Athiests and Agnostics Most Informed About Religion

[Mrs.PatsFanInVa]

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.

Atheists, agnostics most knowledgeable about religion, survey says - latimes.com

 

[TBradyOwnsYou]

Truthiness!

 

[IcyPatriot]

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Catlicks were the bottom of the barrel ... what's up with that?

 

[IcyPatriot]

​

 

[TBradyOwnsYou]

​

3 I didn't know:
Indonesia, Jon Edwards, Maimonides.

 

[Mrs.PatsFanInVa]

I found it an interesting study (if "study" is the right word.) I also think I agree with their conclusion that athiests and agnostics spent some time and energy reading and researching various religions in an attempt to prove or disprove something to themselves, if to no one else.

It makes sense that people know the most about their own religion - but little about anyone else's. If they are really true believers, why bother? I'm sure they all assume that since they're right - everyone else is wrong.

Having been raised a Catholic in an Irish/Polish enclave on the South Side of Chicago, I didn't even KNOW there were other religions until I was in my teens.

The more I read and learned about various other religions,the more I realized they all preached basically the same things with only small variations for the most part. And very few of them actually practiced what they preached. (Just a personal generalized observation and I know several people who don't fall into this catagory.)

It seems to be a good study and it seems to show that there's a need for interfaith education. Maybe people of all faiths would respect one another more if they actually knew how much they have in common.

 

[IcyPatriot]

I

It seems to be a good study and it seems to show that there's a need for interfaith education. Maybe people of all faiths would respect one another more if they actually knew how much they have in common.

I have said a few times in the PoFo that there should be a course teaching the basic concepts of religions in public schools. I think it would go a long way in making people more aware and sensitive to all
people who are different from themselves.

they teach US history and world history and they should incorporate some religion history into both of those.

They proved this in the Middle East where they had a class of Muslim and Jewish kids who all came to the realization they were a bit different but mostly the same.

 

[Mrs.PatsFanInVa]

they teach US history and world history and they should incorporate some religion history into both of those.

They proved this in the Middle East where they had a class of Muslim and Jewish kids who all came to the realization they were a bit different but mostly the same.

Yes, I agree.

I find different religions fascinating and I love learning about them. When my old boss's father died, MrP and I went to the wake. It was a Buddhist wake and, while I felt fairly out of place, not knowing the proper things to do, they talked us through it and it was a most beautiful concept and experience. Different kinds of incense sticks and ways of bowing and each meant something special.

There was also an experiment (if that's even the right word) some years back where they moved Palestinans and Jews into one neighborhood - next door to one another, and within weeks everyone was friends. It's very hard to hate your neighbor - you might need to borrow a cup of sugar someday, your kids play together, he works on cars, your battery's dead, etc., etc.

Knowing things is never a bad idea. And, like I mentioned earlier, most religions are not all that far apart. Every single religion I know of follows some version of the Golden Rule - if everyone would leave it at that we'd all be better off.

 

[WhiteWesWelker88]

Those who live on hope should expect starvation.:bricks:




Organized Religion = BS

 

[everlong]

They proved this in the Middle East where they had a class of Muslim and Jewish kids who all came to the realization they were a bit different but mostly the same.

If you believe the bible and Qur'an are at least somewhat historically accurate then the Muslims and Jews and therefore Christians are actually all cousins originating from the sons of Abraham with the descendants of Isaac following the Jewish heritage and the sons of Ishmael the Islamic heritage.

Isaac or Ishmael

The versions of how things went down are predictably different in the bible and Qur'an but a lot of the details are the same.

 

[PatsFanInVa]

Ecumenism is the right spirit, but the details really annoy me at times, being of the Israelitish persuasion... retelling the story w/a different ending will piss off the guys still adhering to v.1.0.

Or put another way, it's sorta like someone setting up another team in the NFL called the Hatriots, saying the Patriots have to be hunted to extinction and that by the way, the REAL Patriots are the Hatriots, and that the Pats as we know them are not doing the REAL will of the team, and creating an alternate history where Bledsoe was never drafted, Ryan Leaf won the super bowl for New England, and Brady never emerged... and in 100 years, everyone believed 'em. Like I said, it's an irrational quibble, especially given that Noah/Gilgamesh thing (among many.) Religions borrow from their predecessors.

So argue the details of this or that religion will always tend toward these exposed nerves; argue whether or not we should get along better w/people of all faiths, and it's a lot easier to agree.

