Study: Atheists & Agnostics Score Highest on "Religious Knowledge" - Page 2

[cappuccinosmom]

Did you decide to believe in Jesus? Saying it is a decision implies that you could just as easily choose not to believe. Is that true?

Well, yes, it's a decision.

There are many options. Whether it's Jesus, or someone else, or nobody, who we believe in is a choice we make. Some are making a choice based on research, others not.

My dad was agnostic after researching many religions, including Christianity. As a teen he even made up his own (one-man) religion. But as a med student he had a spiritual "epiphany", and went on a search, and eventually chose Jesus. That didn't come naturally to him--it was the end result of his research and seeking.

[Purple Sage]

Originally Posted by 2xy

Really?

I know a lot of atheists too, and none of them "decided" to be atheists. Did you decide to believe in Jesus? Saying it is a decision implies that you could just as easily choose not to believe. Is that true?

Try as I might, I've never managed to believe in the supernatural. Sometimes life would be more comfortable if I had those beliefs.

I actually did make a conscious decision to believe in Jesus and give Christianity an open-hearted try. I know that I could choose not to believe because I've done it before, so that is something that I watch out for and deliberately make decisions that will nurture my faith and not be detrimental to it. The more I make the choice to believe, the more my faith grows (and that's not all my doing ), but I am under no illusion that it will ever be something that I don't have to make a conscious effort at, and that's okay. Free will is a beautiful thing!

[AFWife]

Originally Posted by 2xy

Really?

I know a lot of atheists too, and none of them "decided" to be atheists. Did you decide to believe in Jesus? Saying it is a decision implies that you could just as easily choose not to believe. Is that true?

Try as I might, I've never managed to believe in the supernatural. Sometimes life would be more comfortable if I had those beliefs.

I went from raised Christian to studying to be Wiccan and back to Christian again...so yes, it was a choice.

[lilyka]

Another thing that i found interesting in taking the quiz...I missed three questions, two of them related to Christianity. And i am a Christian.

[Amys1st]

Christian here, Roman Catholic as well as DH was born/raised Roman Catholic. He read the article in the NY times and had me read it. We discussed it, I also did 100% on the quiz where he missed 2, the bible question in school being one of the wrongs.

After discussing, we felt that a lot of the questions were not about faith, preaching, spiritual, etc but just about being informed. I learned a lot about religions from taking art history, ethics classes etc in College as did DH. Also we learned more about different cultures and their religions from one of our favorite thing to do, cooking. I also teach Religious Ed and have for several years so I might know some things about the Catholic Faith and why we do whatever more than someone else.

I was not surprised by the survey's findings.

[CherryBomb]

I thought the questions were ridiculously easy, and I'm a Catholic. I had no idea who Jonathan Edwards was, though I vaguely know about the great awakening.

I am already seeing it be used (in other places) as a "See, the non-religious are so much smarter than everyone else, neener neener" sort of thing.

Yeah, I'm not surprised

[rhiOrion]

I'm not surprised that people on MDC are doing well. We're a pretty smart bunch

About the choice thing- maybe for some people it is a choice and for some it is not. For me, it's not a choice. Like the PP said, some things would be way easier if I was religious.

[Purple Sage]

Originally Posted by rhiOrion

About the choice thing- maybe for some people it is a choice and for some it is not. For me, it's not a choice. Like the PP said, some things would be way easier if I was religious.

I've been thinking a lot about this today, and I can completely understand where you're coming from because that is exactly how I felt before. I remember thinking how much easier things would be if I was a Christian (not that you think this specifically about Christianity, but religion in general) and I truly felt like I had no choice, that I just did not believe and there was nothing I could do about it. And I'm not saying this in any way as a judgment about anyone else, but in retrospect I can see that my disbelief was a choice although it certainly didn't feel like it at the time. I can even see why I made that choice and why it didn't feel like one, but I think I've gone too far OT for this thread already to go into that.

[journeymom]

Here is the article I read about this study:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/28/us...gion.html?_r=1

The graph on the left side is interesting. The guy from the Madalyn Murray O'Hair group is pretty antagonistic.

