Survey says: Atheists know most about Religion

[Despanan]

It's official, want to know about God? Talk to an atheist

Originally Posted by LA times

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.

This makes alot of sense to me, as I lost my faith after taking a bible class in highschool.

[CptSternn]

I was just going to post that very article sure!

[Sinjob]

I was truly raised Roman Catholic.
Of course I'm an atheist.

[Saya]

Best part is that the quiz was pretty simple: http://features.pewforum.org/quiz/us...edge/index.php

I had a lucky guess with the Great Awakening question, which I don't think I heard of before, but I got a perfect score.

[Joker_in_the_Pack]

Originally Posted by Saya

Best part is that the quiz was pretty simple: http://features.pewforum.org/quiz/us...edge/index.php

I had a lucky guess with the Great Awakening question, which I don't think I heard of before, but I got a perfect score.

That was incredibly easy, aced it as well.

[Despanan]

I missed the last one because I'd never heard of the Great Awakening. Aced the rest.

[in.the.moon]

my parents are mormons and since i go(in body)sometimes i do know that reading the book of mormon and the bible is very very very encouraged. matter of fact when you start high school you also start going to seminary, which is basically in-deph bible study. This year they are doing the book of mormon. They have a graduation too at the end of four years and you get homework, just like a regular class and its two hours before the regular school day. I dunno, the article reminded me of this...

[CptSternn]

Dum dum dum dum dum!

[Kore]

Thanks for posting, that was a good read and I agree with the study results.
I have went through the exact same pattern of experience.

Raised Roman Catholic.
Had a period of internal religious conflict.
Became atheist/agnostic....in a sense.
Studied more religions, Islam, Mormonism, Sikhism, Hinduism...and etc...
Eventually became Buddhist.

[Cyanide93]

Aced the test as well. i was raised catholic.even made my 1st holy communion. when i noticed that the more i asked questions, the more the father at my church seemed simple to me..i decided to leave that alone. I am an atheist now..and everybody i kno hates me 4 it

[ape descendant]

Originally Posted by in.the.moon

my parents are mormons and since i go(in body)sometimes i do know that reading the book of mormon and the bible is very very very encouraged. matter of fact when you start high school you also start going to seminary, which is basically in-deph bible study. This year they are doing the book of mormon. They have a graduation too at the end of four years and you get homework, just like a regular class and its two hours before the regular school day. I dunno, the article reminded me of this...

Heh heh, when I was in high school, we didn't have to do early morning seminary.. we could schedule it as a mid day release which was awesome, ha-ha..

So, did your folks make you copy verses out of the BOM when you were naughty?

[in.the.moon]

Nope, my parents don't dicipline me at all, they should be grateful im not the type to look for trouble. They did ask me to go to seminary this year though, at the beginning of the school year and since they were going to study the history of the church i decided to go, but waking up at 5:00 doesn't suit me.