Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Have a Question about Religion?


If you have a question about religion, your best bet is to ask an atheist.

According to the Toronto Star atheists are the most well informed about all religions than any religionist.

The survey polled 3,412 Americans who defined themselves in one of nine groups, including atheist/agnostic, Jewish, Mormon, white evangelical Protestant and white mainline Protestant.

The group that garnered the most correct answers on the 32-part questionnaire was atheists and agnostics. As a group, they answered 20.9 questions on the Bible, Christianity, world religions and religion in public life correctly. They were followed by Jews (20.5) and Mormons (20.3).


and

principled non-believers performed so well because they had deeply considered their choice to opt out of organized religion. They also tended to have higher levels of education.
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Amen to all of that, I say.

See other posts on atheism here, here, and here

12 comments:

  1. The Lord moves in mysterious ways.

    Then again a certain amount of belief is needed to declare oneself an athiest which I don't have.

    Or arrogance, I'm not sure which.

    I find the 'I don't know but I'll behave myself just in case' of agnosticism the most honest response.

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  2. Fascinating. Not sure I would perform so well though, my knowledge of most religions is pretty skimpy, my aversion to them is mainly based on the inherent absurdity of a supreme being and all the internal contradictions in their beliefs.

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  3. I'm agnostic. It gives me a chance just in case and yes, I have read a lot of religious books. It's all a mystery as is the Big Bang.

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  4. Like so many things in life, I admit to knowing a little about a lot! :(

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  5. It is as I suspected, those of us who are followers of a religion are scandalously ignorant of other people's beliefs. For me, the important things is to respect whatever someone else believes, or doesn't.

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  6. There is great pressure to believe, and those of us who do not have been obliged to examine the beliefs that we ultimately reject in the face of so much societal opprobrium.

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  7. I am an atheist as well.... I am not sure I would be able to answer any of the questions.... I have almost NO knowledge of any of the organized or non-organized religions.... I have never read the Tora, Bible or the Quran. I have no idea what God says or wants from the human race. Nor am I interested....

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  8. It interests me that atheists and their fellow travellers miss no chance to spout their disbelief. Who cares?. It seems to me to be more like whistling past the graveyard on their part.

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  9. Well I am a Christian and it is one thing to know about the Bible but it is another to have experienced the love of Jesus.
    Maggie X

    Nuts in May

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  10. A rather obscure subject for a survey, but not sure what is its fundamental relevance. Result quite interesting in a trivia kind of way though.

    A survey of whether vegans and vegetarians know more about meat than carnivores would be equally irrelevant in the great scheme of things.

    Tell a journalist or statistician to "do a survey" and they have to come up with an obscure and irrelevant subject to earn their keep, I guess.

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