The test is fun and interesting but as you point out not really a comprehensive test of ones knowledge. The astounding revelation to me is that 45% of Catholics do not know the consecrated bread and wine are the body and blood of Christ! I was reared in the protestant tradition,and transitioned from no last supper celebration to a community that celebrated it as a symbol. Eventually the question as to what this meant led me to the Catholic Church. The question that turned my world upside down, or should I say right side up, made me study my faith and beliefs more honestly than I ever was willing before.I scored 100% because of my journey, and now I struggle to pass this faith on to my children. I know I cannot leave it to PSR teachers, as good as they are in my parish. This article makes me appreciate that our children do not learn by osmosis. Simply taking them to church is hardly adequate, we must teach them by example and word.

The problem with this survey is that its organizing principle is that knowledge of religion ought to be gaged by wide sweeping superficial facts about all the world’s religions. This notion of “religious knowledge” of course favors the secular and atheists as a demographic who may know a lot of superficial facts about a large number of religions but do not know any in depth and from the inside as a set of spiritual and moral practices.

See my fuller critique of the poll from the perspective of a young atheist convert to Catholicism here: http://bit.ly/9wxwIG

Jimmy, you are bang on target when you say that minorities have a greater need to learn the religions of others. As a Catholic in India, I had no problems with answering all the questions related to Islam/Hinduism/Buddhism, in fact the ones I missed out were the Protestant ones :-)

I did not find the test to be terribly difficult.  But I do consider myself to be a well read Catholic with 12 years of parochial education, ending in 1960. I take occasional adult education classes one Catholic subjects. 

I had to guess at “Jonathan Edwards”, only because I vaguely had heard of his name.

It is appalling how poorly their Catholic sample did on this “test”, especially being that it is multiple choice with the last 3 questions being “softballs.”  It would be interesting to see the size of the Catholic sample and how they created it.  But Pew is a good organization.

How can you defend your faith if you don’t know even the basics of other faiths?

It’s possible to interpret the two polls to imply that 55% of Catholics even know the teaching, but only 33% believe it. Which means that 60% of Catholics who know the teaching also believe it. Of course, we are talking about 2 different polls here.

I know quite a few people who identify as Catholics based upon their parents’ self-identification but who were never taken to mass, have not received all of the sacraments of initiation, and are completely ignorant of the Church’s teachings. This seems fairly common in traditionally Catholic ethnic communities, like the Italians and Irish. The grandmothers may still go to mass,  but their parents received nominal Catholic educations in the years following Vatican 2 (but pretty much drifted away as teenagers), and the children were raised without any formal religious instruction at all.

30 out of 32. Being an Australian I’m relatively ignorant to US Supreme Court rulings and who Jonathan Edwards is.
Anyway, I don’t think its prudent to make an analysis about the level of knowledge the “average” Catholic, Protestant, Atheist, Hindu, etc. has based on this test; there would have been a few other factors affecting the outcome of the results, demographics specifically.
If the test highlights anything, it’s that the Catholics who sat this test received either little, no, or poor catechesis. You could also then ask the question as to whether these Catholics were they practising or non-practising.
If we want a better idea of how much Catholics know about their faith, then perhaps THIS test would provide a better body of results to analyse: http://tinyurl.com/38hwp

This is kind of a bogus quiz. I got 29 out of 32 but not because I know or don’t know my Catholic faith (I did get all those right) but because I happen to know geography, culture and stuff/facts about other religions and countries (and can take a few educated guesses. So all the stats really tell us is that, for whatever reason, Atheists know more general facts and nothing about how faithful or knowledgeable Catholics are about their faith.

I found it a little biased but it is true that after we study and learn our faith, we need to learn at least the basics of others faith, to be able to defend our faith from those same others attacks.  I scored a 27 but also guessing at Johnathan Edwards.  I really did not know who the guy was.  This is more of an atheist/agnostic biased test.

Jimmy, you are totally right.  But the results still made me think of when Fr. Groeschel said “Catholics are stupid.”  LOL!  He was totally right too, given the “to whom much is given” premise. 

I’m sure someone will get this wrong and take offense.

Jimmy, do you have any concern about question #21 (salvation by faith)?

