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BS: U.S. Religious Knowledge Survey
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Subject: RE: BS: U.S. Religious Knowledge Survey From: Mrrzy Date: 29 Sep 10 - 04:35 PM Can we take the test anywhere? |
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Subject: RE: BS: U.S. Religious Knowledge Survey From: Desert Dancer Date: 29 Sep 10 - 05:00 PM Mrzzy, the Pew Forum has a 15-question online "quiz" with some of the questions, here. The full survey (a little complicated to read, since some questions were only asked on condition of answers in other questions) is available downloadable as a pdf here. ~ Becky in Long Beach |
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Subject: RE: BS: U.S. Religious Knowledge Survey From: Georgiansilver Date: 29 Sep 10 - 06:05 PM mmm Interesting. I scored 87%... has anyone else tried the test? But the questions are actually on 'religion' not 'Christianity'. |
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Subject: RE: BS: U.S. Religious Knowledge Survey From: Desert Dancer Date: 29 Sep 10 - 06:19 PM Georgiansilver, yes, that's a critical component of this survey: that it's not about one religion, or just the Bible, but looking at a reasonably broad knowledge. One question was what the holy book of Islam was called -- I bet they would have gotten better results this fall than they did (the survey was done May 19-June 6, 2010). ~ B in LB |
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Subject: RE: BS: U.S. Religious Knowledge Survey From: Dave MacKenzie Date: 29 Sep 10 - 06:42 PM I got 14 out of 15, but then I'm not an expert on US Supreme Court rulings. |
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Subject: RE: BS: U.S. Religious Knowledge Survey From: Desert Dancer Date: 29 Sep 10 - 10:10 PM Georgiansilver, did you have any reason to expect that the questions would be on "Christianity" rather than "religion" in general? Or are you saying that you are not surprised that you missed some questions because some were on other religions? What is it that you find interesting? -- A better PBS NewsHour link - an interview with one of the survey's creators. One point he highlighted: "On the public school questions, it seems that people overestimate. They think that there are greater restrictions on the teaching of religion in public schools in the United States than there really are." ~ Becky in Long Beach |
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Subject: RE: BS: U.S. Religious Knowledge Survey From: Joe Offer Date: 30 Sep 10 - 12:08 AM I got 100% on the 15-question quiz. But hey, I was a Theology major.... One question I can't answer is how to have a constructive discussion of a religious topic at Mudcat. Know what I mean? Is it possible to have a thread on a religious topic and begin by saying that we respect and acknowledge that many Mudcatters think religion is a bad thing, but we're not going to discuss that issue in that thread, because we want to discuss this survey... Suggestions? -Joe- |
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Subject: RE: BS: U.S. Religious Knowledge Survey From: Desert Dancer Date: 30 Sep 10 - 02:08 AM Well, the solution is apparently to start a separate thread with "atheism" in the title and then the survey discussion thread quiets down amazingly! Thanks, Slag! (I guess...) ~ Becky in Long Beach |
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Subject: RE: BS: U.S. Religious Knowledge Survey From: Georgiansilver Date: 30 Sep 10 - 02:35 AM The point I was making was why should people who are 'religious' be criticised on this thread for knowing less about religions than atheists or agnostics?? Most people who are 'religious follow a particular faith and may not have the general knowledge on 'religion' in general as the vociferous atheists and agnostics do... stands to reason!!! |
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Subject: RE: BS: U.S. Religious Knowledge Survey From: Gervase Date: 30 Sep 10 - 03:03 AM Another atheist with 100 per cent here. Still, I'm the sort of person who invites Jehovah's Witnesses into the house, makes them tea and then keeps them trapped for an hour while making them wriggle around. |
