Posted on 10/04/2010 6:48:53 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
The above link shows the quiz that was given to atheists, agnostics and believers.
The media is spinning the results of this poll to say that atheists are more knowledgeable about religion than are those who profess to be religious.
Atheists/Agnostics correctly answered 20.9 of the 32 questions. Jews correctly answered 20.5 questions. For some reason Protestants and Catholics were broken out by race while Atheists/Agnostics weren't. In any case, Catholics averaged 16 right answers while Protestants averaged 17.6.
Do you happen to know which of these is the king of gods in ancient Greek mythology?
If you are going to ask questions like this why not ask about Baal? Bet Christians and Jews come up 10X more likely to know what that is than atheists.
“For some reason Protestants and Catholics were broken out by race while Atheists/Agnostics weren’t.”
Too bad there was no category for PRACTICING Catholics.
;-)
Don’t know who they are testing. I’m Lutheran and got 30 of them right. More propoganda.
I think I’d like to make a quiz on atheism:
1. What has killed more people? The People’s Revolution or The Inquisition?
2. Was Lee Harvey Oswald: A) Capitalist, Evangelical Christian, C) Communist
3. Was Jim Jones: A) Pentecostal, B) Mormon, C) Communist
4. Adolf Hitler’s “Master Race and Eugenics” was greatly influenced from reading A) The Bible, B) The Wealth of Nations, C) The Origin of Species
I actually posted a critique of this quiz here :
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/2600777/posts
BTW, I am Evangelical Christian and got 31 right.
I was mistaken in my belief that the Supreme Court permitted a teacher to lead a class in prayer ( that was one of the questions ). Of course I PERSONALLY DISAGREE with the Supreme Court’s decision. THAT WAS *NOT* the original intent of the framers.
I’m Assemblies of God and got 31/32 right.
I’m non-sectarian and got 28 right. I think the atheists do better because they tend to come from the ranks of higher-IQ individuals. Their intelligence tends to lead them toward arrogance, and the notion that their opinions are superior to those of the multitudes. Really smart people like you and I are clever enough to understand how ignorant we really are—a humbling revelation, to be sure!
I got 30 out of 32 right! (missed #21 and #8)
I got 100% when I took it.
14 Right, 93%. I think I blew the one about the “First Great Awakening” I’m a Lutheran, although I don’t know how much longer ELCA.
This Catholic got 29 out of 32
I will note this: Only 7 of the 32 questions dealt with Christian faith.
Reports of this study would like to portray Christians as ignorant. However I have a different take...Christians choose to concentrate on their Christian faith rather than learn about Hindu gods, Muslim history, etc
I’m Catholic. Went to Mass yesterday. Got all 32 right (even Jonathan Edwards).
Laus Deo!
I agree. Not sure what this proves if anything. A sample of a few dozen questions is hardly definitive.
So, here is one to think about that goes deeper into the intelligence of one of the groups: How can “atheism” make any sense?
I mean this is a “belief” that apparenlty is founded on the existence fo God. Think about it. The very name includes God in it. I know it means “not God”, but the fact is that atheism only makes sense in the context of God. If God truly does not exist, Athism would need to have invented God, just so they could negate Him.
Atheism depends on God for its very existence. There is no way to think about “not-God” without thinking about God.
Atheism cannot be a positive belief. What do atheists actually believe in? What would they say their belief system is? I have a hard time thinking about “not God” as something assertive, positive, foundational, fundamental or otherwise axiomatic. There is just way too much other stuff that has to be established about God for atheism to make any sense as a system designed for the gainsaying of God.
Frankly, I think atheism is a nonsensical logical construct. It si like division by zero - absurd. Atheists are not, in fact, clear thinkers. They subscribe to a system of illogic, the very opposite of what they would claim.
So, I know atheists may be offended by my proposition, but I sincerely welcome their defense of the “not God” point of non-view.
My argument is that the logic is flawed. What is the counter argument?
31 right. I missed #29, I thought nirvana was Hindu.
100%
It is not a test that reveals anything about a person’s relationship with Christ. It merely shows book learning.
I’m Lutheran too, former ELCA, and I missed the ones about Buddhism and Hinduism - I can never keep their beliefs straight. I would guess that Atheists and Agnostics might have explored a variety of religions in more detail, perhaps, before deciding they did not believe in anything....
What’d you get wrong?
Well, I got 32 out of 32.
Of course the form of the quiz was really a trivia quiz about world religions, so it’s hardly surprising that subpopulations with a bias toward more education in the secular sense—both atheists, many of whom abandoned faith due to a surfeit of secular education, and Jews who traditionally value education in general, would score higher on such a quiz than would the general population.
Maimonides. I’m going to blame that mistake on the lack of early morning caffeine.
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