Atheists, agnostics most knowledgeable about religion,

[The_Dude 1,142]

Atheists, agnostics most knowledgeable about religion, survey says

Story posted 2010.09.27 at 09:07 PM PDT

If you want to know about God, you might want to talk to an atheist.

Heresy? Perhaps. But a survey that measured Americans' knowledge of religion found that atheists and agnostics knew more, on average, than followers of most major faiths. In fact, the gaps in knowledge among some of the faithful may give new meaning to the term "blind faith."

A majority of Protestants, for instance, couldn't identify Martin Luther as the driving force behind the Protestant Reformation, according to the survey, released Tuesday by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life. Four in 10 Catholics misunderstood the meaning of their church's central ritual, incorrectly saying that the bread and wine used in Holy Communion are intended to merely symbolize the body and blood of Christ, not actually become them.

Atheists and agnostics those who believe there is no God or who aren't sure were more likely to answer the survey's questions correctly. Jews and Mormons ranked just below them in the survey's measurement of religious knowledge so close as to be statistically tied.

So why would an atheist know more about religion than a Christian?

American atheists and agnostics tend to be people who grew up in a religious tradition and consciously gave it up, often after a great deal of reflection and study, said Alan Cooperman, associate director for research at the Pew Forum.

"These are people who thought a lot about religion," he said. "They're not indifferent. They care about it."

Atheists and agnostics also tend to be relatively well educated, and the survey found, not surprisingly, that the most knowledgeable people were also the best educated. However, it said that atheists and agnostics also outperformed believers who had a similar level of education.

The groups at the top of the U.S. Religious Knowledge Survey were followed, in order, by white evangelical Protestants, white Catholics, white mainline Protestants, people who were unaffiliated with any faith (but not atheist or agnostic), black Protestants and Latino Catholics.

Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists were included in the survey, but their numbers were too small to be broken out as statistically significant groups.

Stephen Prothero, a professor of religion at Boston University and author of "Religious Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know And Doesn't," served as an advisor on the survey. "I think in general the survey confirms what I argued in the book, which is that we know almost nothing about our own religions and even less about the religions of other people," he said.

He said he found it significant that Mormons, who are not considered Christians by many fundamentalists, showed greater knowledge of the Bible than evangelical Christians.

The Rev. Adam Hamilton, a Methodist minister from Leawood, Kan., and the author of "When Christians Get it Wrong," said the survey's results may reflect a reluctance by many people to dig deeply into their own beliefs and especially into those of others.

"I think that what happens for many Christians is, they accept their particular faith, they accept it to be true and they stop examining it. Consequently, because it's already accepted to be true, they don't examine other people's faiths. … That, I think, is not healthy for a person of any faith," he said.

The Pew survey was not without its bright spots for the devout. Eight in 10 people surveyed knew that Mother Teresa was Catholic. Seven in 10 knew that, according to the Bible, Moses led the exodus from Egypt and that Jesus was born in Bethlehem.

The question that elicited the most correct responses concerned whether public school teachers are allowed to lead their classes in prayer. Eighty-nine percent of the respondents correctly said no. However, 67% also said that such teachers are not permitted to read from the Bible as an example of literature, something the law clearly allows.

For comparison purposes, the survey also asked some questions about general knowledge, which yielded the scariest finding: 4% of Americans believe that Stephen King, not Herman Melville, wrote "Moby #######."

Source

Edited September 28, 2010 by Rob & Mel

[alienlovechild 75]

Atheists, agnostics most knowledgeable about religion

Depends on which religion you're referring to.

"On questions about the Bible and Christianity, the groups that answered the most right were Mormons and white evangelical Protestants.

On questions about world religions, like Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism and Judaism, the groups that did the best were atheists, agnostics and Jews."

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

[Jenn! 918]

Four in 10 Catholics misunderstood the meaning of their church's central ritual, incorrectly saying that the bread and wine used in Holy Communion are intended to merely symbolize the body and blood of Christ, not actually become them.

I astounded a few family members when I told them this. One of them actually stopped going to mass.

[Ban Hammer 13,659]

get closer to god, be a disbeliever.

[evli1966 88]

I think it is the cause of Denominations of christianity that cherry pick scriptures to build church doctrine and focus on that only.

It is almost as if they keep and study only what agrees with their chosen cherry picked scriptures and throw the rest out.

[Krikit 1,165]

I would think that the subject matter expert.... a theologian with well rounded training.... would be the most knowledgeable. It's like trying to say that people who haven't been to the doctor are more knowledgeable than those who have. But they're not doctors.

[trillium13 84]

I think it is the cause of Denominations of christianity that cherry pick scriptures to build church doctrine and focus on that only.

It is almost as if they keep and study only what agrees with their chosen cherry picked scriptures and throw the rest out.

That's pretty much it.

My husband is an atheist (well we both are) and he definitely knows more about what's actually in the bible than the Evangelicals I know here. Knows a ton more about various religious histories as well.

I think you believe what you want to believe. If you want to have blind faith in something, you aren't going to go out of your way to learn something that doesn't mesh with that belief.