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Subject: RE: BS: U.S. Religious Knowledge Survey From: Steve Shaw Date: 30 Sep 10 - 05:23 AM "One question I can't answer is how to have a constructive discussion of a religious topic at Mudcat. Know what I mean? Is it possible to have a thread on a religious topic and begin by saying that we respect and acknowledge that many Mudcatters think religion is a bad thing, but we're not going to discuss that issue in that thread, because we want to discuss this survey... Suggestions? -Joe-" Complicated. You will have to set up a whole new board with strict guidelines as to what can be discussed. You can't have a great big "democratic" board like this, in which thread drift is rife (just look at how all that consciousness/quantum theory bilge derailed the Delusion thread! But I'm not bitter...) and ringfence one particular discussion area for strict rules. You could start a separate forum, like Dale Wisely did on Chiff, but that was an absolute bloody disaster and he had to bury it ignominiously without trace. Thread drift and thread-hijacking is a cheerful fact of life. Let's live with it. |
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Subject: RE: BS: U.S. Religious Knowledge Survey From: Wolfgang Date: 30 Sep 10 - 07:11 AM A major variable confounded with religious affiliation (sloppily including atheist) may be "level of education". Wolfgang |
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Subject: RE: BS: U.S. Religious Knowledge Survey From: Desert Dancer Date: 30 Sep 10 - 12:06 PM SPOILER ALERT: QUIZ & ANSWERS HERE Question, Correct Answer, % of survey respondents answering correctly 1. Which Bible figure is most closely associated with leading the exodus from Egypt? Moses 72% 2. What was Mother Teresa's religion? Catholic 82 3. Which of the following is NOT one of the Ten Commandments? Do unto others as you would have them do unto you 55 4. When does the Jewish Sabbath begin? Friday 45 5. Is Ramadan…? The Islamic holy month 52 6. Which of the following best describes the Catholic teaching about the bread and wine used for Communion? The bread and wine actually become the body and blood of Jesus Christ. 40 7. In which religion are Vishnu and Shiva central figures? Hinduism 38 8. Which Bible figure is most closely associated with remaining obedient to God despite suffering? Job 39 9. What was Joseph Smith's religion? Mormon 51 10. According to rulings by the U.S. Supreme Court, is a public school teacher permitted to lead a class in prayer, or not? No, not permitted 89 11. 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? Yes, permitted 23 12. What religion do most people in Pakistan consider themselves? Muslim 68 13. What was the name of the person whose writings and actions inspired the Protestant Reformation? Martin Luther 46 14. Which of these religions aims at nirvana, the state of being free from suffering? Buddhism 36 15. Which one of these preachers participated in the period of religious activity known as the First Great Awakening? Jonathan Edwards 11 |
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Subject: RE: BS: U.S. Religious Knowledge Survey From: theleveller Date: 30 Sep 10 - 12:25 PM Spoil sport! |
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Subject: RE: BS: U.S. Religious Knowledge Survey From: Desert Dancer Date: 30 Sep 10 - 12:39 PM (A reminder -- the quiz is only 15 of the 32 questions) Georgiansilver, I'm sorry about the criticisms, I've been trying to ignore that part of the thread. But, I wonder why it "stands to reason" that a person with a particular religious affiliation would not have a broad knowledge about religion in the world. I would think that level of education would be the number one factor here, but it's interesting that it's not. (Wolfgang, as I mentioned above, they did a multiple regression analysis to tease it apart.) I would think it would "stand to reason" that a religious person would be knowledgable about their own religion. Although the Atheist/agnotic group, Jews had the best overall results, the evangelical Christians and Mormons did the best on questions about Christianity and Bible. The A/a, Jews did best on the questions about World religions and Religion in public life: see table. ~ Becky in Long Beach |
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Subject: RE: BS: U.S. Religious Knowledge Survey From: katlaughing Date: 30 Sep 10 - 01:05 PM I scored above 87% of the general population on the 15 question survey and I only have a GED, so there can be instances when lack of formal education does not preclude knowledge. I think I know exactly the three which I missed. I'll have to go check. I also scored much, much higher in all of the categories provided for comparison and I can count on fingers and toes, plus maybe Rog's fingers and toes, how many times I've set foot in any church. I hope folks will get back to discussing the testing, etc. rather than the other stuff which, as others have noted, has been done to death in other threads and needn't clutter up this one, imo. kat spiritual, not religious |
