Atheists know more about religion than the God-fearing do
By Ray RahmanSeptember 28th, 2010, 11:55 amComments (22)
OK, maybe the headline is a bit misleading. A recent poll conducted by the Pew Research Center's Forum on Religion and Public Life reveals that atheists and agnostics know more about religion than religious people do.
The poll asked its respondents to answer a religiously themed pop-quiz of 32 questions, of which the topics ranged from the Protestant reformer Martin Luther to the Catholic tradition of consuming consecrated bread and wine.
Here's the NYT's little graph of the results:
Big ups to the brave souls in the "Nothing in particular" category!
Commentarium (22 Comments)
So the religious can't answer trivia questions. It's a good thing that they only know the answers to the important questions.
The link is a story about the "quiz" but doesn't list the questions and therein potentially lies the problem. It's hard to judge if this is a realistic assessment of knowledge.
The author of the article seems a bit confused as well:
"One finding that may grab the attention of policy makers is that most Americans wrongly believe that anything having to do with religion is prohibited in public schools."
"Wrongly believe?" While that comment may be correct based based on legal precedent, ask any public school teacher that question.
"But fewer than one of four knew that a public school teacher is permitted “to read from the Bible as an example of literature.” "
Yeah, try that in public school and watch your savings be consumed in litigation.
Not a surprise. Religion is all about faith. The details are not that important.
... Unless, of course, you plan to invade or kill a bunch of people, in which case the details become extremely important.
...But of course, religion NEVER inspires anyone to invade of kill abunch of people. So let's not worry about the details, OK?
Dear God, we always get the details wrong. Let's ignore the details, and focus on the Big Picture. WMDs. We gotta push those non-believers into the stone age because we know that they're building WMDs. Yeah, I know, that's a detail. But let's go get 'em! Praise God.
Ah, religion. The source of so much solace and strife. It doesn't surprise me that atheists know more about religion than the God-fearing, they're the ones who have to dig through the fairy (de)tales, locating inconsistencies and ironically becoming better acquainted with all that folderol, in order to marshal a philosophical assault on those who are ostensibly impermeable, hiding, when their backs are against the rhetorical wall, in that last ditch known as Faith, where no atheists are allowed. There is no resolution to this ages-old battle of beliefs, nor will there ever be, it's like when the kid knows he's right but the parent invokes parental hegemony, resistance is futile, just go make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and watch cartoons.
Oh, Publius... That was such a willfully ignorant defense of ignorant people. When you've run out of excuses for substituting facts with fairytales and folklore, reality awaits you.
I'm just glad my Landsmen are beating out the Mormons in the standings for the wild card.
GOD IS DEAD
Bearman said it better than I can, so I'll just get back to my hospital administration.
Yes, we sure do enjoy marshaling philosophical assaults. o_O Maybe atheists know more about classic religious tales because that's how they made the informed decision to be unbelievers; i.e. DUH.
THATS WHY OUR HOSPITALS AREN'T BEING ADMINISTERED GOOD TOO MANY PEOPLE SURFING THE INTERNETS ON COMPANNY TIME METALLICA RULEZ
Is your name really "Metallicarules?" And do you really type in all caps? And are you actually trying to attack those who are working when you are more than likely sitting on your ass living off your parents/the government/another loved one?
I HAVE THE ENTIRE BASEMENT TO MYSELF ITS LIKE HAVING MY OWN HOUSE AND I DONT HAVE TO PAY SHIT YOUR JUST JEALUS
Does METALLICARULEZ have a Twitter account? Because I'd love to follow his musings.
shocking. maybe atheists and agnostics know more about religion than the religious because THE MORE YOU KNOW, THE LESS YOU FIND THE NEED TO BELIEVE IN SILLY FAIRY TALES WRITTEN BY PRIMITIVES WHO WOULDN'T HAVE ENOUGH SENSE TO CHANGE A LIGHTBULB WERE THEY ALIVE TODAY.
Metallicarulez, is that you?
FUCK TWITTER
Biologically impossible. Nevertheless, a fascinating concept.
this is probably true, but atheists study statistics and things of that nature.religous people study god and praise him, not look at that he wore on a monday at 2:00 in damascus.
And clearly don't study grammar.
Now you say something