Of course we answered correctly because we knew the expectation, but the truth of the Catholic teaching is that we ARE saved by faith.  We do not earn our salvation!  We show our faith through our works, but are not saved by those works.  I know that this is a nuanced discussion not capable of fitting nicely into a multiple choice quiz about generic over-generalizations on faith, but it perpetuates a misunderstood Catholic teaching and continues to drive a wedge between us and our separated brothers and sisters in faith!

“... and atheists as a demographic who may know a lot of superficial facts about a large number of religions but do not know any in depth and from the inside as a set of spiritual and moral practices.”

You’re joking, right? Most atheists I know are recovering Catholics or Lutherans. We know religion well because we’ve been there, studied them, then realized it was baloney and moved on. It’s mostly those who never dig deeper who stick with it. Of course, there are exceptions… those adept at apologetics.

Furthermore, most religions don’t teach morality, but divisive dogma. Be sure to distinguish the two.

I would guess that most Catholics who only got 20 correct just don’t know much about other religions. I confess to being somewhat ignorant on the differences between Hinduism and Buddism, and in fact made educated guesses on some of those questions. Being a Catholic in the south, I am acutely aware of how many people who move here “cultural Catholics” and are not prepared for an apologetics discussion.

I did well in school, love magazines and newspapers.  I think I missed the only question I didn’t know because I had never heard of the person before.  Most of what was asked (to me) was picked up just by living and reading and paying attention to things in general, besides what a Catholic should know from “almost birth.”  I don’t think there is a “general information” knowledge desire any more.  I drove a bus before I retired.  Amazing how the interesting tidbits from the passengers educated me.  I feel good about it.

Atheists and agnostics often score well as they were typically raised in a faith, struggled with it, sought to learn more, but found it unsatisfactory and then left.

32/32

I’m much smarter than an atheist.

I’ve only been Catholic for 3 years and got 30 (with no guessing).  IDK what that means since 3 years ago I was agnostic and probably would have gotten just as many right then.

I got 31 correct but I don’t feel any smarter nor more Catholic.

I missed only one, Number 29, and I guessed correctly, at a couple others.

How I wish our Roman Catholic Church would teach Scripture, in context, and in toto, to us on Sunday at Mass - AND even ask pastors to teach Bible study classes midweek, like on a Tuesday or Thursday night.

The reason I say this is that nothing in this quiz is going to be of any eternal value, when we are dead.  Our souls will live forever - the question is: where?

We need to learn about the CHRISTIAN faith, Catholics and Protestants, non-Catholic non-denominational people, all serve the same God = revealed to us in Scripture as Jesus, our Lord. 

How about a quiz on everything we know about the Trinity?

Frankly, for people to perform and score so poorly on these questions is not a reflection of how poorly people know religion and various beliefs.
Moreover, the poor results speak of how UNEDUCATED people are.  Folks, except for one or two questions, this is all Education 101 and has nothing to do with Religion.  For example, a recent test showed most
High School students were not able to name Topeka as the capital of Kansas.  Rest assured, they do know who Lady Gaga is.

YeP I sure am…. Well Ok I did miss the question about treating the Bible as Literature in public schools, but still that is the only one I missed.

Am I smarter than an Atheist?  Of course I am.  I know that God exists.  And I did pretty well in the quiz too, with 27 correct.  I had 12 years of Catholic education over 55 years ago!

Cradle Catholic….If you attend Sunday Mass every week for a 3 year period
you will have heard from nearly every book of scripture, both New Testament and New Testament during the Liturgy of the Word! In most of
the Protestant services you will hear Scripture that the minister knows
best or prefers to preach on….in other words you will have heard from the entire Bible at mass over a three year period. If you are a cradle catholic as I am to and are over 70 years of age that’s alot of Bible
Scripture..enough not to be able to claim Catholics are Bible ignorant.
Now I will agree that we could do better at providing Scripture classes and more Bible Study groups for those who would like to learn more. And
of course no one has been stopping families from having family bible
reading time…perhaps forgoing some TV, Internet, Sports games, movies
etc in order to fit in what is appropriate for all who claim to be a
Christian. As St Jerome said, “Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Jesus Christ.” How can you follow Him if you do not know Him!