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Subject: RE: BS: U.S. Religious Knowledge Survey From: Desert Dancer Date: 30 Sep 10 - 01:14 PM kat, certainly level of formal education and level of general knowledge don't necessarily equate! ~ B in LB |
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Subject: RE: BS: U.S. Religious Knowledge Survey From: kendall Date: 30 Sep 10 - 01:25 PM "Religion is for weak minded fools." (Jesse Ventura) Is his opinion valid here? |
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Subject: RE: BS: U.S. Religious Knowledge Survey From: Desert Dancer Date: 30 Sep 10 - 01:35 PM Copied from the BS: True Test of an Atheist thread, in response to part of a post from Joe Offer: From: Desert Dancer Date: 30 Sep 10 - 01:11 PM Joe, you said "even a reputable organization like the Pew trust, seems to emphasize information as a necessary aspect of religious faith". The point of that "religious knowledge" survey was to look at just that -- knowledge of information among U.S. adults -- without any judgement as to what's necessary to faith. Stephen Prothero's book, "Religious Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know – And Doesn't" does argue that such literacy is important in American life. He found there was no good data, however, and that's what the Pew survey was meant to correct. I don't think either Pew or Prothero judged it as a "necessary aspect of religious faith". From the Preface to the report: "...we also decided that, no matter what the results, we would not give the public an 'A,' an 'F' or any other grade because we have no objective way of determining how much the public should know about religion. Moreover, we could have designed harder questions, or easier ones. As it happens, through a combination of good survey design and good luck, the results were an almost perfect bell curve in which the average score was exactly half of the 32 possible correct answers, and very few people got all questions right or all questions wrong. Readers can decide for themselves whether this justifies Prothero's conclusion or not." ~ Becky in Long Beach |
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Subject: RE: BS: U.S. Religious Knowledge Survey From: Desert Dancer Date: 30 Sep 10 - 02:09 PM Also from the other thread: Subject: RE: BS: True Test of an Atheist From: Jim Dixon Date: 29 Sep 10 - 06:43 PM I did notice one interesting thing in the survey results which no one else commented on: While "Atheists/Agnostics" ranked high in their knowledge of religion, people who said their religion was "nothing in particular" ranked rather low. One wonders, what is the difference between "atheists/agnostics" and "nothing in particular?" Well, my first guess is, the "atheists/agnostics" are people who are interested in religion (as a social phenomenon, or whatever), and the "nothing in particular" people who are not interested, and therefore don't even bother to adopt a label for themselves. Another possibility: the "nothing in particular" people believe in some kind of god, but they don't want to join any religious group. But that doesn't explain why they would rank so low in their knowlege of religion--or does it? I guess we are free to speculate. --- This result is highlighted in footnote #3 of the Executive Summary of the results, is that there is a big difference in the results between self-identified "atheists" and "agnostics" (who had to be lumped together because there were so few of each) and those who declined those terms and called themselves "nothing in particular": "Atheists and agnostics answer an average of 20.9 questions correctly, compared with an average of 15.4 correct answers among people with low religious commitment who do not describe themselves as atheists or agnostics." (from the footnote) I can't find it in the report (although it's certainly in the data), but one of the researchers said in an interview, "...my hypothesis [in response to the results, not a priori] is that people who self-identify as atheists and agnostics are people who have actually thought a lot about religion, paid a lot of attention to it. We know that 75 percent of them were raised as Christians. So, it's not that they haven't had exposure to religion." (PBS NewsHour interview) As to what the "nothing in particular" folks are, they come from these survey questions: 20. What is your present religion, if any? Are you Protestant, Roman Catholic, Mormon, Orthodox such as Greek or Russian Orthodox, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, atheist, agnostic, something else, or nothing in particular? (INTERVIEWER: IF R VOLUNTEERS "nothing in particular, none, no religion, etc." BEFORE REACHING END OF LIST, PROMPT WITH: and would you say that's atheist, agnostic, or just nothing in particular?) ASK IF RELIGION IS SOMETHING ELSE, NOTHING IN PARTICULAR, DK OR REFUSED: CHR. Do you think of yourself as a Christian or not? -- The data exists as to how many (not appropriate to say "whether") the "nothing in particular" people "believe in God or a universal spirit, or not" (from question #26 in the survey), but I'm not finding that separated out in the results that are reported. I have a friend who has inquired as to whether they will release their data set... ~ Becky in Long Beach |
