American atheists are more knowledgeable about Christianity than American Christians.

[elfs]

In today's news, Americans don't know much about religion. Out of 32 questions about religion, atheists got an average of 21 correct, while mainline Christians got an average of 16 correct.

For the record, I got 31 out of 32. I missed the "Great Awakening" question. I knew Charles Finney was a major figure in American Christianity in the early part of the 19th century, but so was Jonathan "Sinners in the hands of an angry God" Edwards. I guessed wrong.

At least I know the Dalai Lama is a Buddhist. 74% of atheists and Jews got that right, compared to 45% of Christians. But really, 43% of Jews don't know Maimonides was Jewish? WTF? (6% of Jews don't know when the Sabbath begins; 6% of atheists don't know the definition of atheism. 6% of the population is just dumb.)

And I would disagree vehemently with the wording for the atheist question. The wording reads, "An atheist is someone who does not believe in God." An atheist does not believe a god or gods exist; it's a binary state. An agnostic is someone who believes we cannot know whether a god or gods exist. I can't help it if some of you are confused on this point.

Comments

[lucky-otter.livejournal.com]

I have on occasion seen a distinction drawn between two types of agnostics: those who believe that humans cannot know whether any gods exist and those who simply aren't sure themselves, but neither are they certain that it is impossible to know.

[tagryn]

The wiki entry on agnosticism draws such a distinction, also. Elf's statement is an example of "strong agnosticism" - 'I don't know, and you don't either' - but that's not the only recognized version of agnosticism.

'I don't know and you don't either."

[doodlesthegreat.livejournal.com]

That's me.

'I don't know and you don't either. .So.."

[clemtaur.livejournal.com]

And Me.

Come on in and here the word ..Or better yet a whole bunch of them.. (http://www.airshipentertainment.com/buckcomic.php?date=20071222)

[sandhawke.livejournal.com]

And what do you call those of us who only believe in G-d when it suits us? (Sort of a day-to-day version of "there are no atheists in foxholes"; it depends on my mood.)

[elfs.livejournal.com]

Well, you know my take on whether or not there are atheists in actual foxholes.

[(Anonymous)]

Some people can believe in a lot of wild supernatural things, but one atheist in a foxhole is what finally stretches their chewing gum-like credulity to the breaking point. :-)

[sandhawke.livejournal.com]

Thanks. :)

[gromm.livejournal.com]

Oh geez, what cliche should I use for this one?

How about "Familiarity breeds contempt". Or maybe that I can see a direct causation here. I also especially like "since there is more than one religion that believes that everyone not belonging to that religion is going to hell, everyone is therefore going to hell." Which sounds like a perfectly good reason to give up religion to me, in much the same way that "the only way to win is to not play the game".

The question about Atheism on the other hand, is aimed at people who are religious. Those who are, tend to plug their ears and scream "lalalalala!" when you explain that there are other gods out there. As such, you could easily word that question "An atheist is someone who doesn't believe in *my* god." The way that so many religions put it, anyone who doesn't believe in their version of god is the enemy.

[tagryn]

As regards the post title, actually the article says Mormons and evangelicals scored higher than atheists/agnostics when it came to questions on Christianity; the overall scoring difference was in breadth of understanding of other religions:

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.

I also note that "nothing in particular" was among the lowest scoring groups on the survey.

[(Anonymous)]

Theory:
Having consciously considered your affiliation and/or stance regarding whether or not god(s) exist makes you more aware of such things than people who simply inherit their beliefs on average, or those who just ignore the matter entirely.

[bldrnrpdx.livejournal.com]

Just curious - where is this quiz? I tried following your link and only found a 15-Q quiz. I need to know if I'm smarter than a fifth-grader.

[(Anonymous)]

More than fifteen questions are at
http://www.pewforum.org/uploadedFiles/Topics/Belief_and_Practices/religious-knowledge-quiz-handout.pdf
However, this document is designed for the survey takers' use, so the format is a bit voluminous.

[bldrnrpdx.livejournal.com]

That link led me to the 15-question quiz, in a different format.

[kengr]

Drat, the link to the survey in the article doesn't work. :-(

[(Anonymous)]

http://features.pewforum.org/quiz/us-religious-knowledge/