28 September 2010

U.S. Religious Knowledge Survey (and quiz)

Many blogs today are citing some of the results of the U. S. Religious Knowledge Survey conducted by the Pew Research Center's Forum on Religion and Public Life.  Most discussions seem to focus on the finding that atheists and agnostics as a group scored higher on the survey than did persons with affiliations to conventional religious groups.  The Executive Summary discusses this result and the other observations from the survey.

The Pew site also offers a abbreviated quiz for the general public (15 questions, compared to 32 on the actual survey).  My results are shown above; I missed just one question (on the Jewish Sabbath - forgive me, Ira!).  I should think that most TYWKIWDBI readers will do just as well, because the questions do not really require knowledge of dogma or doctrine - just simple knowledge about Mother Theresa and Bible stories and Ramadan and such.  What surprises me is how poorly the public does on what seem to be basic knowledge questions.  Below are the results (sorted by religious affiliation) for the abbreviated quiz, which I invite you to try at this link.

18 comments:

  1. BJNSeptember 28, 2010 at 6:39 PM

    I missed the one on the "Great Awakening". Another atheist scores well. The study notes that Mormon and Jewish faithful scored better than average. Living in Utah, I'd suggest that's cultural. Mormons have active apologists and I think the rank-and-file like to arm themselves with comparative religion facts for both their missionary work and explaining themselves to "gentiles" (non-mormons). Mormons also make much of their founder, Joseph Smith, dabbling in many religions before inventing his own.

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  2. KevinSeptember 28, 2010 at 7:27 PM

    I got 15 of 15, but I guessed on the last question. Yet another atheist scores well.

    I knew the answer to 15 was not the last one, Billy Graham I believe (I did the quiz earlier today), so it was one of the other two. The first name sounded more likely, and it was correct.

    The Sabbath I wasn't sure I would get right. I know Jewish observations begin in the evening, and which day they observe the Sabbath, but it seemed trickier than the other questions. You have to know two basic facts about Judaism.

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  3. MarkSeptember 28, 2010 at 11:50 PM

    Re question 15, I had eliminated Billy Graham, but guessed incorrectly. I got the rest right and I'm an atheist.

    But what is interesting is that only 11% of the population got #15 right, and there is a 33% chance of getting it right by guessing. That means that if you don't know the answer, go for the answer that you recognize (I'm sure the majority picked Billy Graham).

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  4. SusanSeptember 29, 2010 at 1:07 AM

    The quiz is a joke. It has nothing to do with religious knowledge. It tests most basic cultural knowledge associated with various religions.

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  5. AnonymousSeptember 29, 2010 at 1:40 PM

    I took the quiz and i really don't think it is a good mix of all religions. It was mostly christian related questions

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  6. AmySeptember 29, 2010 at 10:04 PM

    Must not have been that great of an awakening if so many people missed it...

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  7. Plato's flashlightSeptember 30, 2010 at 7:37 PM

    Another atheist checking in: 15 out of 15 correct!

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  8. elsuzequeSeptember 30, 2010 at 10:48 PM

    And yet another Atheist with a perfect score!

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  9. BarbwireSeptember 30, 2010 at 11:11 PM

    I missed The Great Awakening question, too. And I can quote the Bible on almost any topic. I've never read the Quran, but Ive actually read the Bible and the Book of Mormon. I've also read various Buddhist works, so Kabbalah, and other works. I'm agnostic leaning to atheist.

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  10. UnknownOctober 1, 2010 at 10:12 AM

    Presbyterian here, with a 14/15 score. I got the Great Awakening and missed the Supreme Court decision. I notice there's no questions here representing earth-based religions, either.

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  11. AnthonyOctober 1, 2010 at 11:48 AM

    Atheist. 14/15. Slept through "great" awakening.

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  12. StephenOctober 1, 2010 at 4:44 PM

    Presbyterian, got 13/15
    Missed the one about the Jewish Sabbath, and I missed the one about Vishnu and Shiva (I'm not as up on Hinduism as I should be).
    For me, the Great Awakening one was one of the the easiest ones...

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  13. CraigOctober 1, 2010 at 5:38 PM

    15 of 15--- non-theist

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  14. AnonymousOctober 4, 2010 at 2:22 AM

    15/15 for this "Mormon." But it's a brief quiz. I knew the answers on the quiz, but I don't think I really am such an expert on world religion. It's a bit simplistic. (Which is why it is so troubling that so many people seem not to do well.)

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  15. JC FremontSeptember 19, 2012 at 2:10 PM

    Got all 15 correct. Am a traditional Anglican with a Ph.D. in a physical science.

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  16. AnonymousOctober 19, 2012 at 7:01 PM

    14 out 15 - avid Seventh-day Adventist

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  17. atpcliffFebruary 22, 2013 at 1:46 PM

    I missed one...and am one of the "nothing in particular" category....so I scored WAY above the average for my group.

    Science has already proved that God exists in two ways that I know of:

    The most prominent way is DNA: DNA is exactly the same as a software coding language (except it creates bioware). Languages (to include programming languages) cannot come into being by accident, they have to be created. Also, if software code has random changes occurring in it, it will degenerate to crap, and not work. DNA has code built into it to fix it so random changes will not corrupt it.

    The other way, which is quite new and not very well known, is that scientists have discovered a software coding language in subatomic particles. This language, is identical to one developed in the 1950s to prevent random changes in transmitted code from negatively affecting the meaning of the message as it was being transmitted....it is an error-correction code. The purpose of the code in the subatomic area is to prevent errors from corrupting our universe, which is a digital representation of a reality (ours).

    God created DNA, and God created our universe. And Darwin was right, there is evolution, and God created it.
    cliff
    AUH

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  18. markMay 13, 2013 at 1:16 PM

    Nonsense, one does not imply the existence of another. All you have here are your own ideas.

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