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Subject: RE: BS: U.S. Religious Knowledge Survey From: Mrrzy Date: 30 Sep 10 - 02:11 PM NPR says they'll have the test on their website, I just heard... back in a few! |
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Subject: RE: BS: U.S. Religious Knowledge Survey From: Desert Dancer Date: 30 Sep 10 - 02:13 PM Here are the full set of knowledge questions (from the "Who Knows What About Religion" part of the report): Pew Forum Religious Knowledge Questions Questions below have been paraphrased for brevity; most response options were rotated. See topline survey results (Appendix B) for exact wording and question order. Bible What is the first book of the Bible? (Open-ended) What are the names of the first four books of the New Testament, that is, the four Gospels? (Open-ended) Where, according to the Bible, was Jesus born? Bethlehem, Jerusalem, Nazareth or Jericho? Which of these is NOT in the Ten Commandments? Do unto others…, no adultery, no stealing, keep Sabbath? Which figure is associated with remaining obedient to God despite suffering? Job, Elijah, Moses or Abraham? Which figure is associated with leading the exodus from Egypt? Moses, Job, Elijah or Abraham? Which figure is associated with willingness to sacrifice his son for God? Abraham, Job, Moses or Elijah? Elements of Christianity What is Catholic teaching about bread and wine in Communion? They become body and blood, or are symbols? Which group traditionally teaches that salvation is through faith alone? Protestants, Catholics, both or neither? Was Mother Teresa Catholic, Jewish, Buddhist, Hindu or Mormon? What is the name of the person whose writings and actions inspired the Reformation? Luther, Aquinas or Wesley? Who was a preacher during the First Great Awakening? Jonathan Edwards, Charles Finney or Billy Graham? Elements of Judaism When does the Jewish Sabbath begin? Friday, Saturday or Sunday? Was Maimonides Jewish, Catholic, Buddhist, Hindu or Mormon? Elements of Mormonism When was the Mormon religion founded? After 1800, between 1200 and 1800, or before 1200 A.D.? The Book of Mormon tells of Jesus appearing to people in what area? The Americas, Middle East or Asia? Was Joseph Smith Mormon, Catholic, Jewish, Buddhist or Hindu? World Religions Is Ramadan the Islamic holy month, the Hindu festival of lights or a Jewish day of atonement? Do you happen to know the name of the holy book of Islam? (Open-ended) Which religion aims at nirvana, the state of being free from suffering? Buddhism, Hinduism or Islam? Is the Dalai Lama Buddhist, Hindu, Jewish, Catholic or Mormon? In which religion are Vishnu and Shiva central figures? Hinduism, Islam or Taoism? What is the religion of most people in India? Hindu, Buddhist, Muslim or Christian? What is the religion of most people in Pakistan? Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist or Christian? What is the religion of most people in Indonesia? Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist or Christian? Who is the king of Gods in Greek mythology? Zeus, Mars or Apollo? Atheism and Agnosticism Is an atheist someone who does NOT believe in God, believes in God, or is unsure whether God exists? Is an agnostic someone who is unsure whether God exists, does NOT believe in God, or believes in God? Religion in Public Life What does Constitution say about religion? Separation of church and state, emphasize Christianity, or nothing? According to the Supreme Court, can a public school teacher lead a class in prayer? According to the Supreme Court, can a public school teacher read from the Bible as an example of literature? According to the Supreme Court, can a public school teacher offer a class comparing the world's religions? |
