at least teach as much as they preach.

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The idea of the sacred is quite simply one of the most conservative notions in any culture, because it seeks to turn other ideas - uncertainty, progress, change - into crimes.
Salman RushdieThis rudderless world is not shaped by vague metaphysical forces. It is not God who kills the children. Not fate that butchers them or destiny that feeds them to the dogs. It’s us. Only us. - the character Rorschach in Watchmen

I wouldn't even try to answer any question of such a survey, I know I suck at anything related to religion. I don't practice any, though.I'm not very surprised by the result, and I also often have a vague feeling that practising Jews feel more concerned about their own thing; as for the Mormons, they're so deep in something particular that it doesn't need any explanation I guess.

Got everything right except for the question about the Great Awakening - I'd never heard of two of the three options, and guessed the wrong one. It's a pretty arbitrary set of questions, though. I'm not sure what all this really tells us.

Very easy. Seemed like a middle school comparative religion test. I know US history up and down so the Great Awakening question was easy for me.I find it kind of scary that only 23% got this one correct.

quote:

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According to rulings by the U.S. Supreme Court, is a public school teacher permitted to read from the Bible as an example of literature, or not?

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It shows that the fundie propaganda is ingrained in the US psyche.

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Facts don't lie or have an agenda. Facts are just facts

Actually there were two "Great Awakenings". Kinda like "Friday the 13^th.".Edited by jar, : No reason given.

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Anyone so limited that they can only spell a word one way is severely handicapped!

Actually there were three.Wiki claims there is a fourth, not sure if I buy into that.Great Awakening - Wikipedia