Atheists, Agnostics Score Highest in Pew Poll On Religious Subjects

By Catholic Online
9/29/2010
Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)

Many express ignorance on their own faith in poll

A 32-question telephone poll of more than 3,400 Americans asked general questions about religion. The results were very surprising. Many respondents couldn't name the first book of the Bible, many who described themselves as Catholic were unfamiliar with transubstantiation, few knew what the religion of the Dalai Lama was and most surprisingly - atheists and agnostics scored the highest in the poll.

According to a telephone poll, barely half of all Catholics know that when they take communion, the bread and wine literally become the body and blood of Christ.

Facebook Delicous MySpace

Twitter Stumble Digg

More Destinations

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - Furthermore, Bible-belt Southerners scored the lowest, those who believe the Bible is the literal word of God did slightly worse than average, while those who say it is not the word of God scored slightly better.

While the United States is one of the most religious developed countries in the world, most Americans scored 50 percent or less on a quiz. Barely half of all Catholics knew that when they take communion, the bread and wine become the body and blood of Christ according to Catholic doctrine.

Only about one in three respondents knew that a public school teacher is allowed to teach a comparative religion class - although nine out of 10 know that teacher isn't allowed by the Supreme Court to lead a class in prayer.

"When it comes to religion, there are a lot of things that Americans are unfamiliar with. That's the main takeaway," said Greg Smith, a senior researcher at the think tank and one of the main authors of the survey, the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life.

Smith has a theory about why atheists did so well on the quiz - they have thought more about religion than most people. "Very few people say that they were raised as atheists and agnostics," he explains. About three out of four were raised as Christians, he says.

"They were raised in a faith and have made a decision to identify themselves with groups that tend to be fairly unpopular," atheists and agnostics, he says.

"That decision presupposes having given some thought to these things," which is strongly linked with religious knowledge, he says.

The strongest factor predicting how well a person did on the religious knowledge quiz was education. The more years of schooling a person has, the more they are likely to know about religion, regardless of how religious they consider themselves to be.

"The No. 1 predictor without question is simply educational attainment," Smith said.

Only eight of the 3,412 survey respondents got all 32 questions right. Six got them all wrong.

- - -

Pope Benedict XVI's Prayer Intentions for January 2013
General Intention: The Faith of Christians. That in this Year of Faith Christians may deepen their knowledge of the mystery of Christ and witness joyfully to the gift of faith in him.
Missionary Intention: Middle Eastern Christians. That the Christian communities of the Middle East, often discriminated against, may receive from the Holy Spirit the strength of fidelity and perseverance.

Keywords:

NEWSLETTERS »

Rate This Article

Was this helpful to you? Very Helpful Somewhat Helpful Not Helpful at All

Would you be interested in more articles like this? Yes, I am Interested No, I am not Interested

Rate Article

1 - 6 of 6 Comments

vance
2 years ago
Grimes, my fuzzy Marxist friend. Ignorance is American as mom and apple pie. I guess you hate your mother and apple pie. We know you hate America. Let me help you out. Ignorance is anyone who would listen to or follow you. I think you need to hang out at the Huffington Post where all your buds are instead of a Catholic news source.
Amy
2 years ago
I took the quiz and got just one wrong, but if I would have relied on only the knowledge I received in my post-Vatican-II Catholic education (I went to Catholic school and was raised by very devout parents whose faith was the most important thing in their lives), I probably would have scored about average for Catholics. I credit my own searching and study as an adult with doing better than average.

This morning I read a blog about this by someone at National Catholic Register (I think it was Jimmy Akin) who pointed out that this wasn't really a quiz about RELIGION as much as it was a quiz about both comparative religionS (plural) and the politics that affect their practice. A person can be a devout practicing Catholic -- perhaps a saint someday -- and receive a low score on this quiz. After all, there wer only two questions about "Catholic things" (whereas there were three about Mormonism!)

He also pointed out that members of minority religions (including atheism) tend to do better because they have to interact on a constant basis with those other religions, whereas Catholic Hispanics, for example, or Southern Baptists living in the South, don't have all that much interaction with lots of different religions so don't know as much about them. He makes other good points, too; I would suggest googling the article. It's called "Are You Smarter Than an Atheist?"
Wendy
2 years ago
I took the test and scored an 87. I missed 2 and they had nothing to do with being Catholic. Good thing, since I am a catechist! Parents are the primary catechists and if they don't know their own faith, they are cheating their children.
vance
2 years ago
This speaks volumes about Catholic parents not teaching their children about God and religion. This is also a damning report card on our 'DO NOTHING' 'SAY NOTHING' Bishops and clergy. The new Bishop of Los Angeles said it well when he said people drop out of the faith not because of what they know but because of what they don't know. If all Catholics knew about their own religion and faith, they would never leave for another religion.
John Grimes
2 years ago
I'm not really surprised. Ignorance is as American as mom and apple pie, just think of the Tea Pary movement or its spiritual ancestors, the Know-Nothing Party and the Prohibitionist movement. This is, after all, the country that once elected G. W. Bush and then followed him into an immoral war that the rest of the planet knew was crazy. It is also the country that thought it morally acceptable five or six decades ago to incinerate entire civilian populations in pursuit of its war aims.
mikem
2 years ago
yes, I am shocked, but not surprised by these results. Pew polls are highly regarded for objectivity, even by the USCCB. Who is responsible for this woeful and shameful level of ignorance about the Catholic beliefs? Surely it is the fault of the Catholic bishops - whose sacred calling is to take care of the flock - the hardest job of all!! Just as surely, it is the Catholic families' calling. Who, it turns out, are ignorant themselves and therefore incapable of transmitting the correct Faith. I think the key flex time is the time block after dinner, the evening-to-night hours. The priests need to use this time to push the agenda of the Faith forward, use it constructively for the Church, and not their personal leisure. Stop going out to clubs, or staying in and playing cards and watching cable programs!!! Likewise, the after dinner hours in the family need to include some prayer and some education in the Faith. But where are available materials??????????

Comments submitted must be civil, remain on-topic and not violate any laws including copyright. We reserve the right to delete any comments which are abusive, inappropriate or not constructive to the discussion.

Though we invite robust discussion, we reserve the right to not publish any comment which denigrates the human person, undermines marriage and the family, or advocates for positions which openly oppose the teaching of the Catholic Church.

This is a supervised forum and the Editors of Catholic Online retain the right to direct it.

We also reserve the right to block any commenter for repeated violations. Your email address is required to post, but it will not be published on the site.

We ask that you NOT post your comment more than once. Catholic Online is growing and our ability to review all comments sometimes results in a delay in their publication.

Name *

Email *

Comment *

Send me important information from Catholic Online and it's partners. See Sample

Post Comment