Once more into the breach, then, this time against that slipperiest of enemies: numbers, as presented by journalists.
The L.A. Times, on 28 September, published a piece by Mitchell Landsberg entitled, ?Atheists, Agnostics Most Knowledable About Religion, Survey Says?. Mr. Landsberg goes on to cite a recent Pew survey, which seems to indicate that atheists and agnostics, followed closely by Mormons and Jews, know more in a general way about religion than most Christians. The raw numbers show that atheists and agnostics (lumped together in an unhappy pile for the purposes of giving results) got 20.9 of 32 questions about ?Religious Knowledge? correct ? as opposed to, on average, a mere 15.7 correct answers given by Christians, as a group.
Of course, as we all know, statistics are never presented misleadingly.
When the actual results of the relevant portion of the survey are viewed, however, a different story emerges.In fact, Christians on the whole achieved parity, at least, with their atheist and agnostic co-respondants in questions relating to Christianity and the Bible, and some groups far outstripped them ? in terms of Biblical knowledge, Mormons and white evangelical protestants scored the highest. White evangelical protestants also scored highests, overall, in questions about Christianity. Where atheists and agnostics were able to outstrip Christians, it was largely on questions relating to religions other than Christianity ? questions about Hinduism, Islam and Buddhism were answered correctly by more atheists and agnostics than by Christians, as well as, of course, questions about atheism and agnosticism.
In fact, one of the few real causes for concern for Catholics was their, overall, depressingly average scores ? and the fact that only 55% of U.S. Catholics understood what transubstantiation was. Perhaps the American Catholic Church should take heed.
Ferdi McDermott is founder of StAR and the Principal of Chavagnes International College, a Catholic boarding school for boys, situated in the west of France.
I don’t see why the Christian knowledge is the “relevant portion of the test”. No matter what religion you prescribe to I think it is important to have a general knowledge of the others that are out there. The more understanding people have of each other the less conflict there will be. I think it is important that American Catholics can’t answer questions about other faiths. People need to see where others are coming from not just be content in sitting idly with a minimal knowledge of their own religion and say that’s good.
San Diego DUI Lawyer
I will bookmark your blog and acquire my accouchement assay up achievement often.
[url=”http://www.caramelsweethearts.com/”]montreal independent escorts[/url]
I acquire actually poor English but apprehension I would address to you and that you acquire a adequate action activity on with this website
[url=”http://www.jaysxlist.com/”]Montreal escortes[/url]
It is abounding to acquire the activity discussed acutely in the blog. It is consistently harder to adjudge if you are alone.
[url=”http://easigo.co.uk/”]accident management[/url]