US Religious Knowledge Survey
 

http://pewforum.org/Other-Beliefs-an...ge-Survey.aspx

U.S. Religious Knowledge Survey
POLL September 28, 2010

Executive Summary
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

Re: US Religious Knowledge Survey
 

Are Oneness Pentecostals considered Protestants?

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Yes.

Not sure they were included in the study, but they would be considered Protestants.

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I just took their 15 question survey. I totally guessed on 3 questions and still got 100%

.http://features.pewforum.org/quiz/us...edge/index.php

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You answered 12 out of 15 questions correctly
for a score of 80%.

You scored better than 87% of the public.

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You answered 15 out of 15 questions correctly
for a score of 100%

You scored better than 99% of the public. :D

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You answered 15 out of 15 questions correctly
for a score of 100%

You scored better than 99% of the public

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I got 14 out of 15, but I know which one I missed, stupid mistake.

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100%

ha and then I just retook it and got 14/15. Overconfidence-I didn't read the questions thoroughly!

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Shocker.....I got 100%. I expected to come on here and say, "I'm not too proud to admit that I missed 3!" Some were associative guesses. WooHoo, I'm proud of myself.

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Oh yeah! *Happy Dance*

You answered 15 out of 15 questions correctly
for a score of 100%.

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Why are American Christians so ignorant about their faith and religion? Could it be the fact that we have settled for the least effective method of teaching and fellowship?

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I think it's probably because Church=Social Club to most typical "American Christians"... JMO

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Well, this wasn't about just our faith and religion - - it was about many others.

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I think that's an element.

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True. However, more discussion based fellowship covering not only the Christian faith, but how it differs from others may have brought more knowledge to the people.

Most American Christians get a "lecture" style message from a single teacher three times a week... if they attend midweek services AND both Sunday services.

They say, the worst way to teach is "lecture style". People learn more and make it more personal if they are participating and having intellectual exchange. For example... if I ask most Christians what the sermon was last Sunday night... they'll studder and most likely will not remember the title or overall point, just elements.

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Missed one... not sure which. Who wants to achieve nirvana? And... are bible passages allowed to be discussed as literature in public schools? Answered one of these wrong.

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Yes, they are able to discuss as literature.

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Alright, who aims to achieve nirvana, the buddhist or the hindu?

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Bhuddists meditate on Nirvana, I answered No to the Bible passages as literature question. Hmm, if the answer is yes, then I was wrong about which question I missed.

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Click on the link again and go to the bottom - - you'll find some of them there - "What the Public Knows About Religion"

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I scored 100%.

Not too surprising that the posters on this site are well above average on Religious Knowledge. :thumbsup

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I got 14 out of 15, could have been 13. It was the last two questions about Nirvana which I got right but guessed between Buddhism and Hinduism and the second great awakening which I got wrong guessing finney

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I missed 3 :(

1. regarding communion, I was trying to give the Catholics the benefit of the doubt... if they really believe they are eating Christ's flesh then that is cannibalism...

2. I missed the same one that Prax missed and guessed Finney (I'm not even certain what the Great Awakening is, I guess I'll have to google it).

3. I missed the one about when the Jewish Sabbath begins... being from the Southern US, I never even met a Jew until I joined the Navy and was wondering why this guy wore this little skullcap with his uniform. I'm sure I knew others, but had never seen anyone that actually performed any Jewish rituals.

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Buddhists. I'll get in trouble for saying this, but Buddhism has many great concepts and contrary to popular opinion, does not worship a "God." It is basically a philosophy system and many of it's principles are based on the teachings of Jesus.

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Well, finally someone to join me and helping me not feel so stupid.

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Most Americans that "affiliate" themselves with some sort of Christian sect aren't really strong members so they never really learn their own beliefs and just aren't that interested in religion to begin with to know about others.

The interesting facet are atheists and from experience they really do, a lot of them, know about a lot of religions

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Finney?? Really? lol

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Totally agree. If I didn't believe the Bible was true, I'd definitely be Buddhist.

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You answered 13 out of 15 questions correctly
for a score of 87%

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14 out of 15

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563 BC to 483 BC

They based their teachings on Jesus 500 years before he was born. :thumbsup

Gautama Buddha is also described as a god or Prophet in other Religions like Hinduism, Ahmadiyya Muslim Community and the Bahá'í faith.:grampa

Brilliant.

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I took the long-form (32 questions) on the Christian Science Monitor newspaper's website and got all 32 questions right.

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Many, if not most, of their concepts have been developed since the time of Jesus. Religious systems do that.

(except for the UPC, of course, which operates EXACTLY as the Upper Room folks did)

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Technically, he is seen as an avatar of divinity - not quite the same thing as a "god." The divinity within the Buddha is said to be worshiped and not the man himself. Some people (including some OPs) look at Jesus Christ the same way.

(I took the 32 question quiz linked to from the Beeb's website (at the CS Monitor) and got 32 out of 32 - FWIW).

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You answered 13 out of 15 questions correctly
for a score of 87%.
Question Your Response Correct Answer % of survey respondents answering correctly
1. Which Bible figure is most closely associated with leading the exodus from Egypt? correct Answer Moses Moses 72%
2. What was Mother Teresa's religion? correct Answer Catholic Catholic 82
3. Which of the following is NOT one of the Ten Commandments? correct Answer Do unto others as you would have them do unto you Do unto others as you would have them do unto you 55
4. When does the Jewish Sabbath begin? correct Answer Friday Friday 45
5. Is Ramadan…? correct Answer The Islamic holy month The Islamic holy month 52
6. Which of the following best describes the Catholic teaching about the bread and wine used for Communion? correct Answer The bread and wine actually become the body and blood of Jesus Christ. The bread and wine actually become the body and blood of Jesus Christ. 40
7. In which religion are Vishnu and Shiva central figures? correct Answer Hinduism Hinduism 38
8. Which Bible figure is most closely associated with remaining obedient to God despite suffering? correct Answer Job Job 39
9. What was Joseph Smith's religion? correct Answer Mormon Mormon 51
10. According to rulings by the U.S. Supreme Court, is a public school teacher permitted to lead a class in prayer, or not? correct Answer No, not permitted No, not permitted 89
11. According to rulings by the U.S. Supreme Court, is a public school teacher permitted to read from the Bible as an example of literature, or not? wrong Answer No, not permitted Yes, permitted 23
12. What religion do most people in Pakistan consider themselves? correct Answer Muslim Muslim 68
13. What was the name of the person whose writings and actions inspired the Protestant Reformation? correct Answer Martin Luther Martin Luther 46
14. Which of these religions aims at nirvana, the state of being free from suffering? wrong Answer Hinduism Buddhism 36
15. Which one of these preachers participated in the period of religious activity known as the First Great Awakening? correct Answer Jonathan Edwards Jonathan Edwards 11

This online quiz includes 15 of the 32 religious knowledge questions that made up the telephone survey. The order and context of the questions are not exactly the same in the online quiz and telephone survey. To ease the administration of the online quiz, the wording of some questions is slightly different from the wording used in the telephone survey. For the questions used in the telephone survey, see the survey questionnaire.

Your responses on the quiz do NOT affect the U.S. Religious Knowledge Survey's results.

Compare your score: Overall Population

Here's how you did on these 15 questions (excerpted from the larger U.S. Religious Knowledge Survey) compared with a nationally representative sample of 3,412 adults. Read the Full Report

Your responses on the quiz do NOT affect the U.S. Religious Knowledge Survey's results.

So I got 87% which was better than 93% of the U.S. population. Didn't quite make the top 3%