CORRECTION PLEASE: I meant to say…“you will have heard from both the Old Testament and the New Testament during the Liturgy of the Word”. SORRY for the typo! God Bless. Oh and I meant to add…I received a 29…was not sure of the majority religion in some of those middle eastern countries…but not to worry! It’s the BIG test we need to concern ourselves with..will we be able to claim our crowns of victory? wheb this pilgrim time on earth is over?  I daresay those who did poorly on this test may be first at the banquet table of the Bridegroom.

Hopefully Catholics got #22 correct!

I could not find the 32 question test.  I found a 15 question online test.
So I took that and got a 100% correct.  Where is the 32 qestion test?
The only thing I find disturbing is that so many Catholics(?) got the bread and wine question wrong.  I have never met a Catholic who did not know the answer to this question.

What struck me most about the quiz was how poorly the questions were phrased.

Question 5 is forgivable, but also debatable.

Question 19 is almost more a question about Western culture than it is about religion.  Sure “the patience of Job” is legendary, but anyone who’s actually read the Bible knows that enduring suffering was an important part of the vocations of Elijah, Moses, and Abraham too.

Question 21 is unforgivable, especially given the fact that there is no single Protestant dogmatic answer for this question, and given this: http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/audiences/2008/documents/hf_ben-xvi_aud_20081119_en.html

Question 22 misses the point, and (at best) paraphrases Catholic teaching very poorly.

Question 23: I don’t know a whole lot about Mormonism, but doesn’t the Book of Mormon also deal, in part, with Christ’s incarnation in the Middle East?

Question 24: Again, I am not much of an expert, but aren’t there Mormons who would argue that their religion is much older than Joseph Smith, and that Smith only revived God’s true church (founded many centuries before Smith’s time) after the great apostasy?

I know many atheists who would take issue with the way in which Questions 26 and 27 use the words “atheist” and “agnostic.”

Question 29 could apply to Hinduism, under certain interpretations- not just to Buddhism.

Is “king” really the right word for Zeus’ role on Olympus in pagan Greek mythology in Question 30?

And yes, many of the questions were really not questions about religion at all.

In fact, these questions were so poorly worded, that I promise you if I had been given this poll to fill out, I would have deliberately answered many of them “wrong.”  Not because I don’t know the “correct” answers, but because I couldn’t honestly answer them the way they are written and still give the expected “correct” answers.  Also because smug ignorance tempts me to stubborn contrarianism.

Could you give me a link to take the 32 question survey?  I can’t talk about something I haven’t seen.

Cradle Catholic I agree with what you say.  We do get the old and new testaments at every Mass in a three year cycle.  So there is no way for us to be ignorant of the bible.  Unless you wear earplugs for many, many years at every Mass you go too, LOL!

Plus it runs in cycles, A, B, and C. So everthing is covered in a nine year cycle.

To Sleeping Beastly,

Please educate yourself.  The questions posed in the test are simple, clear and very basic.  Most people taking the test should have attained a high score even with peripheral knowledge of the subject matter.  The questions are not (as you say) “poorly phrased.”  Just because one is Catholic does not excuse oneself from knowing what others believe and what you should be able to defend concerning your own faith.

#27.  Everyone should know the difference between an atheist
(one who does NOT believe in God) versus an agnostic (one who is unsure of God’s existence).

#24.  Mormonism was, in fact, founded and developed between the 1820’s to the 1840’s in New York by Joseph Smith.

#23.  You ask concerning the Book of Mormon dealing (in part) with Jesus’ incarnation in the Middle East.  Unlike Christianity, there is no evidence prophetically, historically or geographically for any claims made in the Book of Mormon including the wonderful pictorials they have of Jesus walking among the Aztecs in the Americas.  Their claim that the Book of Mormon is:  “Another revelation of Jesus Christ” is apostacy.  The reality is the only thing “Christian” in Mormonism is that they use name of Jesus in their title:  Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  It’s false doctrine from that point.

#22.  You say #22 misses the point?  The answers offered are clear regarding the Catholic position and the Protestant position.  Catholics believe in the “actual” body and blood while Protestants believe in the “symbolic.”  What point is missed?  This is a no brainer. 

