Atheists know more about the Bible than Christians do

For the love of the pursuit of knowledge

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SailingCyclops
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Atheists know more about the Bible than Christians do

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Post by SailingCyclops »

In a recent U.S. Religious Knowledge Survey conducted by the Pew Research Center, some very interesting statistics were revealed. Here are the results:
Executive Summary

Atheists and agnostics, Jews and Mormons are among the highest-scoring groups on a new survey of religious knowledge, outperforming evangelical Protestants, mainline Protestants and Catholics on questions about the core teachings, history and leading figures of major world religions.
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Note in the chart above (ordered alphabetically) Atheists know more about the Bible and Christianity, World Religions, and Religion in Public Life than Jews and Christians. Mormons know more about Christianity than ALL Christian denominations do. WOW!

Questions: Does this data show how provincial, and insulated American Christians are? How is it that Atheist's knowledge of the Bible and Christianity is higher than that of Christians?

Bob

Religion flies you into buildings, Science flies you to the moon.
If we believe absurdities, we shall commit atrocities -- Voltaire
Bless us and save us, said Mrs. O'Davis

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Re: Atheists know more about the Bible than Christians do

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Post by McCulloch »

SailingCyclops wrote: How is it that Atheist's knowledge of the Bible and Christianity is higher than that of Christians?
I think that the rather obvious answer is that the more you know about the Bible and Christianity, the greater the likelihood that you will reject it. But, I am open to other ideas on the topic.

:whistle:
Examine everything carefully; hold fast to that which is good.
First Epistle to the Church of the Thessalonians
The truth will make you free.
Gospel of John

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LiamOS
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Re: Atheists know more about the Bible than Christians do

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Post by LiamOS »

[color=orange]McCulloch[/color] wrote:I think that the rather obvious answer is that the more you know about the Bible and Christianity, the greater the likelihood that you will reject it.
This is a very easy conclusion to draw from the study.

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Re: Atheists know more about the Bible than Christians do

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Post by Sister Christian »

SailingCyclops wrote:In a recent U.S. Religious Knowledge Survey conducted by the Pew Research Center, some very interesting statistics were revealed. Here are the results:
Executive Summary

Atheists and agnostics, Jews and Mormons are among the highest-scoring groups on a new survey of religious knowledge, outperforming evangelical Protestants, mainline Protestants and Catholics on questions about the core teachings, history and leading figures of major world religions.
[...]
Image
Image
Note in the chart above (ordered alphabetically) Atheists know more about the Bible and Christianity, World Religions, and Religion in Public Life than Jews and Christians. Mormons know more about Christianity than ALL Christian denominations do. WOW!

Questions: Does this data show how provincial, and insulated American Christians are? How is it that Atheist's knowledge of the Bible and Christianity is higher than that of Christians?

Bob
Did you take the Religious Knowledge survey offered on the site?

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Re: Atheists know more about the Bible than Christians do

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Post by Goat »

Sister Christian wrote:
SailingCyclops wrote:In a recent U.S. Religious Knowledge Survey conducted by the Pew Research Center, some very interesting statistics were revealed. Here are the results:
Executive Summary

Atheists and agnostics, Jews and Mormons are among the highest-scoring groups on a new survey of religious knowledge, outperforming evangelical Protestants, mainline Protestants and Catholics on questions about the core teachings, history and leading figures of major world religions.
[...]
Image
Image
Note in the chart above (ordered alphabetically) Atheists know more about the Bible and Christianity, World Religions, and Religion in Public Life than Jews and Christians. Mormons know more about Christianity than ALL Christian denominations do. WOW!

Questions: Does this data show how provincial, and insulated American Christians are? How is it that Atheist's knowledge of the Bible and Christianity is higher than that of Christians?

Bob
Did you take the Religious Knowledge survey offered on the site?
I took the 'shortened' version of 15 questions, and I got all 15 right, and I am a Jewish Atheist.
“What do you think science is? There is nothing magical about science. It is simply a systematic way for carefully and thoroughly observing nature and using consistent logic to evaluate results. So which part of that exactly do you disagree with? Do you disagree with being thorough? Using careful observation? Being systematic? Or using consistent logic?�

Steven Novella

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Re: Atheists know more about the Bible than Christians do

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Post by McCulloch »

Sister Christian wrote: Did you take the Religious Knowledge survey offered on the site?
Goat wrote: I took the 'shortened' version of 15 questions, and I got all 15 right, and I am a Jewish Atheist.
I took it and got all 15 right and I am a humanist ex-Christian.
Examine everything carefully; hold fast to that which is good.
First Epistle to the Church of the Thessalonians
The truth will make you free.
Gospel of John

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Re: Atheists know more about the Bible than Christians do

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Post by SailingCyclops »

Sister Christian wrote: Did you take the Religious Knowledge survey offered on the site?
I took the "quiz" and scored 15/15. I am an atheist, but I believe that anyone with a basic 4 year liberal arts degree from a reputable school, should have aced it as well. It was a very simple quiz.

I would question whether those with degrees from schools like Regent University or Bob Jones University would get many of the non-Christian questions correct.

Bob

Religion flies you into buildings, Science flies you to the moon.
If we believe absurdities, we shall commit atrocities -- Voltaire
Bless us and save us, said Mrs. O'Davis

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Post #8

Post by Darias »

I got 14/15. I am a Christian Theist.

I was reading too quickly, the one I got wrong was when the Sabbath actually began. I just said Saturday cause I thought it asked what day it fell on. LOL, dumb mistake on my part.

But yeah, anyone who has taken a class on world religions should know most if not all of that stuff...

I think it says more about America's quality of education than it does about religious groups or the "superior knowledge" of non-religious people.

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Re: Atheists know more about the Bible than Christians do

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Post by EduChris »

SailingCyclops wrote:I took the "quiz" and scored 15/15.
Ditto.

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Post #10

Post by Slopeshoulder »

Same here.
But I wish they had really tested me with whether I knew that Billy Grahem could bench 250 but only while listening to Pulman's His Dark Materials on tape, or that the Pope secretly listens to AC/DC, or that Mother Theresa's favorite food was Miracle Whip. I didn't go seminary for nothing!!

But seriously folks, there is no credible correlation between a lot of knowledge and loss of belief.
There is IMO a correlation between a little and new knowledge and loss of belief, and between piss poor knowledge and strong simple belief.
but with lots and lots of knowledge, it can go either way.
Take that McColloch! :lol:

This test seems to suggest that traditional believers are often short on knowledge. I hope that the dumber denominations will take this as a wake up call.

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