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here U.S. Religious
Knowledge Survey - September 28, 2010
Atheists and agnostics, Jews and
Mormons are among the highest-scoring groups on a new
survey of religious knowledge, outperforming evangelical
Protestants, mainline Protestants and Catholics on
questions about the core teachings, history and leading
figures of major world religions.
On average, Americans correctly answer 16
of the 32 religious knowledge questions on the survey by the
Pew Research Center's Forum on Religion & Public Life.
Atheists and agnostics average 20.9 correct answers. Jews
and Mormons do about as well, averaging 20.5 and 20.3
correct answers, respectively. Protestants as a whole
average 16 correct answers; Catholics as a whole, 14.7.
Atheists and agnostics, Jews and Mormons perform better than
other groups on the survey even after controlling for
differing levels of education.
On questions about Christianity -- including a battery of
questions about the Bible -- Mormons (7.9 out of 12 right on
average) and white evangelical Protestants (7.3 correct on
average) show the highest levels of knowledge.
Jews and atheists/agnostics stand out for their knowledge of
other world religions, including Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism
and Judaism; out of 11 such questions on the survey, Jews
answer 7.9 correctly (nearly three better than the national
average) and atheists/agnostics answer 7.5 correctly (2.5
better than the national average). Atheists/agnostics and
Jews also do particularly well on questions about the role
of religion in public life, including a question about what
the U.S. Constitution says about religion.
These are among the key findings of the U.S. Religious
Knowledge Survey, a nationwide poll conducted from May 19
through June 6, 2010, among 3,412 Americans age 18 and
older, on landlines and cell phones, in English and Spanish.
Jews, Mormons and atheists/agnostics were oversampled to
allow analysis of these relatively small groups.1
Previous surveys by the Pew Research Center have shown that
America is among the most religious of the world's developed
nations. Nearly six-in-ten U.S. adults say that religion is
"very important" in their lives, and roughly four-in-ten say
they attend worship services at least once a week. But the
U.S. Religious Knowledge Survey shows that large numbers of
Americans are uninformed about the tenets, practices,
history and leading figures of major faith traditions -
including their own. Many people also think the
constitutional restrictions on religion in public schools
are stricter than they really are.
Explains
how the world’s great religions, true ones and false ones,
answer questions that persist through generations. Authors
Rabbi Marc Gellman and Monsignor Thomas Hartman are trusted
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More than four-in-ten Catholics in the United States (45%)
do not know that their church teaches that the bread and
wine used in Communion do not merely symbolize but actually
become the body and blood of Christ. About half of
Protestants (53%) cannot correctly identify Martin Luther as
the person whose writings and actions inspired the
Protestant Reformation, which made their religion a separate
branch of Christianity. Roughly four-in-ten Jews (43%) do
not recognize that Maimonides, one of the most venerated
rabbis in history, was Jewish.
In addition, fewer than half of Americans (47%) know that
the Dalai Lama is Buddhist. Fewer than four-in-ten (38%)
correctly associate Vishnu and Shiva with Hinduism. And only
about a quarter of all Americans (27%) correctly answer that
most people in Indonesia -- the country with the world's
largest Muslim population -- are Muslims.
The survey also finds widespread confusion over the line
between teaching and preaching in public schools. Out of a
total of 41 knowledge questions (32 about religion and nine
testing general knowledge) the single question that
respondents most frequently get right is whether U.S.
Supreme Court rulings allow teachers to lead public school
classes in prayer. Nine-in-ten (89%) correctly say this is
not allowed.
But among the questions most often answered incorrectly is
whether public school teachers are permitted to read from
the Bible as an example of literature. Fully two-thirds of
people surveyed (67%) also say "no" to this question, even
though the Supreme Court has clearly stated that the Bible
may be taught for its "literary and historic" qualities, as
long as it is part of a secular curriculum.2
On a third question along these lines, just 36% of the
public knows that comparative religion classes may be taught
in public schools. Together, this block of questions
suggests that many Americans think the constitutional
restrictions on religion in public schools are tighter than
they really are.
