Religious Knowledge Quiz

[O Latin]

I'm surprised so few people know about Jonathan Edwards/The First Great Awakening. I had to read "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" so many dang times in high school that I practically had it memorized by the end of junior year. I swear it will be one of those things I remember when I'm 95 and have forgotten my own name.

[Discobiscuit]

15/15. I was troubled that only 23% of the survey takers knew that it was acceptable for a public school teacher to read from the Bible as literature. I guess a lot of people are falling for the "OMG, CHRISTIANS R PERSECUTED, U CAN'T READ THE BIBLE IN EBIL PUBLIC SKOOLZ" lines they hear from their preachers and favorite gurus.

[Boogalou]

14/15. I have never even heard of the Great Awakening. That quiz was definitely skewed to the Judeo/Christian tradition as 11 (or ten depending on how I count) fell into that category. I would be interested to see the original and longer survey.

[Hane]

15/15. Easy peasy.

[VintageJen1984]

14/15, but I only got the Nirvana question wrong because I second guessed myself. I identify as Christian, and practice basically evangelically but I don't identify as an evangelical theologically. If I asked the question about a teacher reading from the Bible at school at church tomorrow morning, I bet 99% would get it wrong, even the public school teachers. :o

[chaotic life]

Studied The Great Awakening in a US History course, an Honors class, a State History class, and a US Lit class. Covered Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God so many times I used to quote it in my sleep cause it was so quintessential of the hellfire and brimstone of US Christianity.

Most of the Islam questions I picked from a History of Africa class. It was the only world religion was super weak on before that class. Ramadan is one of the five pillars of the faith.

[rachelsmith1989]

13/15. Pretty easy, although I didn't know that the Jewish Sabbat began on a Friday. Whoops!

That's what you get for living in Lake Wobegon, pure Lutheran territory... :P

[synchroswimr]

13/15. Pretty easy, although I didn't know that the Jewish Sabbat began on a Friday. Whoops!

That's what you get for living in Lake Wobegon, pure Lutheran territory... :P

That's where I'm from, too! Where all the women are strong, all the men are good looking and all the children are above average!

[rachelsmith1989]

That's where I'm from, too! Where all the women are strong, all the men are good looking and all the children are above average!

...or the children wish they were above average :(

I'm just curious as to why the survey asked about questions regarding Islam, but then didn't include them in the list of survey takers. Any thoughts as to why?

[purpleeee]

Do Hindus also believe in nirvana? That one made me pause.

Our word is moksha, which means liberation. But we do not define it as freedom from suffering (as the quiz says Buddhists do) so much as as identifying the consciousness with the absolute blissful spirit - although that also encompasses freedom from all attachments to the material world. /morethanyouasked

I found it a very Christian-centric quiz :)

I love Garrison Keillor's Wobegon! Guess all the kids there scored 16/15 :)

[FaustianSlip]

Another 15/15 here. I found it interesting that Jews were the only religious group that scored higher than the atheists/agonstics (though there's a lot overlap between the two); not sure why that would be, except possibly that Jews are way more likely to know stuff specific to Christianity than Christians usually are about Judaism.

Incidentally, I'm visiting Harbin this weekend for the ice festival and was told by my tour guide that I have successfully doubled the number of Jews in Harbin by showing up. So, uh, go me, I guess.

[sippin0nsunshine]

I got 10/15, Numbers 3, 4, 6, 11, 15 wrong lol. I should have known The Jewish Sabbath starts on Friday considering my Aunt & Uncle are Jewish, but it's nearly 4am so I'll give myself a break ;)

[Sola]

14/15 The one I got wrong was the last one, I wasn't sure and I put Charles Finney. I was getting the awakenings mixed up!

I think it is interesting when you look at the breakdown of the results by demographics. Atheists score very highly overall while protestants score much lower.

[alaeangelorum]

13/15... got the nirvana one confused and I have never heard of the First Great Awakening.

Slightly appalled, but not surprised, at the number of Catholics who didn't know about transubstantiation.

[Guest Anonymous]

14/15 The one I got wrong was the last one, I wasn't sure and I put Charles Finney. I was getting the awakenings mixed up!

15/15. I only knew the Jonathan Edwards one because Meredith wants herself and Stephen to be the "Jonathan and Sarah of our generation", and I remember being a little bit sick in my mouth when I looked it up. :lol:

[freejoytoo]

13/15, pretty pleased with that result! I guessed the ones about US Supreme Court rulings because I'm not American and don't know that much about it.

[Burris]

15/15 - but the quiz is pretty basic. Sad thing is how scores seem to drop with religious affiliation. If pastors were doing their jobs, Christians would score as well as atheists do, rather than significantly worse.

[synchroswimr]

...or the children wish they were above average :(

I'm just curious as to why the survey asked about questions regarding Islam, but then didn't include them in the list of survey takers. Any thoughts as to why?

You aren't frowny-faced because of your own score are you? I am frowny-faced over all the results.

As for Muslims not in the results... Not enough respondents? Or maybe they way out scored the rest of us and Pew thought that would cause problems... ;-) I have no idea

[Daenerys]

I got 15/15, and I'm a militant atheist. I guessed #15 but all the others I could have told you at the age of six...

[freejoytoo]

I'm an atheist as well but had a pretty good religious education at school (though having said that I forgot that the Jewish Sabbath starts on Friday. I'm ashamed!)

Do you study Muslim and Hindu festivals at American schools? At my school we had children of those faiths so I knew about them aside from study anyway.

[ophelia]

I had 13/15.

I didn't know who was a preacher during the Great Awakening and if a teacher in the USA was allowed to lead a class in prayer..but Iam from Germany, so I think the result is accetable! ;-)

[synchroswimr]

I'm an atheist as well but had a pretty good religious education at school (though having said that I forgot that the Jewish Sabbath starts on Friday. I'm ashamed!)

Do you study Muslim and Hindu festivals at American schools? At my school we had children of those faiths so I knew about them aside from study anyway.

I know about them because I taught at a school that had a growing population of Somali refugees. I was teaching Chemistry, so I didn't have many refugee students, but I did have a couple and learned from them.

[Avalondaughter]

Jewish Sabbath begins Friday night at sundown. Emmiedahl can correct me, but I can't think of a Jewish observation that DOESN'T begin at sundown.

I got that question wrong too, but it felt like a trick question. I was thinking Saturday is the Jewish Sabbath, but the question was when does it START.

Fundies wouldn't care if they failed that quiz. They are ignorant of other world religions and are probably proud of it. Only Christianity matters!

[MonkeyMomma]

15/15. That year of seminary finally pays off!! :dance:

[Soldevi]

15/15, I didn't know about Court rulings but I thought about news and tv documents about religion in the US and got them right. Those questions were easy, at least for me, something we have learned in school.