#21.  You say #21 is unforgivable.  What?  Everyone knows Luther’s position (the Protestant position) was based on Habakkuk 2: 4 and
Romans 1: 17 “The just shall live by faith.”

#19.  You say is more about Western culture.  What?  The question asked is “Who is most closely associated with remaining obedient to God despite suffering?”  Have you read the Book of Job recently?

# 5.  The question is —Name the person who writings and actions inspired the Reformation?  You say the question is debatable.  It is not debatable.  Acquinas was a Catholic theologian.  Luther was responsible for the Reformation—and some 150 years later—John Wesley (with brother Charles) established the Methodist church.

Most of questions in the test are quite pedestrian and should be of common knowledge whether you attend church or not.

I got a score of 27.5 and I’m Catholic.

Observer—

Sleeping Beastly is right. The more you know deep stuff about these religious topics, the more iffy their phrasing and assumptions. If all you know is general knowledge factoids, they’re okay. This is why, during elementary school, I often felt forced to attach long asterisked notes to my test answers. By the time I got to college, I had realized that teachers didn’t really want to know which words they’d spelled wrong and which incidental common errors of fact they were inadvertently perpetuating.

The Internet used to be full of such corrections, because it was full of (nerdy) people concerned with the full truth. Today, one often sees such people called a form of troll, whereas once they were the internal correction system of Usenet.

Of course, the way to test well is not to be right, but rather to understand the test philosophy well enough to pass the test. I’m sure that Sleeping Beastly could tell which answer was supposed to be “right”. The point is that surveys can be better written than this, and the common knowledge better chosen.

Maureen,
I appreciate your comments, but IMO, the PEW Forum Researchers were not out to trick anybody.  The questions posed are not—as you say, “deep stuff.”  We are obliged to understand the world in which we live especially in matters of faith.  Most adults should be expected to attain at least 90% on this test if you can walk and chew gum at the same time.

REgarding question #22? About the Real Presence? and some Catholics getting it wrong? If you were to ask that same question in most parishes
of the congregation today? A fair % would answer incorrectly..not because they don’t know what the Church teaches, but rather they CHOOSE to believe their own truth…not just about this doctrine but many others…it is only partly a matter of bad catechesis…mostly it is apostasy ... these nominal Catholics feel quite comfortable dissenting from truth ..and still believe they can call themselves Catholic!

And I should add…this same question if asked in certain quarters of the hierarachy a percentage would get it “wrong”..again, not because they are unaware of the Church’s teaching about the Real Presence but they CHOOSE to believe that their intellect is superiour to that of the Magisterium, etc and thus commit apostasy. Not that they call it that…they dissent from the truth with all the certitude that heretics have always presented. The vast majority of these “Catholics” can be found instructing in our higher education institutions!  We should get back to saying the prayer to St.
Michael the Archangel that was said everywhere at the end of every Mass
to protect the Church from the evil within that Pope Leo XIII had predicted would infest the Church..from a vision he had during Mass. He
wrote the prayer and decreed it to be said after every Mass. After VATICAN II we stopped doing it ( WHY?????) and the Devil entered in ! and is active within the rank and file everywhere. If they do not re-institute this prayer you can still say privately remaining in the pew to do at the end of each Mass.  The Church would see great changes!

Shamrock,
That is an interesting observation.  The Pastor of my own parish told me about 4 months ago at least 20 to 30% of the parishioners he talks with do not believe in transubstantiation.  What does that tell you?  Is it people just going their own way —or a failing by clergy to continually underscore the teachings of the church?

That Pastor ( and all others faced with this heresy) should spend more time preaching the Real Presence. Unfortunately there are many among them that are more concerned with “offending” than preaching the Truth! It is almost pandemic! in our Churches thus we get “watered-down” faith in almost every homily. Which is a greater sign of love…to teach the truth or worry about “offending ” the heretics…and in making them uncomfortable and thereby possibly reducing numbers in the pews! It is easier for some to risk offending the Lord if they even know that is what we are doing by allowing this passive form of Christianity to flourish. We are supposed to be the Church Militant! not the “Church Milktoast!

