- This topic is empty.
-
Posts
-
I cam across the following article just now: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_rel_religious_literacy_poll Two quotes:
Quote:A new survey of Americans’ knowledge of religion found that atheists, agnostics, Jews and Mormons outperformed Protestants and Roman Catholics in answering questions about major religions, while many respondents could not correctly give the most basic tenets of their own faiths.
Quote:On questions about Christianity, Mormons scored the highest, with an average of about eight correct answers out of 12.
Just thought you all might like the perspective. It helps sometimes. Maybe instruction in the Church isn’t as dumbed down as many think.
And maybe we ARE Christians, in spite of what some of the non-LDs like to say about us! FWIW, I am often surprised at the reaction I get when I reference what I think of as basic details of classic Bible stories around other people, people I know go to church on a somewhat regular basis (other Christian churches). They give me this look, or even comment that “wow … you know a lot.” Now … I have actually enjoyed spending lots of time studying religion, but the stuff I am thinking of is really stuff that any average, active LDS member would know.
If nothing else, three hours of church + mutual + daily seminary as a teenager is a quantity that has a quality of its own
And having a constant flow of 10’s of thousands of full-time missionaries really expands our “tribe’s” knowledge of other religions, even if it is from the perspective of trying to convert them. Our group is constantly exposed to others. We also find ourselves in a defensive position, needing to understand other religions so we can defend our beliefs.
Fundamentalist Christians tend to have a good understanding of their own religion but do not study others much. However, one thing I have noticed about some BIC Mormons is that they know very little about other churches. I had some ask me the other day what a “parish church” was.
I like the findings of the article — it gives me a reason to help restore the healthy pride I once had in the Church. In case any of you missed the link for the 15 question quiz at the end of the article here it is… http://features.pewforum.org/quiz/us-religious-knowledge I totally surprised myself by getting 15 out of 15 right!
I was surprised at how easy it was, especially the Christian ones – which really says something about the teaching in those denominations whose members took the test and scored badly. Yeah. Pretty easy. But I had to guess on Maimonedes and Indonesia.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.