Atheists and Agnostics Know the Bible Better than Believers

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Timshel

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http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2010/...-religion-youre-not-alone-study-finds/?ref=nf

In fact, although the United States is one of the most religious developed countries in the world, most Americans scored 50 percent or less on a quiz measuring knowledge of the Bible, world religions and what the Constitution says about religion in public life.

The survey is full of surprising findings.

For example, it's not evangelicals or Catholics who did best - it's atheists and agnostics.

It's not Bible-belt Southerners who scored highest - they came at the bottom.

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.
 
Why bother reading the Bible any more when you can just visit a website that'll give you a list of biblical quotes reinforcing your positions on various moral issues?

The rest of the Bible seems to comprise merely filler for the more fundamentalist Christian.
 
charver said:
Why bother reading the Bible any more when you can just visit a website that'll give you a list of biblical quotes reinforcing your positions on various moral issues?

The rest of the Bible seems to comprise merely filler for the more fundamentalist Christian.
Click to expand...

When you go to church in the south you rarely hear much about God. All they ever do is screech on about their political views. Preachers are more like amateur Limbaugh's than anything else.
 
Damn Yankee said:
This is easily exclaimed by the fact that atheists tend to be activists about their faith, thus have to know the enemy position to argue for theirs.
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As opposed to an evangelist adopting a position of spreading the 'word' without bothering to find out much about the book they are apparently basing their life around?

Makes sense.
 
charver said:
As opposed to an evangelist adopting a position of spreading the 'word' without bothering to find out much about the book they are apparently basing their life around?

Makes sense.
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I dont think I'd put an evangelist in the class of people who dont know much about the book they are evangelizing. However, if you want to include the casual Church goer who goes to Church every week because they are conditioned that way and really never questioned it.. yes ..they probably dont know jack shit about the Bible. I know plenty of Catholics who have spent their lives going to mass every Sunday but couldnt quote one verse from the Bible. Or the Protestant , who would be the First to tell you that Jesus Christ was for the death penalty when several passages clearly show that he was opposed.
ie.. when in John 8. Jesus was confronted with the Death penalty; The scribes and Pharisees made a woman stand before him to be judged. They said, "Teacher, this woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery. In the law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?" Jesus said .. any person without sin cast the first stone. Then, Jesus turned to the woman and challenged her to repent: "Neither do I condemn you. Go your way, and from now on do not sin again."
 
We Catholics do not know our Bible well, so I'd expect us to score very low. I am surprised that the Evangelical "all I need it this Book" Protestants didn't score off the charts, though...
 
Why do people have to find these kinds of studies and then lie about the findings? The survey was on religion in general, not the Bible itself. Few of the questions were about the Bible. Many were about religions that do not use the Bible. They even threw in a few general knowledge, non-religious questions. So the fact that atheists and agnostics did better on the survey cannot be read as knowing the Bible better than those whose religions use the Bible.

And the article itself states quite plainly that the only direct correlation derived from the study is that those with more extensive education did better than those whose education backgrounds are more limited REGARDLESS OF RELIGIOUS LEANINGS.

So much for the title of this thread.
 
Damn Yankee said:
This is easily exclaimed by the fact that atheists tend to be activists about their faith, thus have to know the enemy position to argue for theirs.
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Yes, those atheist/agnostic missionaries are always showing up at my door exclaiming their faith.

The explanation in the article is far more plausible then your absurd assertion.
 
klaatu said:
I dont think I'd put an evangelist in the class of people who dont know much about the book they are evangelizing. However, if you want to include the casual Church goer who goes to Church every week because they are conditioned that way and really never questioned it.. yes ..they probably dont know jack shit about the Bible. I know plenty of Catholics who have spent their lives going to mass every Sunday but couldnt quote one verse from the Bible. Or the Protestant , who would be the First to tell you that Jesus Christ was for the death penalty when several passages clearly show that he was opposed.
ie.. when in John 8. Jesus was confronted with the Death penalty; The scribes and Pharisees made a woman stand before him to be judged. They said, "Teacher, this woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery. In the law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?" Jesus said .. any person without sin cast the first stone. Then, Jesus turned to the woman and challenged her to repent: "Neither do I condemn you. Go your way, and from now on do not sin again."
Click to expand...

In my experience, Catholics are the worst. At least American ones. I had a an elder in a local Catholic church tell me that it was true that they don't read the bible. He was inquiring into my religious background and when I told him I was raised Baptist he talked about the perception that Baptist know the bible and Catholics don't and said it was true.
 
Damn Yankee said:
I didn't say that they were evangelical about their faith, just activists. Dick.
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Why do you keep signing your post?

Activists implies they are ACTIVELY working to promote their views (it's not a faith, moron). They are more likely to study the bible because they are better educated and searched it before becoming atheists.
 
RStringfield said:
Why do you keep signing your post?

Activists implies they are ACTIVELY working to promote their views (it's not a faith, moron). They are more likely to study the bible because they are better educated and searched it before becoming atheists.
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I don't sign my posts "Dick" any more that you sign yours as "moron"; Dick refers to you. The most common name beginning with "R" is "Richard" which stands for "Dick".

Of course atheism is a faith, Dick, especially since these activist have read the Bible. They cannot prove that it is a lie but they have faith that it is.
 
RStringfield said:
http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2010/...-religion-youre-not-alone-study-finds/?ref=nf

In fact, although the United States is one of the most religious developed countries in the world, most Americans scored 50 percent or less on a quiz measuring knowledge of the Bible, world religions and what the Constitution says about religion in public life.

The survey is full of surprising findings.

For example, it's not evangelicals or Catholics who did best - it's atheists and agnostics.

It's not Bible-belt Southerners who scored highest - they came at the bottom.

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.
Click to expand...

Well where's that survey at? The one you posted is as simplistic as a test about religion can get.

The fact that the so called "church" is in reality unchurched is not surprising. Ever since the evangelical movement of the 70's and 80's where teaching biblical doctrine and church history were replaced with feel good sermons; gooey ga ga songs; and simplsitic believism, numerous believers cannot even recite the 10 commandments.
 
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