Jim,
Is not #21 an error?  It should be C) both Catholics and Protestants.
We know about the argument by protestants for “faith alone.”
However is not faith what saves us all?  Didn’t Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification though not infallible address that? 

Have you seen you’re quoted on this - attributed but with no citation - on Wiki?  See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faith_alone#Roman_Catholic_view

peace,
Matt
deliberateengagement.wordpress.com which is lying fallow for now…

We are saved by faith…faith that is expressed in good works! Both thus seem necessary to be saved. This is what the Catholic Church teaches..check your Catechism for the full teaching but this is it in a nutshell. So the correct answer to #21 was given according to the proper teaching.

Matt and Shamrock,
Yes, we are saved by faith.  But both Catholics and Protestants agree that good works are a natural result of our gratitude to God for our gift of faith.  The fallacy is when people think good works alone or being a “good person” is enough for salvation—for one cannot earn his/her way to salvation.  Paul states such thinking is deception.

Catholics can be forgiven for being ignorant but they are not any more than their Priests or the Pope himself who continues to preach that a person using a condom is more likely to be infected or infect others with STD – so he carries on the campaign against condom and homosexuals. What about the Early Induction Abortions at Catholic Hospital in London Ontario that continue to be performed for the last twenty years with the full knowledge and no objection from the Pope or Vatican that have known about them and turn a blind eye while condemning abortions. http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/dec/08121111.html

Not knowing the law is no excuse but what is worse is knowing the law and yet not following it as do the countless Priests who sexually abuse and molest children. What about nuns who have complained and complained to the two successive popes of rapes and sexual assaults by the Priests and Bishops and the Pope has done nothing?

Daniel

I saw this quiz featured on some news site the other day and it was obviously being used to look down on Catholics - the news anchor was only shown asking people after Mass - and basically laughing at their ignorance. They made it appear that it was a quiz about Christianity and no-one knew their faith. Very biased, especially when I got the chance to see the actual questions, and at most eight of the questions concern the Catholic faith. Who cares if catholics average fewer correct than athiests when the questions are about hindus?

Good write-up, Jimmy.

I got 32/32 also, and I also got a really bad aftertaste of media bias and anti-catholicism.

Yes, Daniel.  Let’s all get defensive, offended and feel persecuted when people are shown to not have a basic understanding of general knowledge.
Your response:  It’s clearly anti-Catholic bias and “Who cares anyway?”

Hey! I’m white, catholic and got all of them right. How come no one ever asks me stuff like this? :-)

I got 30/32 (and 29/30 on the concernedcatholics.org test linked above). 

I believe that part of the problem is that many people identify themselves as “Catholic” when surveyed who don’t attend Mass, don’t send their children to Catholic schools or religious ed, and don’t believe what the Church teaches.  But because they were “brought up” Catholic, or come from an “xxxxx-Catholic” family (Irish-Catholic, Italian-Catholic, etc.), they answer “Catholic” when they are asked their “faith” or what religion they “belong” to or “practice”.  (It would be good if they “practiced” more!)

Lisabeth,
I disagree.  The Pope did not say what you claim he said.  See this summary of a surprisingly dialog in the Lancet - the prestigious British medical journal.  https://deliberateengagement.wordpress.com/2009/05/21/the-pope-is-right-about-condoms/
We wrote a few summaries of the various articles.  See: https://deliberateengagement.wordpress.com/?s=pope+condom
In short the Pope did not “preach” about condoms.  He stated a medical fact and not the one you seem to think he did.  Then he acknowledged that the epidemiology is best left to the medical profession but the ethical and spiritual considerations are correctly his business and he’d be wrong to not state them.
OK?
and I made 29 of 32 (30 if you give me #21); not bad for an ignorant Catholic?  The two I got wrong #13 & #4 concerned names that I hadn’t encountered in my admittedly haphazard life’s reading.