On the other hand, most Americans are able to correctly
answer at least half of the survey's questions about the
Bible. For example, roughly seven-in-ten (71%) know that,
according to the Bible, Jesus was born in Bethlehem. More
than six-in-ten (63%) correctly name Genesis as the first
book of the Bible. And more than half know that the Golden
Rule -- "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you"
-- is not one of the Ten Commandments.
On the full battery of seven questions about the Bible (five
Old Testament and two New Testament items) Mormons do best,
followed by white evangelical Protestants.
Atheists/agnostics, black Protestants and Jews come next,
all exhibiting greater knowledge of the Bible than white
mainline Protestants and white Catholics, who in turn
outscore those who describe their religion as nothing in
particular.
Factors in Religious Knowledge
What factors seem to contribute to religious knowledge? Data
from the survey indicate that educational attainment -- how
much schooling an individual has completed -- is the single
best predictor of religious knowledge. College graduates get
nearly eight more questions right on average than do people
with a high school education or less. Having taken a
religion course in college is also strongly associated with
higher religious knowledge.
Other factors linked with religious knowledge include
reading Scripture at least once a week and talking about
religion with friends and family. People who say they
frequently talk about religion with friends and family get
an average of roughly two more questions right than those
who say they rarely or never discuss religion. People with
the highest levels of religious commitment -- those who say
that they attend worship services at least once a week and
that religion is very important in their lives -- generally
demonstrate higher levels of religious knowledge than those
with medium or low religious commitment.3
Having regularly attended religious education classes or
participated in a youth group as a child adds more than two
questions to the average number answered correctly, compared
with those who seldom or never participated in such
activities. And those who attended private school score more
than two questions better on average than those who attended
public school when they were growing up. Interestingly,
however, those who attended a private religious school score
no better than those who attended a private nonreligious
school.
This survey and previous Pew Forum studies have shown that
Jews and atheists/agnostics have high levels of educational
attainment on average, which partially explains their
performance on the religious knowledge survey. However, even
after controlling for levels of education and other key
demographic traits (race, age, gender and region),
significant differences in religious knowledge persist among
adherents of various faith traditions.
Atheists/agnostics, Jews and Mormons still have the highest
levels of religious knowledge, followed by evangelical
Protestants, then those whose religion is nothing in
particular, mainline Protestants and Catholics.
Atheists/agnostics and Jews stand out for high levels of
knowledge about world religions other than Christianity,
though they also score at or above the national average on
questions about the Bible and Christianity. Holding
demographic factors constant, evangelical Protestants
outperform most groups (with the exceptions of Mormons and
atheists/agnostics) on questions about the Bible and
Christianity, but evangelicals fare less well compared with
other groups on questions about world religions such as
Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism and Judaism. Mormons are the
highest-scoring group on questions about the Bible.
When education and other demographic traits are held equal,
whites score better than minorities on the survey's
religious knowledge questions, men score somewhat better
than women, and people outside the South score better than
Southerners. The oldest group in the population (age 65 and
older) gets fewer questions right than other age groups.
However, people 65 and older do about as well as people
under age 50 on questions about the Bible and Christianity;
they do less well on questions about other world religions.
Other Findings
Other findings of the U.S. Religious Knowledge Survey
include:
• On world religions other than Christianity, about
six-in-ten Americans (62%) know that most people in India
are Hindus. About half know that Ramadan is the Islamic holy
month (52%) and can name the Koran as the Muslim holy book
(54%). Roughly one-third (36%) correctly associate striving
for nirvana with Buddhism.
• Around four-in-ten Americans know that the Mormon religion
was founded sometime after 1800 (44%) and that the Book of
Mormon tells the story of Jesus appearing to people in the
Americas (40%). About half (51%) correctly identify Joseph
Smith, founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints, as a Mormon.
