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Bible Study OurHope Emblem August 7, 2011
Pew Research US Religious Knowledge Survey

Introduction

In 2010, "the Pew Research Center's Forum on Religion & Public Life set out to gauge what Americans know about their own faiths and about other religions. The resulting survey covered a wide range of topics, including the beliefs and practices of major religious traditions as well as the role of religion in American history and public life. Based on an analysis of answers from more than 3,400 people to 32 religious knowledge questions, this report attempts to provide a baseline measurement of how much Americans know about religion today."1

In September of 2010 the results of that survey were released. In today's lesson we will go through the questions in that survey and some other questions.

Lesson

1. Which Bible figure is most closely associated with leading the exodus from Egypt?

  • Job
  • Elijah
  • Moses ✓
  • Abraham

2. What was Mother Teresa's religion?

  • Catholic ✓
  • Jewish
  • Buddhist
  • Mormon
  • Hindu

3. Which of the following is NOT one of the Ten Commandments?

  • Do not commit adultery
  • Do unto others as you would have them do unto you ✓
  • Do not steal
  • Keep the Sabbath holy

4. When does the Jewish Sabbath begin?

  • Friday ✓
  • Saturday
  • Sunday

5. Is Ramadan…?

  • The Hindu festival of lights
  • A Jewish day of atonement
  • The Islamic holy month ✓

6. Which of the following best describes the Catholic teaching about the bread and wine used for Communion?

  • The bread and wine actually become the body and blood of Jesus Christ. ✓
  • The bread and wine are symbols of the body and blood of Jesus Christ.

7. In which religion are Vishnu and Shiva central figures?

  • Islam
  • Hinduism ✓
  • Taoism

8. Which Bible figure is most closely associated with remaining obedient to God despite suffering?

  • Job ✓
  • Elijah
  • Moses
  • Abraham

9. What was Joseph Smith's religion?

  • Catholic
  • Jewish
  • Buddhist
  • Mormon ✓
  • Hindu

10. According to rulings by the U.S. Supreme Court, is a public school teacher permitted to lead a class in prayer, or not?

  • Yes, permitted
  • No, not permitted ✓

11. According to rulings by the U.S. Supreme Court, is a public school teacher permitted to read from the Bible as an example of literature, or not?

  • Yes, permitted ✓
  • No, not permitted

12. What religion do most people in Pakistan consider themselves?

  • Buddhist
  • Hindu
  • Muslim ✓
  • Christian

13. What was the name of the person whose writings and actions inspired the Protestant Reformation?

  • Martin Luther ✓
  • Thomas Aquinas
  • John Wesley

14. Which of these religions aims at nirvana, the state of being free from suffering?

  • Islam
  • Buddhism ✓
  • Hinduism

15. Which one of these preachers participated in the period of religious activity known as the First Great Awakening?

  • Jonathan Edwards ✓
  • Charles Finney
  • Billy Graham

16. Do you happen to know which of these is the king of gods in ancient Greek mythology

  • Zeus ✓
  • Mars
  • Apollo

17. Is an atheist someone who

  • believes in god
  • does not believe in god ✓
  • is unsure whether god exists

18. Is an agnostic someone who

  • believes in god
  • does not believe in god
  • is unsure whether god exists ✓

19. What are the names of the first four books of the New Testament

  • Peter
  • John ✓
  • Paul
  • Mark ✓
  • Judas
  • Luke ✓
  • Bartholomew
  • Matthew ✓

20. Where, according to the Bible, was Jesus born?

  • Nazareth
  • Bethlehem ✓
  • Jerusalem
  • Jericho
  • Egypt

21. The book of Mormon tells the story of Jesus Christ appearing to people in what area of the world

  • The Americas ✓
  • Middle East
  • Asia

22. When was the Mormon religion founded?

  • Before the year 1200 AD
  • Between 1200 and 1800
  • Sometime after 1800 ✓

23. Which of these religious groups traditionally teaches that salvation comes through faith alone?

  • Only Protestants ✓
  • Only Catholics
  • Both Protestants and Catholics
  • Neither Protestants or Catholics

24. Which of the following statements best describes what the US constitution says about religion?

  • Christianity should be given special emphasis by the government
  • The government shall neither establish a religion nor interfere with the practice of a religion ✓
  • The constitution doesn't say anything one way or another about religion

25. Which one of these people developed the theory of evolution by natural selection?

  • Clarence Darrow
  • Charles Darwin ✓
  • Sigmund Freud

26. Which of these court trials focused on whether evolution could be taught in public schools?

  • Scopes Trial
  • Salem witch trials
  • Brown versus Board of Education ✓
Stan's Stumpers

1. Which of these items were placed in the ark of the covenant?

  • The Torah
  • One of the quail that God provided for the Israelites to eat
  • Aaron's staff that budded ✓
  • A bowl of the manna that God provided for the Israelites to eat ✓
  • The two stone tablets bearing the 10 commandments ✓
  • A Menorah
  • An oil lamp

2. The religious leaders in Jerusalem recognized Jesus' accent and so they did not ask him where he was born. Where was his accent from?

  • Nazareth✓
  • Bethlehem
  • Egypt

3. What is the first book of the Bible and the first word of the first verse … in Hebrew

  • Shalom
  • Bereshit ✓
  • Maranatha
  • Hallelujah

4. Which number is most closely associated with the book of Revelation?

  • 1
  • 3
  • 5
  • 6
  • 7 ✓

5. What relationship was Ruth to Naomi?

  • Sister
  • Daughter
  • Daughter-in-law ✓

6. The word "martyr" comes from the early Christian era

  • It was the name of a person who was killed✓
  • It was the name of a city where Christians were commonly killed
  • It was the name of an arena where Christians were killed

7. In Daniel, King Nebuchadnezzar has a dream about a statue made of many materials. How many materials were there?

  • 3
  • 4
  • 5 ✓
  • 6

8. Which one of these people was not one of the original disciples of Jesus?

  • Thaddaeus (Jude, Judas son of James)
  • Matthias ✓
  • Simon the Zealot
  • Andrew (brother of Simon Peter)

The executive summary from the Pew Research study says "Atheists and agnostics, Jews and Mormons are among the highest-scoring groups on [the] 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.

"On average, Americans correctly answer 16 of the 32 religious knowledge questions on the survey by the Pew Research Center's Forum on Religion & Public Life. Atheists and agnostics average 20.9 correct answers. Jews and Mormons do about as well, averaging 20.5 and 20.3 correct answers, respectively. Protestants as a whole average 16 correct answers; Catholics as a whole, 14.7. Atheists and agnostics, Jews and Mormons perform better than other groups on the survey even after controlling for differing levels of education."2

Questions

Why do Protestants and especially Catholics know so little about their own religion and other religions?

Is there a flaw in the study?

It assumes that knowledge of other religions is or should be important to Christians

It assumes that knowledge of details of Christianity is or should be important to Christians


1 http://pewforum.org/U-S-Religious-Knowledge-Survey-Preface.aspx

2 http://pewforum.org/Other-Beliefs-and-Practices/U-S-Religious-Knowledge-Survey.aspx