Survey: Atheists, agnostics most knowledgeable about religion than religious people

[CptStern]

Report says nonbelievers know more, on average, about religion than most faithful. Jews and Mormons also score high on the U.S. Religious Knowledge Survey.

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.

it's not that surprising that atheists would be more knowledgeable about religion in general; it stands to reason that people faithful to one religion wouldnt neccessarily know all that much about a competing religion. however it is rather surprising that in general atheists seem to be more knowledgeable than people of faith on the subject of their own religion

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-religion-survey-20100928,0,3225238.story

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.

 

[CptStern]

take the survey yourself


http://features.pewforum.org/quiz/us-religious-knowledge/

 

[Krynn72]

The site seems to be having trouble. Eh, I probably would have done bad anyways. As for the news though, I'm not surprised at all.

 

[MJ12]

12/15

 

[Eejit]

13/15. Damn Americuh questions.

 

[DEATHMASTER]

Taking forever to load.

 

[CptStern]

the site is getting hammered by users. tried earlier and only some of the code would load

 

[Mr Stabby]

14/15, the last question is very obscure.

 

[Remus]

Site moves slower than molasses...

12/15

 

[Mogi67]

15/15. i'm a theist. easy as ****, except for the last question. This quiz is terrible, btw. Most of them had little to do with actual religious belief.

 

[MJ12]

This quiz is terrible, btw. Most of them had little to do with actual religious belief.

Yeah it was pretty bad honestly, most of them were pretty easy, average person would probably know at least 8 of them.

 

[Wanted Bob]

Can't get my final score, but most of that quiz was indeed very easy.

 

[CptStern]

I guess that's the point. how else would you determine what a wide range of people who hold dissimiliar povs think in any given topic

 

[Acepilotf14]

This just proves that the internet is full of intellectuals.

 

[RidleyRockets]

I got 14/15. Jesus is going to be stoked.

 

[The Monkey]

Got 14/15, but admittedly guessed on a few.

 

[Kaptain H]

I got 13/15, but I had to go through all that Catholic stuff as a kid, and I have a pretty good retention of useless information.

 

[Doomination]

15/15

im a quiz bowl player so I hear this information relatively frequently

 

[Raziaar]

12/15

When I clicked saturday for Jewish Sabbath, I quickly screamed out, "WAIT I MEANT FRIDAY!"

Dammit.

Last question... had no clue.

And honestly I don't know all the 10 commandments.

 

[MJ12]

And honestly I don't know all the 10 commandments.

First commandment of 10 commandments is to know all the commandments!

Second commandment of 10 commandments IS TO KNOW ALL THE COMMANDMENTS!

 

[Krynn72]

In fact, each of the 10 commandments is to know all the commandments. Makes them easy to remember.

 

[Avoidist]

Spoiler

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_f_p0CgPeyA

Not quite, Commandment 6 is there is no... Commandment 6

Commandment 7: no poofters.

Oh, and atheist with 12/15. Mostly because I didn't think the catholics took communion so literally. Also I have no freaking idea who that mormon guy was.

 

[Acepilotf14]

He was the founder of the mormon bullshit. Watch the South Park episode.

 

[ríomhaire]

Site moves slower than molasses...

going uphill in January...

12/15

I wasn't sure about the Jewish Sabbath. I knew it was either Friday night or Friday/Saturday at midnight. I put down Saturday. Silly Rim-Fire. The questions about the supreme court don't seem more relevant to law than religion IMO.

 

[Xevrex]

So glad my APUSH class covered the last question. Shit I'm using what I learned in that class for a lot of things.

 

[leib10]

Heh, the veracity and generalizability of these data is almost laughable.