• In addition to questions about religious knowledge, the
survey included nine general knowledge questions (on
history, politics, science and literature) for comparison
purposes. These show, for example, that about six-in-ten
Americans can name the vice president of the United States
(59%) and understand that lasers do not work by focusing
sound waves (60%). More than seven-in-ten (72%) correctly
associate Susan B. Anthony with the movement to give women
the right to vote, while just 42% know that Herman Melville
was the author of the novel Moby Dick.
• Overall, people who score well on the general knowledge
questions also tend to do well on the religion questions.
Atheists/agnostics and Jews correctly answer an average of
roughly seven of the nine general knowledge questions. Among
the public overall, the average respondent correctly answers
5.2 of these general knowledge questions.
• While people with a high level of religious commitment do
better than average on the religion questions, people with
low levels of religious commitment do better than average on
the general knowledge questions.
• Many Americans are devoted readers of Scripture: More than
a third (37%) say they read the Bible or other Holy
Scriptures at least once a week, not counting worship
services. But Americans as a whole are much less inclined to
read other books about religion. Nearly half of Americans
who are affiliated with a religion (48%) say they "seldom"
or "never" read books (other than Scripture) or visit
websites about their own religion, and 70% say they seldom
or never read books or visit websites about other religions.
• Mormons, black Protestants and white evangelicals are the
most frequent readers of materials about religion. Fully
half of all Mormons (51%) and roughly three-in-ten white
evangelicals (30%) and black Protestants (29%) report that
they read books or go online to learn about their own
religion at least once a week. Only a small fraction of all
religiously affiliated Americans -- 6% of the general public
and no more than 8% of any religious group -- say they read
books (other than Scripture) or visit websites to learn
about religions other than their own at least once a week.
The remainder of this report is divided into two parts.
Section II, "Who Knows What About Religion," focuses on
differences between religious groups in eight domains of
knowledge: the Bible, Elements of Christianity, Elements of
Judaism, Elements of Mormonism, World Religions, Atheism and
Agnosticism, the Role of Religion in Public Life, and
Nonreligious Topics. Section III, "Factors Linked With
Religious Knowledge," describes factors associated with
religious knowledge. Details about the survey's methodology
are available in Appendix A, and the full wording of all
questions and topline survey results are provided in
Appendix B.
This survey is being released at the God in America National
Symposium on Religious Literacy on Sept. 28, 2010, in
Washington, D.C. WGBH Television in Boston collaborated with
the Pew Forum and the Religious Freedom Education Project at
the Newseum on the symposium, which will also feature a
screening of the three-part PBS documentary "God in
America." The series interweaves documentary footage,
historical dramatization and interviews to explore the
historical role of religion in the U.S., including its
impact on society, politics and culture.
Read the full report at
pewforum.org.
---
1 The Pew Forum's 2007 U.S. Religious Landscape Survey
estimated that Jews and Mormons each make up about 1.7% of
the U.S. public, while atheists and agnostics combined
account for about 4% of the U.S. population. Atheists and
agnostics are treated as a single group throughout this
report. The survey sample included too few interviews with
atheists to analyze them separately. For more details on the
sample sizes of religious groups, see Appendix A.
2 Writing for the Supreme Court majority in its 1963 ruling
in Abington School District v. Schempp, Justice Tom Clark
made a case for the importance of the study of religion as
the court clarified how public school teachers may go about
it: ". . . [I]t might well be said that one's education is
not complete without a study of comparative religion or the
history of religion and its relationship to the advancement
of civilization. It certainly may be said that the Bible is
worthy of study for its literary and historic qualities.
Nothing we have said here indicates that such study of the
Bible or of religion, when presented objectively as part of
a secular program of education, may not be effected
consistently with the First Amendment."
3 This may seem paradoxical, since atheists and agnostics
have very low levels of religious commitment and yet score
very well on the survey questions. However, atheists and
agnostics account for a relatively small share of the total
number of people with low levels of religious commitment; 4%
of Americans describe themselves as atheists or agnostics,
while fully 35% have low religious commitment. 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.
