[Buddha-l] NYTimes on new Pew Survey on how much Americans don't know about religion

[Dan Lusthaus]

In today's NYTimes:


On Basic Religion Test, Many Doth Not Pass
By LAURIE GOODSTEIN
Published: September 28, 2010

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.

[...]

On questions about the Bible and Christianity, the groups that answered the 
most right were Mormons and white evangelical Protestants.

On questions about world religions, like Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism and 
Judaism, the groups that did the best were atheists, agnostics and Jews.

[...]

Clergy members who are concerned that their congregants know little about 
the essentials of their own faith will no doubt be appalled by some of these 
findings:

¶ Fifty-three percent of Protestants could not identify Martin Luther as the 
man who started the Protestant Reformation.

¶ Forty-five percent 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.

¶ Forty-three percent of Jews did not know that Maimonides, one of the 
foremost rabbinical authorities and philosophers, was Jewish.

The question about Maimonides was the one that the fewest people answered 
correctly. But 51 percent knew that Joseph Smith was Mormon, and 82 percent 
knew that Mother Theresa was Roman Catholic.


for the rest, and an abbreviated version of the test
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/28/us/28religion.html
and
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/09/28/us/religion-quiz.html

For the survey itself with a more detailed breakdown of the results, see the 
Pew Forum site
http://www.pewforum.org/Other-Beliefs-and-Practices/U-S-Religious-Knowledge-Survey.aspx

Dan