As to the poll itself, it's a pretty interesting study on the importance of "heterodoxy" on acquisition of knowledge. Think about it - the Atheist/Agnostic can't just "go to church every week and that's all they need to know about religion." In a disproportionate number of cases, they've looked hard at their religion and likely others, and decided consciously that they cannot in good faith, pun intended, remain religious.

Jews in America are challenged from day one to tell every jackass who wants to know "why don't you believe in Jesus," among many other less doctrinally central issues. Very few Christians experience the reverse of this question. They do not have to understand their religion, much less other religions, because Christianity is the "default" religion in the U.S.

I would imagine that Mormons have a very similar experience.

Now, were all Jews Chasidim living in the same 10-block community most of their lives and studiously avoiding Christians, that effect may be lessened, and if all Mormons indeed lived in Salt Lake City, ditto for Mormons.

Meh. Live and learn, die and forget it all.

PFnV

 

[IcyPatriot]

Meh. Live and learn, die and forget it all.

PFnV

so you have the no box checked off to the reincarnation question PF?

 

[PatsFanInVa]

so you have the no box checked off to the reincarnation question PF?

Didn't believe in it when I was an ancient stonemason working on the Pyramids, when I was a powerful prince in what is now India, when I was a religious leader among the Inca, when I was a minor portuguese explorer during the Age of Discovery, when I worked on William Randolph's plantation, or when I was tragically killed at the age of 26 leading a labor riot in 1896, I'll be damned if I'm starting now.

Seriously, Icy - I have no very thoroughgoing reason to postulate reincarnation, transmigration, disembodied afterlife, or bodily resurrection, so I'm a bit of a Saducee on that count. Of course when people close to me have died or are dying, I believe more, and in the absence of such a crisis I believe less. I think this rather sheds light on the psychological urge that predisposes us to such beliefs, than on the veracity of such beliefs themselves.

So in a word, I'd like one of these systems to pertain, but I don't find them compelling. I might be more easily persuaded that the divisions among our egos are artificial and ephemeral and that there is a deeper reality of oneness of all people and things, that we merely rejoin... something more along those lines.

PFnV

 

[mfaith]

I was technically a Catholic until I was 18. My father's family were devout Catholics but my dad never really made me or my siblings go to church. My mother didn't have an official church so I think my dad had me baptized Catholic to make his mother happy. At 18 I joined the Mormon church.

I took the quiz and missed 1 or two questions. I'm afraid I'm guilty of knowing my own religious beliefs but very little about others. That study really opened my eyes.

I agree that we'd all be better off focusing on what we have in common, and not what makes us different.

 

[Keyser Söze]

I'm and atheist and I can usually school Christians on religion.

 

[Synovia]

I have said a few times in the PoFo that there should be a course teaching the basic concepts of religions in public schools. I think it would go a long way in making people more aware and sensitive to all
people who are different from themselves.

Whats funny is that pretty much every Jesuit (catholic) school out there does exactly this.

Go to a good catholic highschool, and they make you read the Koran. I blame catholic school for me being an athiest.



Also, i do not like the grouping of Atheists and Agnostics. They're not even close to the same thing.

 

[TheSolderKing]

I believe in a CREATOR and I belief in MYSELF.



FATE DESTINY and EVERYTHING HAPPENS FOR A REASON


We are all here to fulfill a plan that we may or maynor know just yet. We have a purpose and goal in life that we r suppose to accomplish


this is all u need to believe in


cath skool k-6 they try to brain wash u. NOT ME I saw the light

THE WORLD IS FLATAND THIS CHURCH SENT PPL LIKE CARDINAL FANG AND HIS MEN TO GO KILL DISSIDENTS. THE NONCONFORMISTS.

I hate organized religion



does this make me AGNOSTIC???


edit- CATHOLIC CONVERTED to BEING A REALIST


NOT GONNA LIE THOUGH. $$$ from conformation etc I'll take.

if my future woman wants to go to Church I'll go to merely support her not for SALVATION of my SOUL LMFAO


SCIENCE!!!!

 

[TheSolderKing]

i'm like Anakin in this scene.

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



I see through the LIES of Christianity etc/ Catholic Church




my opinion

 

[The Brandon Five]

I'm and atheist and I can usually school Christians on religion.

How about on spelling and grammar?

 

[Keyser Söze]

How about on spelling and grammar?

Not so much.

how dare you like that chico!