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Subject: RE: BS: U.S. Religious Knowledge Survey From: Uncle_DaveO Date: 30 Sep 10 - 02:15 PM I got 15 out of 15 correct. . . But! Somewhere earlier in this thread I had been tipped off about Jonathan Edwards, which I wouldn't have otherwise known. Had I not known, I would have eliminated one of the three choices (Graham) as laughable, and so would have had a choice of two (Finney and Edwards)left, which I would have decided by chance, so I MIGHT still have achieved 100%, but I equally might NOT have guessed correctly. I forget, at this moment, whether the sample 15 gave "don't know" as an option for each question. If it did, I should have chosen that one. Frankly, I thought the sample set of 15, at least, should have generally been pitifully obvious to any grown-up (with the exception, in my case, of Edwards). Dave Oesterreich |
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Subject: RE: BS: U.S. Religious Knowledge Survey From: Slag Date: 30 Sep 10 - 06:59 PM Second look, first posting here. Well, Joe, amazingly I also score 100%! What were the odds? Well, I didn't get the one about personal income correct but, hey! I never do get that one right! The questions were simple and probably good survey questions for general knowledge about things religious. It would be interesting to see a correlation between level of interest and actual knowledge. The most "esoteric" question was the one about Johnathan Edwards as he has not been much in the news of late. I heard James Whitfield mentioned on Glen Beck's sermonette the other day. Whitfield would have made a great question on the survey as would the "Great Awakening". They could have also mentioned Parmahansa Yogananda, Vivekanda, Emanuel Swedenborg (of whom John Chapman was follower) What? You don't know who John Chapman was!!??? (No!, not the guitarist!), and the Great Sky Fairy! |
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Subject: RE: BS: U.S. Religious Knowledge Survey From: GUEST,.gargoyle Date: 30 Sep 10 - 11:02 PM Yeah 100% for me too.
Something is BOGUS.
Sincerely,
Sprinkled, later dripped,and finally washed in the blood before thrice dunked. Thrice the Evidence that arrived at a Verdict. |
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Subject: RE: BS: U.S. Religious Knowledge Survey From: Desert Dancer Date: 30 Sep 10 - 11:18 PM Um, perhaps our sample of quiz-takers here is not representative of the U.S. population? |
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Subject: RE: BS: U.S. Religious Knowledge Survey From: Haruo Date: 01 Oct 10 - 03:27 AM Well, I'm a Baptist, and I doubt if there's a question there that I would have gotten wrong. But I'm not surprised at the overall results. Even the "Jonathan Edward <> First Great Awakening" one, which strikes me as pretty abstruse to be asking random members of the public. |
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Subject: RE: BS: U.S. Religious Knowledge Survey From: GUEST,Neil Date: 01 Oct 10 - 10:53 AM I am a secular humanist who got 15 out of 15 correct. Question 14 is deceptive because the concept of Nirvana is taught in Hinduism and Jainism as well as Buddhism. I said Buddhism because there had already been a question with Hinduism as the correct answer. If I had said Hinduism I would have been equally correct but the survey would have scored me incorrect. I'm actually surprised that 11% knew Jonathan Edwards led the great awakening. I thought it would be even lower. Here's a bit of unrelated trivia. Who was Jonathan Edwards more famous grandson. Did you have to look it up? |
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Subject: RE: BS: U.S. Religious Knowledge Survey From: Desert Dancer Date: 01 Oct 10 - 10:55 AM I know, but only because I had to read about him when the survey brought it up... |
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Subject: RE: BS: U.S. Religious Knowledge Survey From: Desert Dancer Date: 01 Oct 10 - 11:30 AM Again: - To have a survey of this type assumes that religious literacy has some importance. Is religious literacy important? (why or why not?) - The Preface to the study report says: In his 2007 book, Religious Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know – And Doesn't, Boston University professor Stephen Prothero wrote that "Americans are both deeply religious and profoundly ignorant about religion." To support his contention, Prothero offered many compelling anecdotes and some isolated findings from public opinion polls. He also cited a few studies about the extent of biblical literacy among young people. But, as he discovered, there was no comprehensive, national survey assessing the general state of religious knowledge among U.S. adults. Have you read this book? If so, what did you think of it? - What details of the results of this study intrigue you? - What are alternative interpretations of the data provided by this survey? - What important or interesting questions about religious literacy are not answered by this survey? What would you like to see studied further? - What are the the sources of variation in religious literacy? - Should anything be done about improving religious literacy? Why or why not? If so what? ~ Becky in Long Beach |