Posted by Jocille Daniel on Wednesday, Sep 29, 2010 4:03 PM (EST): “Am I smarter than an Atheist?  Of course I am.  I know that God exists.  And I did pretty well in the quiz too, with 27 correct.  I had 12 years of Catholic education over 55 years ago! “

If smartness is to be deduced from beliefs or non-beliefs, then surely believing in theistic gods, and deeming that belief as knowledge (i.e. wildly watering down the definition of “knowing”), is as good a criterion of “smartness” as believing the Sun revolves around the Earth because it rises in the East and sets down in the West: it is far more intuitive and presents more symbolic power to influence our frames of mind while facing the world, but does not stand to further scrutiny as one gathers strength to overcome our natural fetishism for symbols that provides us with paradoxes one can cling to so that one may cogently feel the most humble or the most self-righteous being in the Universe whenever circumstances demand to, at the expense of pure affirmation of conscience epistemologically previous even to often anxious, belief-thirsty affirmation of conscience-instantiated individuality; in fact, at the expense of truth.

As a side note, I’m a Brazilian former Catholic, now a natural pantheist who finds it fundamental to know about different religious and non-religious worldviews and to climb the giants’ shoulders in order to look beyond, and who scored 29/32 in the aforementioned test.

Ha!  I am only a simple fairly educated Catholic convert from Episc.  I got only SIX (6) wrong.  I misread the last one-I thought it was the whole bible not the NT.

Still a better batting score than most.  I too would fail in other subjects.

See, this is why I read what Catholic apologists say about other religions on a regular basis.  I follow Mormonism and Jehovah Witnesses apologists regularly because there are certain performers (who shall remain nameless) who practice this religion and it is good to know what THEY believe so you can pray for them.

I enjoy studying other cultures via TV which is why I did well with the Buddah and Hindu questions.

However is not faith what saves us all?

Nope!  We are saved through the grace of God!

Mr Akin makes good points. However he punted on the key indicator from the poll: That Atheists & Agnostics scored best in scholarship for religious law and World religions. Speaking as an agnostic this is understandable, because to me it’s everyone else who has the closed mind to go with their faiths. Mr Akin writes that this education factor can be explained by atheistic motivations. I concur. However he glosses over the possibility that entrenched interests in all faiths don’t really want an educated congregation. Case in point: How much better would catholic education have been in the last generation if parents only had more trust in their clergy to not abuse students? Obviously past congregations with more mentoring were kept in the dark about these details. No such barriers exist for atheist/agnostic scholarship.

We have parishs, not congregations, oldParasitesingle.

It was a test of knowledge, awareness and intellectual curiousity about some of the most common religions. I am not a Mormon, Protestant, Muslim, Buddist, or Hindu. Nor do I worship Zeus. I still managed to miss only one question, and I am not a professional. The test wasn’t that hard. There were only a handful of questions that required some education or above average interest in other religions. Most of the questions only requried average awareness. One group had to be the least knowledgeable, turns out it was the Catholics. This is embarassing to me because I attended a Catholic grade school, a Catholic high school and a Catholic college. Your concern about the test is misplaced, you should be concerned about the test results.

Gerald,
I am as you are and I fully agree with you.  I also attended Catholic grammar, high school and graduated from a major Catholic university.  Yes, it is embarrassing that Catholics tested so poorly in the PEW Forum.  What is even more embarrassing are the number of excuses posted on this blog inferring the questions have an anti-Catholic bias or are tricky questions which can be interpreted to mean something else or may even have more than one answer.

Contestants on JEOPARDY answer these qustions all the time without the benefit of a multiple choice answer.  I am sure the producers of JEOPARDY will be interested in knowing they, too, have an anti-Catholic bias.

To all Catholics commenting here, let’s not be so defensive.  Assuming that the quiz was legitimate (no bias is evident really) accept the results for what they are…some people who identify as Catholic are really only “CINO’S)...Catholic in name only…and apparently wherever this test was applied more CINO’s participated then those who know the faith. Get over it! and recall that for all of us there is only one test that matters…the final judgment…and all had better be “prepped” for that one…Knowledge of formal theology, demographics, etc will not be a
requirement for that “biggie” of a test…in fact too much “head” and not enough “heart” might be the downfall of many! If the point of this quiz was to show that aetheists are “smarter” than Catholics and better educated the results speak for themselves. We can question the premise and also the intention of the testers..as well as the participants identification as stated but what really matters is THE BIG TEST at life’s end and how well and faithfully you lived your life.

