Loading ...Atheists, Jews, Mormons ace religion exams
flockwoodThe Pew Forum has released a study suggesting that self-described Christians don’t know a whole lot about world religions — including Christianity.
Atheists, agnostics, Jews and Mormons — on average — score better on religious literacy tests than self-described Protestant Mainline, Evangelical or Catholic Christians.
Does this mean that most Christians are clueless? No. It means that Christianity is still the default position in the United States. So we’ve got tens of millions of Americans who are culturally (not spiritually) Christians. A lot of them live here in the South.
Many of them don’t know jack about Jesus. Never set foot in church. Never read the Bible. Could tell you more about Ground Hog Day than Good Friday. Know more about their horoscope sign than the Plan of Salvation. Nice people, a lot of the time; good people, perhaps; but absolutely clueless about religion.
People who have thought about religion enough to decide “I’m an atheist” or “I’m a Mormon” or “I’m a Jew” have gone against the cultural tide. They’ve taken a stand. And they’ve been asked, more likely than not, to defend their position.
It would be interesting to know how church-going Christians scored on this religious literacy test. My hunch — they probably score better than non-churchgoers.
h/t: David Duke
September 29th, 2010 at 4:01 pm
I think your hunch is pretty obvious, Frank, but I wonder by how much? Those questions were not difficult at all. I took the “test” before I read the article and the questions were incredibly easy. Obviously, my comparative religion class at BYU (yes, they teach one there) helped with the questions regarding the world’s religions, but I’d be ashamed to call myself a Christian if I couldn’t have answered the “Bible” questions the quiz asked. I would bet my 11 year old son could have answered those pretty easily.
September 29th, 2010 at 4:43 pm
Since when is there an IQ test to being a good Christian? Your assertion is absurd. Elite posturing at its ugliest.
And yet, you are simultaneously falling for statistical fallacies, proving your own ignorance and folly. Atheists, agnostics, Jews, and Mormons would score better on almost any subject literacy test, since they are HIGHER EDUCATED on average.
Double fail.
September 29th, 2010 at 5:43 pm
The writers of both the Old and New Testaments stressed the importance of knowing the contents of the Scriptures.
Think of the Psalms: “Thy word have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against thee.” and
“Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.” (I’m going from memory on most of these Bible quotes, but they should be in the ballpark…)
2 Timothy 2:15 states: “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”
There is no IQ test to being a good Christian. Many of the earliest church leaders were, undoubtedly, illiterate and uneducated by Greek and Roman standards. Paul spoke of the “foolishness of preaching” and said that God had chosen the foolish things of this world to confound the wise. But the early Christians clearly treasured Scripture and poured over it. This is not absurdity, nor is it elite posturing.
My hunch — an average Bible-reading, churchgoing Assemblies of God high school sophomore probably knows more about the contents of the Bible than your typical big city newspaper reporter or your run-of-the-mill Ivy League college student.
September 29th, 2010 at 6:22 pm
Sorry you feel that way, Justin. While I’ll be the first to admit there is much more to “knowing” God and his Son than reading the Bible (prayer, meditation, service to your fellow man), I don’t know how anyone can claim to “know God” without making a study of the words he has given us through his chosen prophets.
If you feel I’m an elitist, that’s your choice, but having some of your other posts, I think that attitude just might come from one you’ve already developed regarding members of my religion.
I’ll leave it at that. I think Frank has pretty much made my point.
September 29th, 2010 at 6:22 pm
*read some of your other posts….
September 29th, 2010 at 7:17 pm
There’s a germ of truth in Justin’s post, though I heartily disagree with his tone. This is another case where correlation should not be interpreted as causality. Among Americans there’s a strong correlation between people who are educated and people who are either atheist, agnostic, Mormon, or Jewish. (I suspect that the causal relationship goes different ways depending on the category– people tend to be atheist or agnostic because they are well-educated, and people tend to be well-educated because they are Mormon or Jewish.) If you accounted for these factors, I’ll wager that you would find that Christians are more knowledgeable about religious matters than atheists with the same amount of education.
David, a little while back we were talking about newspapers. It was noted that the LDS had a major newspaper while many larger religious groups did not. I don’t this for a fact but the Saints seem to be the kind of folks who would put a huge emphasis on formal education, even out on the frontier. Maybe you can comment on that. If Mormons as a group tended to be more literate than others then it would follow that they would be more likely to support a publishing branch.