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Subject: RE: BS: U.S. Religious Knowledge Survey From: Uncle_DaveO Date: 01 Oct 10 - 12:07 PM In retrospect, not wanting to go back and check it for the exact reading, in the Mormon section there were only three questions, as I recall. Two of them dealt with Joseph Smith, one as a founder choice and the other dealing with his location. Seems to me that a reader who reflects only a little bit on that combination would have to conclude that Joseph Smith had a strong position with regard to the LDS, and infer (if he didn't know) that he's the choice for LDS founder. Poor test/survey design, methinks. Dave Oesterreich |
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Subject: RE: BS: U.S. Religious Knowledge Survey From: Desert Dancer Date: 01 Oct 10 - 12:19 PM In my 30 Sep 10 - 02:13 PM post you can see all the questions, although their exact wording and order is not the same as on the survey. Looking at the survey itself, the when and where of Mormonism were questions 42 and 43 (and to be varied in order between them). The question on Joseph Smith was question 48c. (Questions on identifying the religion of Smith, Mother Teresa, the Dalai Lama, and Maimonides were grouped together.) Joseph Smith is only mentioned in the one question. Uncle DaveO, do you have any further thoughts on the issue of the survey in general? ~ Becky in Long Beach |
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Subject: RE: BS: U.S. Religious Knowledge Survey From: Uncle_DaveO Date: 01 Oct 10 - 03:21 PM Becky, I have egg all over my face. I had what I thought was a fairly close memory of the relevant Mormon questions. I would have bet heavy money that I was pretty close to them in what I said in my last prior post. I have no idea at this point how I got the ideas I set forth in that post. I was all wet, mistaken, wrong, and I apologize to everyone if I confused the issues. Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea culpa! I'll try to go forth and sin no more. Dave Oesterreich |
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Subject: RE: BS: U.S. Religious Knowledge Survey From: Uncle_DaveO Date: 01 Oct 10 - 03:25 PM Becky, as to "any further thoughts" about the survey, I guess I've come close to blowing any credibility I might have on this subject. That's not to say that I won't have anything further to say about it. Now having credibility on a subject never stopped me before, so why should it here? Dave Oesterreich |
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Subject: RE: BS: U.S. Religious Knowledge Survey From: Slag Date: 01 Oct 10 - 04:28 PM Edwards, Whitfield, The Great Awakening and later, the Wesley brothers are all very important to the history of this nation. Too long we, as a nation, have seen "Establishment" clause as a "seperation" clause and the seperation idea as complete and utter divorcement of church and state when religious ideation and behavior has had so much to do with the founding of this country. Without making any value judgements beyond the obvious, such events as the Great Awakening and circuit riding, tent meetings (which passed in its day as the sole source of entertainment for most folks) and the like had a profound effect in the development and direction(s) we took. It is history and it ought to be studied. All of history demonstrates an integral connection between the religion of the people and their government. It defines purpose and intent, future outlook, what is tolerable and what is not. It influences architechture, art, exchange media, progress, motivators, etc. One cannot truly say they understand history until they also understand the religion of the people they study. And as a tool for both good and evil we ignore it at our peril. |