My formally Mormon dh isn't surprised that Mormons score so high. He says the LDS seminary many kids attend in high school teaches a lot of scripture. He still knows the bible backwards and forwards.

We're not religious. But I noticed that our kids, 15 and 11 years old, are pretty ignorant about Bible stories. I think we need to rectify this, as the Bible is a pretty important factor in our culture.

[weliveintheforest]

I only got the last question wrong, but I might not have done as well on the phone. I don't like to take quizzes out loud.

[Bluegoat]

I got 100%, but I guessed for the one about the Great Awakening - though I knew it couldn't be Billy Graham. And I guessed about whether the Bible could be read as literature in US schools.

I also thought that education levels might have a lot to do with the answers given by different groups, although then one wonders why various groups have better or worse educations.

I don't necessarily think that questions like the main religion in Pakistan are "non-religious". After all, Pakistan exists largely because of religious issues. I don't think the religious and political can be totally separated, even in a secular state like Canada.

It would be interesting to see though if things would change in a survey that asked much harder questions.

[mammal_mama]

I got 100% and found the survey very easy. I was raised Christian and, within the past few years, I've kind of spiralled off into my new life of continual spiritual evolution and exploration.

I knew the public school answers simply because I recalled taking a Bible as Literature course in high school, and I also recalled that some students would organize for prayer every morning, and also some would meet for Bible study after school sometimes...but all the prayer and Bible Study had to be student-led and there could be no teacher involvement.

I guess I kind of went out on a limb, though, by assuming that this hadn't changed since my graduation in 1982.

It doesn't surprise me that atheists and agnostics would score higher than Christians. In the religious climate that I grew up in, I distinctly remember preachers emphasizing their opinion that it was a waste of time to study what they saw as "counterfeit" religions.

The saying went that people who are specially-trained to recongize counterfeit money actually do not spend their time looking at counterfeit money. They get really, really familiar with "the real thing," and once they know what the "real thing" looks like, they are easily able to recongize the "fakes."

With this in mind, it stands to reason that people who are really steeped in a particular Christian denomination might know little to nothing about broader Christian history. They could, though, tell you a whole lot about the current big names that everyone in their congregation is reading or listening to, or making frequent trips to view in person.

I don't see it as so much of a "nanoo-nanoo" thing as a simple fact that, at least in my experience, many Christians tend to have kind of a dim view of secular education and knowledge (and, yes, to many Christians, study of other religions is often seen as secular).

If it's seen as "a waste of time" to read anything besides the Bible and other books that have been preapproved by trusted religious authorities, then lack of knowledge can actually be touted as somewhat of a positive...kind of similar to how some mamas might brag that their children have never even heard of Hannah Montana or McDonald's.

[oddeebean]

Originally Posted by Purple Sage

I've been thinking a lot about this today, and I can completely understand where you're coming from because that is exactly how I felt before. I remember thinking how much easier things would be if I was a Christian (not that you think this specifically about Christianity, but religion in general) and I truly felt like I had no choice, that I just did not believe and there was nothing I could do about it. And I'm not saying this in any way as a judgment about anyone else, but in retrospect I can see that my disbelief was a choice although it certainly didn't feel like it at the time. I can even see why I made that choice and why it didn't feel like one, but I think I've gone too far OT for this thread already to go into that.

I think along these lines as well. I always like the quote from Blaise Pascal's writings (someone was writing to him and said this) "I am so made that I cannot believe." Thats basically me. (And Christopher Hitchens )

I scored 100% as well and didn't find the questions very difficult. It only requires that most surface amount of knowledge about other belief systems. I can see how an atheist or agnostic would score higher because either they have been searching many different religions/spiritual beliefs in a effort to find something they could believe or they acquire a vast amount of religious knowledge to defend themselves. I'm of the persuasion that researched and "tried out" many different religions and never finding anything, hence "I am so made that I cannot believe." Interesting study.

[tanyalynn]

Originally Posted by Bluegoat

I got 100%, but I guessed for the one about the Great Awakening - though I knew it couldn't be Billy Graham.

I guessed on that question for exactly the same reason--so I would've hoped that the % correct would've been closer to 50%, if people had disregarded the one answer that was clearly not correct. Though that's more a test-taking skill and a faint knowledge that the First Great Awakening is not recent.

