That is the right question. (It is also a hard one to answer due to the context.)
Posted on 09/29/2010 3:05:05 PM PDT by zippythepinhead
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.
(Excerpt) Read more at sltrib.com ...
I guess this proves that Mormons are smarter and more well-read than other Christians.
Um...no they DON'T. Their articles of Faith say this: We believe that through the Atonement of Christ, all mankind may be saved, by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel.
I got 15 of 15 correct....I’m also a Mormon ... QED
No it means that Mormons can answer the two questions about Mormonism with much more accuracy than non-mormons who frankly don’t give a darned about when Mormonism was founded or who Joseph Smith is.
“Mormons can answer more Bible questions than their Catholic and mainline Protestant counterparts. “
This is going to come as a huge surprise to some of the anti Mormons around here who use the Bible as a club, picking and choosing Bible verses for their own purposes to suit their own pre-conceived notions.
The Mormons I know are real Bible scholars.
Cool, i didn’t need my reading glasses for part of that. And no other church has seven deadly sins,, etc etc?
I’m still trying to figure out WHO was surveyed to be classified as “other Christians”. I was not, though I took the shortened version of the quiz on the PEW web site (scored 15 our of 15).
This is like so many other quizes/surveys. Unless we know who was surveyed (how many Methodists, Presbyterians, Anglicans, Baptists, Catholics, Church of Christ, Pentecostal, etc.), there really is no value. Some denominations place a higher value on personal knowledge about the Bible.
This isn’t to say that I will take anything away from Mormons in general - most that I have known in my life took Bible study seriously - more so than many “Christians”.
We never get included.
>>They use the Bible, and believe they get salvation through accepting Christ’s sacrifice on the Cross. <<
Two things. First, lots of non-Christian sects use the bible. Second, Christians believe that the blood of Christ is a complete atonement for their sins. We call it Grace. Mormons believe it is a partnership. Jesus did part and you do part. I’m WAY oversimplifying, but there are plenty of people here that will be happy to spam you on the subject. ;)
In all seriousness, Mormonism has much more in common with Islam than it does Christianity.
Mormonism denies the cornerstone/capstone of Christianity.
The quiz used for the formal study was 32 questions long. You can take the abbreviated version (15 questions) at their web site:
http://features.pewforum.org/quiz/us-religious-knowledge/index.php
You as a mormonism apologist just verified why Christians do not consider monrmonism to be a Christian sect. Christianity is based upon the Grace of God in CHRIST. I as a believer, a faither in His atoning position as Savior do not define Him. But you Mormonism apologists define christianity of momronism and thus take the lofty, heretical position of defining christianity, rather than the Perosn of Jesus defining the Soterism He instituted. [Where Christianity is connected to mormonism, I purposely did not capitalize because mormonism is Smithian fiction not Christianity.]
I was just correcting your erroneous statement. What do the seven deadly sins have to do with the fact that your statement was incorrect?
Some of their beliefs are pretty nutty to me,, but they do make good neighbors.
Why you say they arent Christian?? They use the Bible, and believe they get salvation through accepting Christ’s sacrifice on the Cross. I’m not one, but i can accept them as christians,,,
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Dear friend, please do more research. You are painfully in need of information.
“Mormons can answer more Bible questions than their Catholic and mainline Protestant counterparts. “
Apparently they asked questions about what’s in the Bible and the Mormons came out looking good. That’s cuz we actually read and study the Bible.
Go LDS!!!
Mormons, #1 in many things
http://www.usu.edu/psycho101/lectures/chp2methods/study.html
http://www.deseretnews.com/article/705288350/Utah-No-1-in-online-porn-subscriptions-report-says.html
The Mormons I know are real Bible scholars.
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Seriously? I’ve lived in an environment of over 90% LDS for 40 years, and I haven’t met one. What’s your definition of scholar?
That is the right question. (It is also a hard one to answer due to the context.)
If you contend that not espousing the Nicene Creed makes us not Christian, then you are correct. We do not ascribe to that BS. It is patently ridiculous. If you are contending that one must believe only the TRUE doctrines of Christ as expressed in the New Testament, then we are the ONLY true Christians on earth. Don’t believe me, just ask God ...Hell tell you.
>>Some of their beliefs are pretty nutty to me,, but they do make good neighbors.<<
I concur.
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