I Broke Down and Made a New Post

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From this article in the New York Times: (commentary and bolding is mine)

Basic Religion Test Stumps Many Americans (Well of course it does!)

Americans are by all measures a deeply religious people, but they are also deeply ignorant about religion.

Researchers from the independent Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life phoned more than 3,400 Americans and asked them 32 questions about the Bible, Christianity and other world religions, famous religious figures and the constitutional principles governing religion in public life.

On average, people who took the survey answered half the questions incorrectly, and many flubbed even questions about their own faith.

Those who scored the highest were atheists and agnostics, as well as two religious minorities: Jews and Mormons. The results were the same even after the researchers controlled for factors like age and racial differences.

Knew it! Here are some of the questions from the survey:

Among the topics covered in the survey were: Where was Jesus born? What is Ramadan? Whose writings inspired the Protestant Reformation? Which Biblical figure led the exodus from Egypt? What religion is the Dalai Lama? Joseph Smith? Mother Teresa? In most cases, the format was multiple choice.

Without the benefit of multiple choice (or Google) my answers: Jesus was born in Bethlehem, Ramadan is an Islamic holy month, Martin Luther inspired the Protestant Revolution, Moses led the exodus from Egypt, the Dalai Lama is a Buddhist, Joseph Smith was a Mormon, Mother Teresa was a Catholic.

How did I do? (Meaning, do feel free to correct me on any wrong answers.)

I'm telling you: atheists ROCK Bible trivia!

Comments

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I think religious diversity tends to exist mostly in small pockets in the US: I went to school with all different kinds of christians, but I'd only met a handful of Jewish people before college. I knew one girl who was a practicing Muslim; I used to sit next to her in psychology class. I learned about Ramadan from her. She was quiet, and mostly kept to herself, and in order to learn something about her faith, the other kids would have had to, I don't know: TALK TO HER!

Growing up, I was naturally curious about religion, and so would often talk to people about theirs. I'm not sure that was the norm. I think a lot of the kids I went to school with either didn't know how to talk to someone about their religion (when it's different from theirs) or assumed it was a taboo subject. It's a shame, really.