# Atheists know more about religion (Pew) **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [September 28, 2010, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheists-know-more-about-religion-pew/555364 "2010-09-28T16:31:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Rhodes](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rhodes/32/273_2.png) [@Rhodes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhodes)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2010, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheists-know-more-about-religion-pew/555364/41 "2010-09-28T21:57:54Z")
Atheist, until recently a Mormon, and I scored 14/15. Stoopidly missed the nirvana question. ---
**Author:** ![Superfluous\_Parentheses](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8edcca/32.png) [@Superfluous\_Parentheses](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superfluous_Parentheses)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2010, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheists-know-more-about-religion-pew/555364/42 "2010-09-28T21:58:55Z")
14/15, mostly because nobody over here ever has even heard about the “First Great Awakening”. And I know who Joseph Smith was, even so. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2010, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheists-know-more-about-religion-pew/555364/43 "2010-09-28T21:59:07Z")
> [@Skammer](#): > > Funny you should say that **Marley** , because the reason I always remember Jon Edwards is because my ninth grade English teacher (public school) made us read “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.” I think I read that, too. Maybe in 11th grade. But that was a while ago and we’ve heard from **Curtis LeMay** more recently. ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2010, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheists-know-more-about-religion-pew/555364/44 "2010-09-28T22:15:11Z")
Missed the last on about the First Great Awakening. So, of course, I had to read the wiki. Interesting. Oh, and atheist. ---
**Author:** ![Darryl\_Lict](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7cd45c/32.png) [@Darryl\_Lict](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darryl_Lict)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2010, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheists-know-more-about-religion-pew/555364/45 "2010-09-28T22:18:54Z")
Atheist here. I got 15/15, but had to take an educated guess at the Great Awakening. ---
**Author:** ![ErinPuff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dbc845/32.png) [@ErinPuff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ErinPuff)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2010, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheists-know-more-about-religion-pew/555364/46 "2010-09-28T22:20:29Z")
Christian (white liberal Protestant), 15/15, found it really easy. ---
**Author:** ![dhkendall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a9adbd/32.png) [@dhkendall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dhkendall)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2010, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheists-know-more-about-religion-pew/555364/47 "2010-09-28T22:25:46Z")
> [@Johnny\_Angel](#): > > The part that surprises me is that evangelicals did better than Catholics. My personal experience has led me to conclude that Catholics were better prepared to engage in theological disputes than protestants. I’m not too surprised at this, evangelicals sometimes feel its their duty to “study up” to convert people, so in order to get into a battle of wits with an atheist (no jokes, please) they learn up on religion. > [@Ann\_Onimous](#): > > Christian, and also 15/15. I enjoy studying all religions, though. This. Well, I actually got 14/15, but the rest is me. (Don’t know how to further clarify “Christian” though, other than Protestant. I’ve attended an evangelical church for 30 years, but don’t consider myself an “evangelical”, at least not as how it’s usually defined.) > [@Kyla](#): > > 14/15. I missed the First Great Awakening question. I knew it took place much too long ago for Billy Graham to be involved, but got the wrong side of the 50/50 left over. Oh well. Again, this (for the question I missed). Haven’t even heard about the Great Awakening before, but I don’t follow Curtis’ postings much. Who would have thought there was a benefit to actually reading Curtis’ posts? ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2010, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheists-know-more-about-religion-pew/555364/48 "2010-09-28T22:26:46Z")
Deceptively “easy” for some of us. To expand on what Diogenes mentions, the easy way for a lot of people is to just claim the religion they’re used to/were brought up in/does it for them emotionally, while in fact practicing just whatever part of it they’re comfortable with in the way they live, and not going very deep into what/why. Hispanic Heretic ( 😉 raised Catholic). 31/32 on the full version, 14/15 in the site; the Great Awakening one tripped me. ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2010, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheists-know-more-about-religion-pew/555364/49 "2010-09-28T22:40:52Z")
I honestly can’t believe how poorly most people scored, especially on the “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?” question. Only 23% knew that you could study the Bible as literature. That’s pretty lame. And only 93% of Mormons knew Joseph Smith was Mormon? Seriously? I have the feeling that lots of people don’t actually think about their answers to survey questions and just answer randomly. Or maybe their ability to understand English is incredibly poor, but they don’t want to be rude to the surveyor, so they just smile and fill in the blanks at random. ---
