Survey: Americans don't know much about religion

[ck4829]

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.

The survey released Tuesday by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life aimed to test a broad range of religious knowledge, including understanding of the Bible, core teachings of different faiths and major figures in religious history. The U.S. is one of the most religious countries in the developed world, especially compared to largely secular Western Europe, but faith leaders and educators have long lamented that Americans still know relatively little about religion.

The study also found that many Americans don't understand constitutional restrictions on religion in public schools. While a majority know that public school teachers cannot lead classes in prayer, less than a quarter know that the U.S. Supreme Court has clearly stated that teachers can read from the Bible as an example of literature.

"Many Americans think the constitutional restrictions on religion in public schools are tighter than they really are," Pew researchers wrote.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_rel_religious_literacy_poll

Ugh, the Christian Right wants to dominate us, but they so little about their own religion, just ugh.

[MichellesBFF]

1. Hee!

I'm an atheist Buddhist and I got 13 out of 15. Scored better than 93% of the public.

[Mist]

2. I'm a pagan and scored 14 out of 15. Those who claim their religion is good for all of us have

some studying to do...

Of course, they're not about being religious or spiritual, but about being self-righteous.

[sarge43]

3. Agnostic, Protestant background

15/15.

[Burma Jones]

4. Presbyterian Here - 15/15

You gotta remember, just about half of everyone is of below average intelligence - and average intelligence ain't much.

[Jeffersons Ghost]

5. K&R

[piratefish08]

6. atheist here - 15/15

admittedly, I guessed on #15 though.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

7. 15/15, agnostic ex-Protestant.

[xchrom]

8. episcopalian -- and i got 14 out of 15.

i knew which one i got wrong but i had already clicked on it.

[EstimatedProphet]

9. The official religion of the United States is American Exceptionalism

This really points that out clearly. Most people don't have a clue about their own religion, so they believe what they believe, and assume that their religion includes the things they believe. All too often it has more to do with American Manifest Destiny than anything else.

[EstimatedProphet]

10. 14/15

DAMN YOU, JOB!!!

[Dappleganger]

11. 14/15 correct, protestant here.

Of course I'd get the one about martin luther wrong. doh!

[RevStPatrick]

12. 15 out of 15

I thought I got one wrong, but apparently I got it right.

[progressoid]

13. correction: Religious Americans don't know much about religion

[sarge43]

14. Husband, atheist, 14/15 n/t

[ThomWV]

15. If they knew they wouldn't believe

[raccoon]

16. I bet very few fundie Xians know of this horrible story from the Old Testament.

(A Levite, his concubine, and his donkeys are staying at the home of an old man in a city.)

22While they were enjoying themselves, some of the wicked men of the city surrounded the house. Pounding on the door, they shouted to the old man who owned the house, “Bring out the man who came to your house so we can have sex with him.”

23The owner of the house went outside and said to them, “No, my friends, don’t be so vile. Since this man is my guest, don’t do this disgraceful thing. 24Look, here is my virgin daughter, and his concubine. I will bring them out to you now, and you can use them and do to them whatever you wish. But to this man, don’t do such a disgraceful thing.”

25But the men would not listen to him. So the man took his concubine and sent her outside to them, and they raped her and abused her throughout the night, and at dawn they let her go. 26At daybreak the woman went back to the house where her master was staying, fell down at the door and lay there until daylight.

27When her master got up in the morning and opened the door of the house and stepped out to continue on his way, there lay his concubine, fallen in the doorway of the house, with her hands on the threshold. 28He said to her, “Get up; let’s go.” But there was no answer. Then the man put her on his donkey and set out for home.

29When he reached home, he took a knife and cut up his concubine, limb by limb, into twelve parts and sent them into all the areas of Israel….

http://niv.scripturetext.com/judges/19.htm

[EstimatedProphet]

17. They do know

My grandmother was a fundiewackjob. She used to love that passage as proof that homosexuals were evil.

[raccoon]

18. And the hetero Levite wasn't evil? These people's convoluted logic defies belief. nt

[EstimatedProphet]

20. In her mind, no. See, homos is evil, so what they do is evil

The "moral" (HA!) of the story is that homos is evil. Why, Cuz they's evil, that's why! The fact that the Levite sacrificed his daughter and concubine is unimportant, since that's what women are for anyway. And of course, his daughter had to be vivisected, because she was dirty, cuz the homos done made her dirty, cuz that's what dirty homos do.

Really. Very little thought went into it on her side other than that. Religion made her mentally ill. The weekend that she went on about that passage was also the weekend I was taken to a Missionary Baptist church in the Ozarks, where the sermon was how everyone should support Anita Bryant's crusade (this was the mid-70's) and - I kid you not - a complete mental case stood up and talked about what a tragedy it was that the Supreme Court wouldn't let people bomb houses.

[dmosh42]

19. Americans are morons! pick any topic except celebrities!

They know about Lindsay Lohan, etc. Wonder why Palin is so popular! Morons!

[rpannier]

21. Missed the last question

I hate it when that happens.
I went with Finney, but wasn't sure about Edwards.
I knew it wasn't Graham.
(Had to add it, so no one thought I went with Graham)

[quaker bill]

22. 15 of 15

and my screen name says it all.