I am a fifteen-year-old catholic girl, and I got 29 questions right. I
agree that the catholics tested were probably not practising. . . It’s
sad that so many have left the faith. I take extreme offense at Isherwood’s
comments. I have studied my own faith and others, and I only find more
reasons to believe the deeper I look. Why do atheists need to be so hurtful
in their rejection of faith? I disagree with atheism, but I don’t feel the
inclination to call anyone names.

Good fo you Harper! Your testimony here gives witness to the fact that our
Faith is alive and well…those who would form a conclusion based upon the limitations of such a fault-ridden test are showing a certain shallowness
in their own thinking…if not actual bias! Like everyone knows most sets of statistics are often set up to show a previously drawn conclusion.
For anyone to suggest as the “header” does that this test shows that aetheists are smarter as a group than Catholics does not know how to conduct such a study it would seem w/o bias or faulty structure! It ( the article) does do however what it really intended to do…titilate!

I scored 32/32 (though I made a guess on the one about Johnathan Edwards). not bad…

Isherwood,
I do not know specifically what your experience is, but from my experience with atheists (with a few exceptions), most are about as ignorant, if not more so, of the deeper aspects of the beliefs in different religions.  Most were either raised Christian, but never catechized properly, and they left not out of conviction, but of apathy and disinterest.

“However he glosses over the possibility that entrenched interests in all faiths don’t really want an educated congregation.”
I would disagree. Every priest I’ve met who spoke about education, did so in a positive way. They encouraged tertiary education. I think that partial education and concrete thinking are the key reasons many people think they know better than established tradition and fail to have insight about the faith. The truly intellectually enlightened realise that faith is more than singing songs of praise and that its followers are often motivated by non-faith based reasons, which BTW is not essential for good faith. It is not necessary to understand everything or be ‘ok’ with it, because let’s face it, in the science community we understand very little of everything but we happily chug along, nor is faith elitist.
“No such barriers exist for atheist/agnostic scholarship.” - judging by the obvious untruths groups of atheists spread on the internet and how most of their anti-theism is motivated by emotion, I cannot agree that atheism/agnosticism results in reason, instead we find pseudo-skepticism among many if not most atheists/agnostics. If I had this level of skepticism about everything, I wouldn’t set foot outside my house, never take any medication, nor ever fly in a plane. I would also not associate with anyone religious in any way whatsoever for fear they may burn me as a heathen or perhaps burn me anyway because who knows when their bronze age dogma makes them do that.

Raised strictly atheist, recently converted to Catholicism but not in any church yet (just reading the bible and researching online, I got 23 out of 32. I found the test to be a bit too American-centric. That being said… I heard a story once about a religion class. The teacher said the kids had to relocate for the test, and on their way to the other building, they all passed a beggar. None of the kids gave him as much as a smile. Turned out they all failed - the beggar was the test.

Stefanie- I really liked your religion class story.  Good one to remember.  Thank you for sharing that!

You’re on the right path, by reading the Bible every day.  I’ve been Catholic all my life, but found out what God the Father was really like, in the Old Testament, and Jesus said, “If you’ve seen me, you’ve seen the Father…” and there are all the great “I am” statements.

If you can find a good Bible-teaching parish & try to get into a healthy Bible study class, it would be ideal.  That way, you’ll have the fellowship of other believers around you.  Congratulations on your walk!
And good job on the test too!

If they took all the Porn off the internet there will be one web site run by Catholic Church left demanding “Bring back the Porn”.

“Say unceasingly the chaplet that I have taught you. Whoever will recite it will receive great mercy at the hour of death. Priests will recommend it to sinners as their last hope of salvation.”

“Tell My priests that hardened sinners will repent on hearing their words, when they speak about My unfathomable mercy, about the compassion I have for them in My Heart. To priests who will proclaim and extol My mercy, I will give wondrous power, and I will anoint their words and touch the hearts of those to whom they will speak.”

“I desire that priests proclaim this great mercy of Mine toward souls of sinners. Let the sinner not be afraid to approach Me. The flames of mercy are burning Me—clamoring to be spent. I want to pour them out upon these souls.”

—Jesus Christ to St. Faustina (Circa, 1930, Divine Mercy in My Soul)

http://thedivinemercy.org/message/devotions/chaplet.php