U.S. Religious Knowledge Survey
by leavingwt 47 Replies latest social current
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snowbird
14/15 - I got the Second Great Awakening question wrong.
Syl
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undercover
"More than four-in-ten Catholics in the United States (45%) do not know that their church teaches that the bread and wine used in Communion do not merely symbolize but actually become the body and blood of Christ."
That number surprised me.
Too bad they didn't poll non-anointed JWs to figure out how many didn't know that Jesus is not their mediator...
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undercover
I got 14 out of 15...
But I guessed on the last one about the 2nd Awakening... so technically 13 out of 15
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leavingwt
"Forget the arguments about atheists rejecting the proposition that God exists, while being untutored in the more subtle kinds of academic theology. American believers accept extraordinary claims about the existence of a God, and much else, from a position of vastly more profound ignorance. That's the reality, folks."
http://metamagician3000.blogspot.com/2010/09/most-american-believers-dont-know-what.html
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Terry
I should have read this Topic before I posted my own!
Anywaaaaaay.....
I think religion has always been a way to FEEL better rather than THINK better.
A few reassurances and a list of things to do and things not to do makes for some pretty contented non-intellectual believers.
Why cloud one's brain with facts?
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PSacramento
Very few pople do question their own religion, this is true.
Probably because they feel the subject is too complex for them or because they have been told that faith is what is needed and what God wants.
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leavingwt
Daniel Dennett offers some commentary. . .
Most people are afraid of what they might discover if they read the fine print too carefully, so they sign on the dotted line without a glance, and then often feel the need to defend their lack of curiosity as an example of their holy trust in their own faith. But every generation has its restless doubters who are just not comfortable with the traditional formulas they are invited to profess by their religious leaders. They cast about, with great intelligence and ingenuity, for alternative formulations that they can assert with a clear conscience.
Those that find them are the theologians; those that don't are the atheists, whether or not they leave their churches or just hunker down in silence.
In fact, some theologians are well-nigh indistinguishable from atheists. For example, Bishop John Shelby Spong, the liberal Episcopal author of "Why Christianity Must Change or Die: A Bishop Speaks to Believers In Exile" (1999) and many other books, and his British counterpart, the Anglican priest Don Cupitt, author of "Is Nothing Sacred?: The Non-Realist Philosophy of Religion" (2003) and many other books, are both regarded by fundamentalists and born-again Christians as atheists, plain and simple, and one can see why.
So the Pew results are no doubt actually somewhat stronger than they first appear: The more you know about religions, the less likely you are to believe religious creeds and myths and thus the more likely you are to be an atheist or agnostic, whether or not you are affiliated with, or even clergy in, a church.
Many of those who have thought long and hard about religions - and hence know the answers - don't actually believe the doctrines that they rightly identify as belonging to the church they are affiliated with.
They know, for instance, what a good Catholic is "required to profess" as Pope Benedict (when he was Cardinal Ratzinger) often said, and so, if they are Catholics, they profess it. But they find that they cannot actually believe it. Many people maintain their loyalty as vigorous members of their denominations while quietly setting aside the dogmas, either utterly ignored as irrelevant or wreathed in protective layers of metaphor.
The Pew study also reveals why atheist critiques of religious doctrines are largely a waste of effort: Few people believe them in any case; they just say they do.
The more interesting question is, why do they feel the need to say these things? And what consequences flow from this?
One effect is widespread and most unfortunate. We increasingly see pastors who no longer hold the beliefs they are professionally obliged to preach, but go on executing their duties for various reasons, some good, some not so good. These folks are caught in a web of what might be called designed miscommunication, and it takes an unmeasured toll on their consciences.
. . .