Atheists Most Knowledgeable About Religion

[Cecilie1200]

Making the rounds of the media is the just released PEW Religious Survey Results.

Conclusion, Americans are religiously illiterate, ( I've overstated it a bit).

After several tries I was able to take the 15 question survey and scored 12 right.

I miss three questions about Hindu and Buddaism. Oh Well, at least I knew when the Sabath began and I'm not Jewish, but I did stay at a motel 6 recently.

Regards,

Threads Merged

Where'd you find the actual survey? I've seen articles that mention examples of questions, but none that contain the whole thing.

 

[Cecilie1200]

I would say that atheists know more about the generalities of religion as it relates to whether or not it is a reasonable choice, but when it comes to knowing the specifics of various doctrine, I would expect that they know much less. Their primary goal is probably to make a decision on whether or not they choose to believe, rather than choosing what doctrine to follow.

Sounds to me like the survey was skewed toward historical and academic questions over doctrinal or practical questions. In other words, it sounds biased toward people who learn about religion in college classes rather than learning it by attending church and practicing the religion.

That was my point when I pointed out that the title is misleading because those who attended services and were active in their faith/religion scored the best overall. Those types of people would tend to know both the academic/historic as well as the doctrines and practices.

Even that would depend on the academic/historical in question. I mean, if you asked me the names of the original founders of my church, I wouldn't be able to tell you without looking it up, because we don't teach church history. We focus strictly on the Bible and applying it to daily life.

 

[Cecilie1200]

Atheists on the whole know more about religion than people who identify themselves as religious. However, not all people who identify themselves as religious actually attend worship services. That's the difference.

Why would you bother knowing details about something you don't believe? I mean, I don't believe in Santa Claus, but I don't make a study of him or spend time constructing arguments against his existence.

Maybe, I like to understand something before forming an opinion. Novel concept, I'm sure.

From what little I can gather, they aren't talking about understanding religion at all. They're talking about knowing a lot of trivia. And the more I look into this, the more it appears to be an excuse to say, "See, Christians are just ignorant dolts like we always said. Atheists are the REAL smart people."

 

[Cecilie1200]

Is the survey available online? I want to try it.

That's MY question. I can find whole pages of stories about the results and summaries of the results, but I can't find any links to the actual questions. The more I look and don't see it, the more suspicious I become.

 

[RDD_1210]

Why would you bother knowing details about something you don't believe? I mean, I don't believe in Santa Claus, but I don't make a study of him or spend time constructing arguments against his existence.

Maybe, I like to understand something before forming an opinion. Novel concept, I'm sure.

From what little I can gather, they aren't talking about understanding religion at all. They're talking about knowing a lot of trivia. And the more I look into this, the more it appears to be an excuse to say, "See, Christians are just ignorant dolts like we always said. Atheists are the REAL smart people."

So PEW is biased against Christians? Is that the conclusion here?

 

[Cecilie1200]

If you're an atheist, haven't you already formed an opinion? I think her point is that they persist beyond forming an opinion or making a decision.

That's pretty much it. I heard the story about Santa Claus (magical guy who gives out free toys to good children on Christmas Eve), said, "That's jacked up. No way", and then barely gave it another thought in all the years since.

 

[Cecilie1200]

If you're an atheist, haven't you already formed an opinion? I think her point is that they persist beyond forming an opinion or making a decision.

I wasn't born an atheist. I had to learn about religion first before deciding to become an Atheist.

Tell me, how did you go about learning about religion BEFORE deciding to be an atheist? And how much of your "learning about religion" occurred AFTER deciding you were an atheist?

 

[Cecilie1200]

Atheists on the whole know more about religion than people who identify themselves as religious. However, not all people who identify themselves as religious actually attend worship services. That's the difference.

Why would you bother knowing details about something you don't believe?

If for no other reason, to ensure that you don't make a fool of yourself in discussions with adherents of other religions.

I don't spend a lot of time arguing the doctrine of other religions with its adherents, unlike atheists, because unlike atheists, I don't care. So long as your religious beliefs don't require you to try to kill or enslave me, it makes no difference in my life WHAT you believe. Would that atheists and certain other religions could mind their own business as well.

 

[Cecilie1200]

I wasn't born an atheist. I had to learn about religion first before deciding to become an Atheist.

You're missing the point, even though you had to learn about certain aspects of a particular religion to decide whether or not to accept or reject it, you still have not learned the same amount that a person devoted to the religion has learned over years of studying it and practicing it.

I see what you're saying. But I believe this quiz was overall knowledge of all types of religion. so Atheists I guess have a better overall grasp of knowledge from all the religions as a whole, while a Jew would know more about judaism when looking at solely those questions.

And like I said, it sounds as though they focused a lot on historical trivia, which colleges spend a lot of time teaching and churches don't.

 

[Cecilie1200]

Maybe, I like to understand something before forming an opinion. Novel concept, I'm sure.

From what little I can gather, they aren't talking about understanding religion at all. They're talking about knowing a lot of trivia. And the more I look into this, the more it appears to be an excuse to say, "See, Christians are just ignorant dolts like we always said. Atheists are the REAL smart people."

So PEW is biased against Christians? Is that the conclusion here?

No, just that Pew, like a lot of people (such as atheists), missed the point of religion.

 

[JBeukema]

New PEW study shows that Atheists, Jews and Mormons know more about religion then Catholics and Protestants..

Survey: Atheists most knowledgeable about religion

That explains why they're atheists.

 

[Ravi]

I was surprised that some got the birthplace of Jesus incorrect.

 

[Cecilie1200]

I was surprised that some got the birthplace of Jesus incorrect.

According to whom?

 

[JBeukema]

I wasn't born an atheist.

You were born a theist?

I had to learn about religion first before deciding to become an Atheist.

What god were you born believing in?

 

[Ravi]

I was surprised that some got the birthplace of Jesus incorrect.

According to whom?

The questionnaire.

 

[Ravi]

This was funny, tooDemocrats score better than Republicans on the survey by a slim but statistically
significant margin of half a question, all else held equal. Self-described liberals score
better than self-described conservatives by 0.8 questions.

 

[amrchaos]

I wasn't born an atheist.

You were born a theist?

I had to learn about religion first before deciding to become an Atheist.

What god were you born believing in?

Apparently, everyone was born agnostic!

 

[JBeukema]

I wasn't born an atheist.

You were born a theist?

I had to learn about religion first before deciding to become an Atheist.

What god were you born believing in?

Apparently, everyone was born agnostic!

Everyone is born an agnostic atheist

 

[Cecilie1200]

I was surprised that some got the birthplace of Jesus incorrect.

According to whom?

The questionnaire.

You mean the one that isn't included in any of the articles on the survey (including the one linked by the OP) and for which several people, including me, have requested a link? THAT survey?

Yeah, it really makes this whole thing seem believable and reliable when the ones gloating over it seem to want to keep the content a secret from everyone else.

Have you ever noticed that your support of an issue always seems to serve as an argument for the opposition?

 

[Ravi]

According to whom?

The questionnaire.

You mean the one that isn't included in any of the articles on the survey (including the one linked by the OP) and for which several people, including me, have requested a link? THAT survey?

Yeah, it really makes this whole thing seem believable and reliable when the ones gloating over it seem to want to keep the content a secret from everyone else.

Have you ever noticed that your support of an issue always seems to serve as an argument for the opposition?

I've noticed that you are helpless when it comes to finding out information for yourself. It took me all of three seconds to find the survey.