Well, here’s a headline for the pantheon of “news that isn’t really news.” It joins such gems as “World’s Oldest Man Dies” and “Anti-Gay Activist Caught in Gay Tryst.”
A new Pew Research Center Poll titled “U.S. Religious Knowledge Survey” shows that atheists and agnostics know more about religion than believers–even fundamentalists!
Nonbelievers scored an average of 21 out of 32 questions about major religions, better than Jews and Mormons (2o out of 32). Protestants and Catholics scored a pitiful 16 and 15, respectively.
Among the findings:
- Only 85% of those polled knew that an atheist was someone who doesn’t believe in God. (How is this possible?)
- Less than half could correctly identify the Four Gospels (Larry, Mo, Curly, and Shemp, for those keeping count)
- Roughly half of all CATHOLICS were unaware that official church doctrine holds that Communion bread and wine actually become the flesh and blood of Christ, rather than just symbolize it.
Some might crow that this poll shows that atheists are smarter than believers. While I won’t disagree with that assumption, I should point out that this poll says no such thing. It simply points out that nonbelievers are more factually informed than the faithful. Which, upon a bit of reflection, is not surprising. One of the biggest criticisms the atheist community makes against religion is that is is culturally inherited, rather than chosen on merit as a result of thoughtful study. Is it any surprise that the vast majority of Arabs are Muslim? That heartland Americans are Protestant? Indians Hindu? People don’t adopt their religious beliefs knowingly; rather, they just assume the mantle of their parents’ religion, rarely bothering to study it in detail, much less study other religions.
It’ll be interesting to see how the religious chattering class interprets these poll results.
(Thanks to the many folks who sent me this news.)
Hi guys, I’ve been enjoying your podcasts and finally remembered to look up your website. I just tweeted you about this Pew quiz. The only version of it I could find to take only had 15 questions but I aced it. (I admit to guessing on the last one.) I totally agree with your premise that atheists often know more about religion than believers do. Mormons and Jews did pretty well, too. When I was a Mormon, I studied my religion, well, religiously, and I read some comparative studies about religion and felt that Mormon doctrine was superior to that of other Christian religions. When I became disaffected with Mormonism, there was little question of simply switching churches; I already knew what was wrong with their doctrines. I still don’t quite call myself an atheist though, but I’m a fan of your podcast. I like Michael Dowd’s idea that “God” is just another name for “reality” and that “atheists are God’s modern prophets.” If that doesn’t make sense to you, that’s ok. Keep up the good work fighting Bible-believing nonsense.
Hi John and David, I’ve listened to over 60 of your podcasts and have enjoyed them greatly, they are usually very informative often providing information that we never get on the regular news (including the Daily Show). You are not afraid to correct mistakes (usually David but occasionally both of you — Jonathan Edwards was associated with the first great ‘awakening’ not the first ‘enlightenment’) which in itself sets you apart from your religious counterparts.
I got 15/15 on the mini-quiz and 39/40 on the entire questionnaire (the entire quiz and answers are available as pdf files on the Pew homepage)
The answers are given as the word/or phrase not by the preceding number so if you take the entire quiz wright down the word(s) so you can check your answers. My mistake was stupid (as was John’s incorrect answer). My father-in-law is a retired liberal presbyterian minister he got 14/15.
Stephen Prothero (chair of religion@ Boston University) wrote “RELIGOUS LITERACY” (2007) which pointed the same conclusions.
I agree that religious groups will probably ignore this study and it’s implications. Learning about other beliefs and/or the inconsistencies in their own beliefs creates extreme cognitive dissidence and fear.
The problem for the monotheistic religions is that of theodicy (evil).
Their ultimate answer is “free will”. This makes free will God’s PRIME DIRECTIVE. It is more important then love or life or belief in god. God will not violate an individual’s free will for anything else. If free will is so important to god would it not be an imperative to teach everyone all of the religious beliefs so that they could exercise their own ‘god given’ free will? If people actually were encouraged to do this comparison they would soon realize that it is all just bunk. I believe that the educated of the religious leaders know this (and purposely avoid it). The ignorant are just ignorant and like it that way.
I have a new saying that fits this discussion THINKING IS HAZARDOUS TO YOUR FAITH. It would be a good t-shirt at the Colbert Keep FEAR Alive march.