[ready4ONE 5,400]

As a general rule it is almost frightening how little actual knowledge average believers of most faiths have in their chosen religions. Additionally they tend to have even less knowledge concerning other faiths having already settled on one they don't know much about...

[Darnell 8,479]

I started my serious study on Religion after reading (and thinking about) Job: A Comedy of Injustice by R.A. Heinlein.

[SMR 368]

Atheists, agnostics most knowledgeable about religion, survey says

Story posted 2010.09.27 at 09:07 PM PDT

If you want to know about God, you might want to talk to an atheist.

Heresy? Perhaps. But a survey that measured Americans' knowledge of religion found that atheists and agnostics knew more, on average, than followers of most major faiths. In fact, the gaps in knowledge among some of the faithful may give new meaning to the term "blind faith."

A majority of Protestants, for instance, couldn't identify Martin Luther as the driving force behind the Protestant Reformation, according to the survey, released Tuesday by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life. Four in 10 Catholics misunderstood the meaning of their church's central ritual, incorrectly saying that the bread and wine used in Holy Communion are intended to merely symbolize the body and blood of Christ, not actually become them.

Atheists and agnostics — those who believe there is no God or who aren't sure — were more likely to answer the survey's questions correctly. Jews and Mormons ranked just below them in the survey's measurement of religious knowledge — so close as to be statistically tied.

So why would an atheist know more about religion than a Christian?

American atheists and agnostics tend to be people who grew up in a religious tradition and consciously gave it up, often after a great deal of reflection and study, said Alan Cooperman, associate director for research at the Pew Forum.

"These are people who thought a lot about religion," he said. "They're not indifferent. They care about it."

Atheists and agnostics also tend to be relatively well educated, and the survey found, not surprisingly, that the most knowledgeable people were also the best educated. However, it said that atheists and agnostics also outperformed believers who had a similar level of education.

The groups at the top of the U.S. Religious Knowledge Survey were followed, in order, by white evangelical Protestants, white Catholics, white mainline Protestants, people who were unaffiliated with any faith (but not atheist or agnostic), black Protestants and Latino Catholics.

Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists were included in the survey, but their numbers were too small to be broken out as statistically significant groups.

Stephen Prothero, a professor of religion at Boston University and author of "Religious Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know — And Doesn't," served as an advisor on the survey. "I think in general the survey confirms what I argued in the book, which is that we know almost nothing about our own religions and even less about the religions of other people," he said.

He said he found it significant that Mormons, who are not considered Christians by many fundamentalists, showed greater knowledge of the Bible than evangelical Christians.

The Rev. Adam Hamilton, a Methodist minister from Leawood, Kan., and the author of "When Christians Get it Wrong," said the survey's results may reflect a reluctance by many people to dig deeply into their own beliefs and especially into those of others.

"I think that what happens for many Christians is, they accept their particular faith, they accept it to be true and they stop examining it. Consequently, because it's already accepted to be true, they don't examine other people's faiths. … That, I think, is not healthy for a person of any faith," he said.

The Pew survey was not without its bright spots for the devout. Eight in 10 people surveyed knew that Mother Teresa was Catholic. Seven in 10 knew that, according to the Bible, Moses led the exodus from Egypt and that Jesus was born in Bethlehem.

The question that elicited the most correct responses concerned whether public school teachers are allowed to lead their classes in prayer. Eighty-nine percent of the respondents correctly said no. However, 67% also said that such teachers are not permitted to read from the Bible as an example of literature, something the law clearly allows.

For comparison purposes, the survey also asked some questions about general knowledge, which yielded the scariest finding: 4% of Americans believe that Stephen King, not Herman Melville, wrote "Moby #######."

Source

The law may clearly state that a teacher is permitted to read from the Bible as an example of literature. But the outrage over such things would prevent any teacher from actually doing it. What the law actually states and how things would work out may very well be different things in this case and the majority of the public has a good sense of what would actually happen, in my opinion.

While the article brings up good points about how some religious people don't know much about their own faith, it's not necessarily fair to expect people to know things about other faiths. Why would a Protestant care that a Catholic believes that the bread and water physically become the body and blood of Christ? It's not relevant knowledge.

For this reason, I'm not particularly surprised that atheists perform well on a general religion knowledge test. An atheist is more likely to do pretty well in a lot of categories while people of certain religions will likely have some blank spots in other religions that will bring their average down.

In connection with this, although most of the questions listed appear cut and dry, I assume there are some more ambiguous questions. Who do you consider as an authority when determining the answer to these questions?

For instance, there is an error in the NY times article when it states that Joseph Smith was Mormon. If you actually understand what this statement means, you realize it's inane, sort of like stating that Peter was Paul. Mormon was a historical figure, not a religion. Joseph Smith was a separate historical figure. They weren't the same person.

[Dan J 277]

I think it is the cause of Denominations of christianity that cherry pick scriptures to build church doctrine and focus on that only.

It is almost as if they keep and study only what agrees with their chosen cherry picked scriptures and throw the rest out.

I think most religious groups do that to some extent. If you were to use the entire bible, you would somehow have to resolve the contradictions.