[Shami]

My very hard heart got softened to let Jesus in.

Originally Posted by 2xy

Really?

I know a lot of atheists too, and none of them "decided" to be atheists. Did you decide to believe in Jesus? Saying it is a decision implies that you could just as easily choose not to believe. Is that true?

Try as I might, I've never managed to believe in the supernatural. Sometimes life would be more comfortable if I had those beliefs.

In a nutshell, we are all born unbelievers. It's in our genes. What happened to me, looking back, was that my heart got so hard towards God, who I didn't even know if he existed.

Our heart gets trampled on by life in general and we can get hard as a rock. Through my environment, what I was going through, at age 32 my heart had become very soft. I wanted something real What that meant I wasn't sure. I was tired of trying to be something on the outside to everybody else, but inwardly I was so empty. To me, everything was so vain.

Raised in an atheistic home with parents willing to let me explore different religions with my friends, but was atheist/agnostic, if there is such a category, for first 25 years of life. Then, from age 25-32 I searched the major religions and settled on Buddhism with meditation practices. I really could not stand Christians talking about the Lord or anything Christian related. I had tried at various times very hard, I thought, to believe in Jesus like most of my relatives. I became angry that Jesus never spoke to me or appeared to me and I gave up and decided Jesus wasn't real and my relatives were crazy for saying that Jesus spoke to them.

Like I said, my hardened heart just got soft and I was done with life in general. It's kind of like I 'threw in the towel'. I wasn't going to kill myself, but the thought did cross my mind that I'd rather not be 'here' anymore. Everything I tried, my accomplishments, the things I did to entertain myself, all of it kind of dried up. Nothing could satisfy me. I would try this or that and maybe like it, but not for long.

Then, the craziest thing happened. My heart was broken because life stinks much of the time. Buddhism wasn't doing much for me and what's the purpose of my life anyway. So, much vanity and evil all around...blah blah blah

Then, I, this unbelieving Jesus denying, Jesus despising woman, went with my friend to a Christian gathering and I found out Jesus can get inside of me by asking Him in, which exactly what happened. Dynamic salvation, in an instant I was a believer. Jesus found a soft spot in my heart and got in that night. It was literally like a light bulb turning on in my inner being. Jesus was real. BTW, I still give Jesus all the credit for hardening my heart, then softening it and then coming in to me.

Even if you doubt Jesus is God or if you are angry or just plain done with it all, you can ask God to fill you up. This is what I did.

[MusicianDad]

Originally Posted by 2xy

Really?

I know a lot of atheists too, and none of them "decided" to be atheists. Did you decide to believe in Jesus? Saying it is a decision implies that you could just as easily choose not to believe. Is that true?

Try as I might, I've never managed to believe in the supernatural. Sometimes life would be more comfortable if I had those beliefs.

I can say for me, it very much was a decision and very much based on the research I have done. I basically spent years studying various religions only to come to the decision that I wasn't willing to follow something that couldn't be proven. That included all religions and Atheism too.

[CatsCradle]

Really?

I know a lot of atheists too, and none of them "decided" to be atheists. Did you decide to believe in Jesus? Saying it is a decision implies that you could just as easily choose not to believe. Is that true?

Try as I might, I've never managed to believe in the supernatural. Sometimes life would be more comfortable if I had those beliefs.

I understand what this poster is trying to say. I didn't choose to not believe in anything, it just happened. I didn't make an affirmative choice to not believe, but rather I am left with nothing to believe. I don't define myself as an atheist, but I don't define myself as one who believes in something...even if it is nothingness. Perhaps my only choice has been to remain blissfully in a place where I neither deny g-d or admit g-d. I can't imagine myself choosing to believe in g-d, nor can I imagine myself denying its existence. I don't have faith, nor have I been presented with facts to help me make a decision either way. The jury's still out.

I scored 100 percent on the online test.

[EFmom]

Choosing to follow a particular religious practice is a decision. Belief in the tenets of any religion is not. For a long time, I was a practicing Christian. In my heart, I really never believed in god or in the teachings of the religion, from the time I was very young. You can't make yourself believe in something for which there is no proof. You either do or you don't.