September 29th, 2010 at 10:40 pm
Jose, you are completely correct. And while I disagreed with Justin’s tone, I also don’t see much of any truth in his post either, to be quite truthful. First off all, to be able to answer basic Bible and religious question has nothing to do with the IQ of a person and I certainly wasn’t trying to be an elitist. I might have had a smidgen of attitude of “see, I told you so,” to the world in general in sending the link to Frank simply because I’ve spent too much time in my life trying to convince people that we Mormons do, in fact, study the Bible and not just that “Gold” one.
You’ll have to forgive me for that. I’ve never ran into that on this blog from any of you that I can remember, I’ve always felt respected in my beliefs.
As to what you addressed, Jose, education has always been a large factor in our religious culture. When the Saints founded the city of Nauvoo, IL, the first two undertakings were the temple (which we see as a building of spiritual education) and the “University of the City of Nauvoo,” which offered courses in languages (Latin, Greek, Hebrew, German and French I believe), mathematics, chemistry, geology, literature, and history. The current University of Utah was originally the University of Deseret, founded by Brigham Young. Brigham Young University was originally the Brigham Young Academy, a high school level institution, founded in 1875 and wasn’t made into a university until 1903, when the “Academy” was split into both BYU and BY High School. Some at the “U” still insist that they go to the real “church” school.
As for the newspapers, the church had them in each city they established, from Kirtland, Ohio to Salt Lake City. John Taylor, the third president of the church, had a publishing background and undertook those responsibilities during much of that time. (Note: Our current president, Thomas S. Monson, was the general manager of the Deseret News Press before his call as an apostle in 1963.)
I would agree with you about the well-educated Christian vs well-educated atheist and who would be more knowledgeable regarding religious matters, although I’m not sure if I totally go for the well-educated tend to be atheist or agnostic because they are well educated. In my eyes, ignoring the spiritual (atheist) or claiming it’s impossible to know the spiritual (agnostic) both tend to lead me to remove the “well” from their education because they just don’t take the time to go deep enough…. ;^)
September 30th, 2010 at 12:31 am
David, you are not showing us much worth for all that great Mormon education you are so keen to hype.
“to answer basic Bible and religious question has nothing to do with the IQ of a person”
Major fail. IQ has A LOT to do with any trivial knowledge test (such as knowledge of world religions). If you don’t know that, do some research. It is practically axiomatic.
The fact that Jews, Mormons, atheists, and agnostics score higher than average has everything to do with statistical sampling and demographics. They are all small groups, five million people or less in every case, and are composed overwhelmingly of the same demographic group (i.e. negligible in-group diversity). Christians “as a whole” encompasses the vast average, including great demographic diversity.
The FIRST rule of valid sociological comparisons is to stratify by race, location, and income. The simple fact that all four of these groups (Mormon, Jewish, atheist, agnostic) are 90+% White by race, means they are statistically guaranteed to test above average on ANY knowledge test. In other words, to say there is something unique about them because of their religious identity is completely unfounded.
Here are some examples of valid comparisons: White, middle-income Baptists living in the mountain west, compared to Mormons. Or: White, upper-income Episcopalians living the northeast, compared to Jews.
Or even: Black, lower-income Mormons living in the southeast compared to Pentecostals.
Haha, sorry, had to throw in a funny one there. The sample size of ZERO lower-income Black southeastern Mormons renders that one kind of difficult to compare.
GET THE POINT???
September 30th, 2010 at 12:39 am
“My hunch — an average Bible-reading, churchgoing Assemblies of God high school sophomore probably knows more about the contents of the Bible than your typical big city newspaper reporter or your run-of-the-mill Ivy League college student.”
Frank, as a teacher of world religions, I can assure you, that is true. As you intimated in your main post, the problem is most assuredly the “cultural Christians” who know nothing about their own faith. I have heard from many a student, “I learned more about Christianity your two week unit than I have in 10 years of going to church”.
I would also point to the trivial and circumstantial nature of “knowledge of world religions.” I would think that would skew heavily towards those who are college educated, which is just about the only place you will encounter a class about it.
September 30th, 2010 at 10:50 pm
Frank, this survey raised my curiosity to know finding of what % of American know how 2+2 = 4 before they use this mathematical principle in day to day of their life and its effects on national level with its results. I am sure most of us would say it is “very important” in our practical life knowing 2+2=4, but do not know how it is true. Christian God we believe by faith only which is important character rather than knowing what books constitute synoptic gospel, whether or not biblical stories is historical facts or myth. Importance purpose of Christianity is to prepare oneself for the life after physical death, which is only possible thru God’s grace but not thru knowledge or merit of our own, e.g. robber who was crucified with Christ, St. Paul etc. This survey may empower many atheists to believe Christians are stupid, as many public figures at least present now-a-day that way in national TV that they do not know what they believe. Who can deny effect of family and culture in our personal decision, whether it is in religion or in “American dream” in nation building? There is natural effect on a child by family and culture in his/her decision making process when the baby reaches adult hood. Knowledge is power no doubt, in religion issues godly knowledge is power and there is no short cut achieving this Christian knowledge without bible study and group worship in a church.