Source:
pewresearch.org
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Survey:
The Mormon
church's spin -
LDS know more about the Bible than other Christians
B y P e g g y
F l e t c h e r S t a c k Sep 28, 2010
Atheists and agnostics know more about major world religions
than many people of faith, while Mormons can answer more
Bible questions than their Catholic and mainline Protestant
counterparts.
Those are among the somewhat startling conclusions about
religious literacy in America the Pew Research Center’s
Forum on Religion and Public Life drew after surveying 3,412
Americans.
Some of the multiple-choice questions were relatively
simple: Where was Jesus born and who led the exodus from
Egypt? What religion was Mother Teresa, what day does the
Jewish Sabbath begin and what is the name of Islam’s holy
book?
Others were more obscure: What is Indonesia’s dominant
religion? Which Christians teach that salvation comes
through faith alone?
About half the Protestants (53 percent) couldn’t correctly
identify Martin Luther as the person whose writings and
actions inspired the Protestant Reformation. Fewer than half
of Americans (47 percent) knew the Dalai Lama is Buddhist
and only 38 percent correctly associated Vishnu and Shiva
with Hinduism.
John Morehead, director of the Western Institute for
Intercultural Studies in Salt Lake City, had already noted
religious illiteracy in the general population as well as in
the evangelical community. But he did not expect Mormons to
top them in their biblical fluency.
“Mormons tend to emphasize Mormon scriptures like the Book
of Mormon rather than the Bible in their devotional life,”
Morehead said in an e-mail.
Even some LDS scholars were surprised to find Mormons at the
top.
“We don’t study the Bible as much as evangelical
Protestants,” said Jim Faulkner, Richard L. Evens chairman
of religious understanding at Brigham Young University. “I
would have guessed that evangelicals would do better [than
us]. They have a lot of Bible study classes, some weekly.”
Atheists and agnostics, however, felt vindicated by Pew’s
findings.
“I am pleased to see a survey that shows we are not just
ignoramuses who don’t believe [in God] out of anger,” said
Florien “Flo” Wineriter, Humanists of Utah board member. “I
am very interested in the history of religion.”
Richard Andrews, president of the Salt Lake Valley Atheists,
agrees.
“I didn’t grow up a Muslim, but I know the difference
between the Shiites and the Sunnis,” Andrews said. “It
doesn’t require knowledge to believe. But to be skeptical,
you need to feed that skepticism with a little information.”
Monsignor Terrence Fitzgerald, vicar general of the Catholic
Diocese of Salt Lake City, was not too troubled to learn
that 45 percent of U.S. Catholics did not know their church
teaches that the bread and wine used in Communion actually
become the body and blood of Christ.
“The fundamental doctrines of the Catholic faith are
somewhat complicated for the minds of people who do not have
a lot of theological education,” Fitzgerald said. “The
clergy and U.S. bishops are well aware that a good number of
our people are theologically uneducated. We are constantly
trying to do a better job.”
While most Americans (89 percent) surveyed knew that
teachers cannot offer prayers in public school classroom,
only a third said reading the Bible as literature or
teaching comparative religion classes is acceptable.
“I would hope in our state we’d have a little better
response to that question,” said David Doty, Canyons School
District superintendent. “God is not off limits in the
classroom, as long as it has an educational goal and not a
proselytizing one.”
Jodi Ide’s world religions class at Brighton High School
discussed the Pew survey on Tuesday. The students wondered
how atheists could be so well-versed in world religions and
how Mormons could score above evangelicals in their
knowledge of Christianity.
But mostly, Ide said, the students were proud of their
explorations.
Those who study religion “are part of a small minority of
people in the country who know of other faiths,” the
students told her. “We are doing something about this
ignorance individually and as a class.”
It felt good, she said.
Source:
sltrib.com
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