**Author:** ![Lanzy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/74df32/32.png) [@Lanzy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lanzy)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2010, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheists-know-more-about-religion-pew/555364/50 "2010-09-28T22:52:23Z")
This was fun, not one of my extended holier than thou family on Facebook got better than 50%. I (who am bound for hell according to them) got 100%. ---
**Author:** ![missred](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/missred/32/14096_2.png) [@missred](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/missred)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2010, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheists-know-more-about-religion-pew/555364/51 "2010-09-28T22:58:33Z")
Agnostic who scored 15/15. Mark me down as another who was reminded about the Great Awakening by **Curtis LeMay**. ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2010, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheists-know-more-about-religion-pew/555364/52 "2010-09-28T23:11:49Z")
Atheist, 13/15. Missed Jonathan Edwards, and guessed wrong on the one about communion (coulda sworn it was Eastern Orthodox). ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2010, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheists-know-more-about-religion-pew/555364/53 "2010-09-28T23:12:31Z")
> [@Lemur866](#): > > I honestly can’t believe how poorly most people scored, especially on the “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?” question. Only 23% knew that you could study the Bible as literature. That’s pretty lame. > > And only 93% of Mormons knew Joseph Smith was Mormon? Seriously? > > I have the feeling that lots of people don’t actually think about their answers to survey questions and just answer randomly. Or maybe their ability to understand English is incredibly poor, but they don’t want to be rude to the surveyor, so they just smile and fill in the blanks at random. Or, they’ve been systematically lied to. Your example of teachers being allowed to read the Bible; that goes against what Christians are typically taught about Christianity being “persecuted” in schools. Like the Christian students who hold prayer meetings around the flagpole under the impression they are defying the Evil Secular Education establishment and never realize that there isn’t any rule against prayer in schools. These people don’t realize that the reason that teachers don’t teach about the Bible isn’t because Christianity is being suppressed, but because if they did they’d have to teach about other religions too; and that is what would really freak out the Christians. So the subject gets avoided. ---
**Author:** ![sisu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@sisu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sisu)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2010, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheists-know-more-about-religion-pew/555364/54 "2010-09-28T23:36:27Z")
14 out 15, me = non literal Christian ---
**Author:** ![gytalf2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ac91a4/32.png) [@gytalf2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gytalf2000)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2010, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheists-know-more-about-religion-pew/555364/55 "2010-09-28T23:44:30Z")
Agnostic, got all the answers correct. ---
**Author:** ![Morgyn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morgyn/32/3041_2.png) [@Morgyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgyn)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2010, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheists-know-more-about-religion-pew/555364/56 "2010-09-29T00:03:27Z")
All correct, short and long form. Agnostic. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2010, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheists-know-more-about-religion-pew/555364/57 "2010-09-29T00:17:51Z")
14 out of 15. I got the one the Sabbath wrong – I thought it started at _midnight_ on Saturday. Other than that, easy-peesy. (How could you NOT know that Mother Teresa was Catholic. Yeesh.) ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Scud](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f08c70/32.png) [@Tom\_Scud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Scud)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2010, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheists-know-more-about-religion-pew/555364/58 "2010-09-29T00:22:37Z")
15/15. Jonathan Edwards sneers at you sinners. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2010, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheists-know-more-about-religion-pew/555364/59 "2010-09-29T00:25:23Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > Only 11% got the Great Awakening" question right. That’s below random chance. Billy Graham probably got a lot of votes because he was the only one of the three people had heard of. ---
**Author:** ![pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pseudotriton_ruber_ruber)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2010, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheists-know-more-about-religion-pew/555364/60 "2010-09-29T00:44:14Z")
hard-core atheist, perfect score. The Edwards one was the easiest, as I had read (and parodied) Edwards in studying his place in American Literature. His most famous sermon in the Great Awakening was a scary, eloquent description of what was in store for those who had misbehaved, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” which I turned into “God in the Hands of Angry Sinners.” Good times, good times. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheists-know-more-about-religion-pew/555364.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheists-know-more-about-religion-pew/555364.md?page=4)