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Subject: RE: BS: U.S. Religious Knowledge Survey From: Desert Dancer Date: 01 Oct 10 - 07:12 PM Slag, I hope you'll join the thread I'll likely start when the PBS program comes on (God in America from American Experience and Frontline). People do things according to their values (mostly!). How their values are shaped and what the outcomes of their actions are is what history is about. A few days out from the survey report's release, now, there is more response, as opposed to straight reportage, visible online: The Washington Post: On Faith section had fifteen panelists respond here. They're an interesting assortment. The response of several is the same as Joe's: religion is not about facts. Churches might worry about this, but apparently believers may not -- the ARIS study shows that over time more U.S. Christians are becoming dissociated from identifying with any particular denomination, and a Pew study on young people reinforces this. I'd say, yeah a deeper understanding is required. It's hard to survey that on the phone. This obviously scratches the surface, but it does give some glimpse of what people are paying attention to. Or not paying attention to. For what that's worth... Half-empty or half-full? In any well-designed test of general knowledge, 50% of respondents will have below average performance. :-) It's not hard to be shocked at what Americans don't know. Jay Leno has a good time with it. Stephen Prothero, whose book, "Religious Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know--And Doesn't", in part inspired this survey, is one (among many) who finds the results confirm his premise. On the other hand, in the Huffington Post: Bruce Feiler in an essay entitled, "God in the U.S.A.: Americans Know More About Religion Than Most Other Subjects" focuses on the positives in the results: "Americans know more about religion than almost any other topic." (This from comparing answers to the "general knowledge" questions on the survey.) Also, he says, "Americans know as much about other religions as they know about their own." It is a challenge, both here on Mudcat and elsewhere, to get people to understand what the data say and what they don't. Among the Washington Post panelists, Aseem Shukla says, "...what to make of a dispiriting testament to another discipline where we Americans fall short?" but this study says nothing about how Americans compare to any other nation on this topic. Also in the Washington Post collection, John Mark Reynolds says "religious Americans must reject the temptation to retreat into a comforting anti-intellectualism. For Christians at least, we are called to live by faith and faith is intellectual. It is not merely intellectual, it is driven by love, but head and heart can never be separated." I'd agree with that, if I wasn't made suspicious by having had to clench my teeth to get through his preceding comments about "elite education" and the "secular elite". I had to grit my teeth for quite a while, but his points are good: "we must demand that our government schools teach religion, not just the "facts" but with understanding. Wisdom will only come when we recognize why billions of the world's people believe what they do. This means that majority Christians must also accept charitable expositions of other faiths. When the state of Texas demands less coverage of Islam this is a bad step. "We must do unto others as we would have them do to us. We must allow students to read books that come from different traditions, from atheism to paganism. The intellectual growth that will result will not be the sort that can be captured in a fill-in-the-blanks or multiple choice exam. Instead, we are going to have to support government school budgets that to allow for small discussion classes that can produce a deeper understanding of important ideas. "Ignorance about things vital to our fellow citizens is harmful to the Republic." I can't argue with that. Many folks who posted their reviews on Amazon.com of Prothero's "Religious Literacy" book, complained that it described the issue, but did nothing to solve it. He's got a new book: "God Is Not One: The Eight Rival Religions That Run the World--and Why Their Differences Matter." I think I'm going to get hold of that one. And on a procedural note: Apparently the Pew Forum does post its full datasets, usually within six months, so this one is not available yet but will be. Others (like the 2008 U.S. Religious Landscape Survey) can be found for download here. ~ Becky in Long Beach |
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Subject: RE: BS: U.S. Religious Knowledge Survey From: Neil D Date: 02 Oct 10 - 10:59 AM "One cannot truly say they understand history until they also understand the religion of the people they study" Maybe that's why non-believers scored so well on the test, they know more history. I know I did so well on the 15 question precisely because I read so much history, not because I've studied religions per se. And it was a burgeoning knowledge of history, moreso than science, that led me away from religion when I was a teenager. |