October 1st, 2010 at 5:38 am
Julian, you raise some good points. And I’d like to circle back to what Justin said to “revise and extend” my remarks.
According to many Christian traditions, we encounter the Lord Jesus Christ and God the Father through the Scriptures — but not exclusively through the Scriptures. The Bible is full of characters who never read Bible texts (who probably never learned to read and write) but who knew about God because they knew God. They walked with Him, talked with Him, wrestled with Him, argued with Him.
[We're also taught that God can be encountered (Catholics would say literally and tangibly) in the sacraments.] And then there are schools of thought that we encounter God in those around us (who are made in the image and likeness of God) and in nature and in reason.]
The thief on the cross, as Julian notes, may not have known much ABOUT Jesus. But he KNEW Jesus.
Likewise, after the Resurrection, Christ followers didn’t seem to know much about the logistics of the Resurrection. But they were convinced it had occurred.
Christianity values both faith and reason, orthodoxy and orthopraxy. We’re told that “without faith it is impossible to please God.” But that faith is supposed to be grounded in Scripture. “Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.”
October 1st, 2010 at 7:28 am
All of you seem intelligent and well versed in bible scripture. Why don’t you go forth and share that knowledge with your “cultural christian” brethren and stop stroking your own ego with your blog posts. We get it. You’ve read the bible. Probably everyone that’s posted on this topic. Probably more than once. I call that preaching to the choir. While discussion is good, you’re not going to save any lost souls in here.
October 1st, 2010 at 11:22 am
Always seemed to me that Mormons are Christians.
Throughout the history of Christianity there have always been heterodoxies (or, as some always said, heresies). It’s quite clear that the Mormons worship Jesus Christ, and fit into the vast array of Christian theologies.
Of course this sort of fighting over who is a real X is not limited to Christianity, as one sees in the claims that Ahmadis are not real Muslims or the Eithiopian Jews are not real Jews.
October 1st, 2010 at 1:47 pm
Ken — Good point. I wasn’t trying to suggest that Mormon doctrine is Christian or not Christian. I was merely trying to point out that they scored a lot higher than generic or “vanilla” Christians. In an attempt to rectify the point you raised, I’ve changed the lead to say:
Atheists, agnostics, Jews and Mormons — on average — score better on religious literacy tests than self-described Protestant Mainline, Evangelical or Catholic Christians.
October 12th, 2010 at 7:01 pm
flockwood, Justin, et all: Go out to the Pew website and look at the study. They must have predicted your concerns because they already answered them. They have some nice charts that show how going to church more often has almost no impact on religious literacy. On the other hand, going to one of those forsaken big city elitist liberal arts institutions of higher education has a very strong positive correlation with religious literacy. It’s right there in the study. So, everything else being equal, on average that big city Christian newspaper man with a Master’s is going to know a lot more about the Bible than the most devoted church goer. Your hunches are completely wrong and you should reconsider your focus.
October 12th, 2010 at 7:11 pm
Isn’t it embarrassing, by the way? Face it: a salad bar “cultural” Christian with a little bit of secular education actually knows more about Christianity than a True devotee. They build all these churches and roll around in millions of dollars from these dutiful followers but yet they can’t even teach basic facts about their own religions that any atheist knows. Maybe they should start telling their followers to spend more time reading their bibles and less time proselytizing. But I guess there’s no money in that.
October 16th, 2010 at 1:54 pm
It’s all cultural. People who grew up in evangelical churches during my generation were indeed indoctrinated from an early age with a particular view of the Bible, and a part of that view was the idea that Bible study was the most important form of study. So, yes, when it comes down to a sort of literal knowledge of the Bible, number of books, who the major players are and what the stories say, they probably know more about the Bible than your average secular MA. On the other hand, those who grew up in more liberal churches, Methodists, Episcopalians, Presbyterians, and the like, also grew up with a particular view of the Bible, but one which stressed the Big Ideas in the Bible, love, peace, service, etc., rather than the stories. If the Bible Quiz is of a factual nature, these folks are going to be left out.
But when you go beneath the surface, and look deeper at the texts, you find a tremendous amount of ignorance among evangelicals. I mean, Elaine Pagels, arguably the most important theologian in America today, is in Lexington this weekend, and where is she speaking? She’s speaking at Transylvania University, a liberal Disciples of Christ school (and my alma mater), and at Christ Church Episcopal, the cathedral. I don’t imagine the Baptists know she’s in town.