Did you know that Mother Teresa is Catholic,
Maimonides was Jewish, and Martin Luther started the Protestant Reformation? Congratulations! You’re a lot more religiously literate than most People in america.
On average, people today who took the survey answered half the questions incorrectly, and several flubbed even concerns about their own faith.
Those who scored the highest had been atheists and agnostics, as well as two religious minorities: Jews and Mormons. The outcomes ended up the same even after the researchers controlled for elements like age and racial differences.
On inquiries about the Bible and Christianity, the groups that answered probably the most correct ended up Mormons and white evangelical Protestants.
On issues about world religions, like Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism and Judaism, the groups that did the most effective have been atheists, agnostics and Jews.
A single discovering that may grab the attention of policy makers is that most Americans wrongly believe that anything having to do with faith is prohibited in public schools.
Some other distressing findings from the survey:
Fifty-three % of Protestants could not identify Martin Luther as the man who started out the Protestant Reformation.
I wonder how several Lutherans missed that query? (I suspect about 53 percent.)
Forty-five % of Catholics did not know that their church teaches that the consecrated bread and wine in holy communion are not merely symbols, but actually become the body and blood of Christ.
Genuinely, Catholics? Genuinely? So forty-five % of you consider about communion the same way we Southern Baptists do? (By the way, I suspect no less than 53 percent of Lutherans knew the answer to that question. You won’t locate too quite a few Lutheran who cannot argue concerning the Real Presence.)
Also, almost no one in American (8 percent) knows that
Maimonides was Jewish. Even four-in-ten Jews (43 per cent) do not recognize that 1 from the most venerated rabbis in history was Jewish. (Seriously? What do they feel he was? Muslim?)
Not surprisingly, only 11 percent knew that Jonathan Edwards was associated with the First Fantastic Awakening. I suspect only about 11 pct of Individuals even know there was a Very first Wonderful Awakening.
But the saddest statistic (especially for a web editor) is possibly this one:
Nearly half of People in america who are affiliated with a religion (48%) say they “seldom” or “never” learn books (other than Scripture) or visit websites about their personal religion, and 70% say they seldom or never go through books or visit internet websites about other religions.
Since you might be reading this blog you might be either one in the 52 pct that visits sites about your religion and/or a single with the 30 per cent who visits a web site about other religions. It is therefore your duty as an educated citizen to assist raise level of religious literacy. Tell somebody who falls into those 48 percent/70 percent categories to go through Initial Things on-line. Do it for their individual good. Do it for the good of my advertisers. Do it for the very good of America.
Note: It is possible to take an abbreviated (15 query) sample quiz here. In the event you don’t get a minimum of 14 issues correctly you have to turn off your computer and go go through a book.
Note 2: I need to confess that although I know who he is, I can’t for the life of me correctly pronounce “
Maimonides.” David Goldman told me that he was referred to as Rambam (short for Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon) so that's what I’ll be saying from now on.
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