I got 14/15. I was wrong about Supreme Court precedent re teachers leading prayer in public schools; I had guessed 'no'...and I'm still not sure that the 'correct' answer has it right after reading up on it just now.

fhunter wrote: Thu Sep 30, 2010 8:34 am 9 out of 15. 60%

Missed questions about Jewish Sabbath, catholic Communion, and US laws. Joseph Smith? Who is he?!? First Great Awakening?

Not religious. If I finally believe - it would be in science and technology progress .

Joseph Smith is the founder of the Church of the Latter Day Saints.

Every practicing Jew I ever knew began Shabbat with Friday dinner. It's biblical in that on the 7th day of creation God rested.

graylayer02 (imported) wrote: Thu Sep 30, 2010 10:11 am I got 14/15. I was wrong about Supreme Court precedent re teachers leading prayer in public schools; I had guessed 'no'...and I'm still not sure that the 'correct' answer has it right after reading up on it just now.

The Supreme Court holds that a teacher can teach the bible as literature or in a comparative Philosophical, theological or metaphysical setting. It is one thing to discuss the Book of Job as having three authors (it most certainly does) and the implications of Job's suffering or the side bets between God and the Tempter. The bible can also be taught as literature in that the King James Version presents a standard of English literature and compared to other writings of the times.

However, a teacher may not lead a class in prayer. That "establishes" religious practices. It is even unacceptable if the teach leads half the class in prayer because the half left out is ostracized by being left out of the prayer and children are not considered strong enough intellectually to resist participating. Too much peer pressure can be brought to bear in this case.

This isn't a trivial point of law.

transward (imported) wrote: Wed Sep 29, 2010 3:06 pm 100% here for this agnostic Bokononist, and that on the original 32 question test which I hunted down on the net.

Transward

Ice nine. I got three wrong 15 and the U.S specific ones ( guessed on these)

JesusA (imported) wrote: Wed Sep 29, 2010 1:46 pm This agnostic Buddhist1 got 100% on the quiz. What’s your score2?

Pew survey on religious knowledge:

http://features.pewforum.org/quiz/us-re ... knowledge/

_____________________

1 The earliest surviving collection of sayings directly attributed to the Buddha has him saying to his followers, “Gods would be a good idea, if there were any.”

2 After you complete the survey, you can compare your score with various categories of respondents. In general, Christians did far worse than atheists or agnostics. Evangelical Christians did worse than Mainstream Christians. Does faith really preclude knowledge???

.

93% 14/15

Missed "NIRVANA" ...had trouble deciding & finally went with Hindu.

I was in the 97th percentile.

Funny that I missed the ones everybody else did, the bible as lit, NIRVANA and the great awaking, I guessed the same way Dave did.

F Hunter, the Church of Jesus Christ of Later Day Saints are the Mormons, founder Joseph Smith around 1820's.

River

Atheist, 93%. Only got Jewish Sabbath wrong, answered Saturday instead of Friday.

I took the test, scored 15/15. In all honesty, question number 15, a choice of names, who... (I won't spoil it for anyone who might take the test later) well I just guessed, I thank my lucky stars I got it right.

Then I went on to read the report on the poll. The poll administered to the group of 3,000 Americans had 32 questions, not 15 like the online test we all took. I was shocked to see how badly the majority of them did. Maybe we all got the 15 easiest questions out of the test.

I believe there is a tremendously underestimated importance in religion in any society. Seriously, many people, especially the intellectual sorts, are so averse to any religion that they seem to actively choose to be ignorant of it, and all it's wonderous potential. Sad for them, truly, there is a gold mine of manipulation available to someone who knows how to reach that religious part of the mind. I myself am quite guilty of this, underestimating the value of all the mumbo jumbo, but some people have truly siezed upon it and are doing very well because of it.

...

DeaconBlues (imported) wrote: Fri Oct 01, 2010 8:51 am Seriously, many people, especially the intellectual sorts, are so averse to any religion that they seem to actively choose to be ignorant of it, and all it's wonderous potential...

Let me explain it this way:

When I was seven years old, I wanted to play electric organ and my parents bought a Hammond and I took weekly lessons. Now 9 years later, I had several hundred popular songs that I could play. Everything from Sinatra and Big Band to Beatles and stuff in between. So I went over to see the "Organ Club" in Pittsburgh because I thought could have made a living playing piano and organ. I had already been offered a lunchtime job playing mood music in a bar and grill.

I had never met a group of people more flag obsessed and anti-hippie and pro-Vietnam war in my life as that group of people. Everything that they did revolved around politics and not around Wurlitzer, Lowry, Hammond, Leslie speakers or Pipe Organ techniques (pipe organs are truly freaky things) or the new Moog Synthesizers that were just coming out. They didn't share songs with each other except for patriotic songs, they didn't perform in public other than the organ club, they didn't take anymore lessons because I don't know why, and worst of all, they insisted they represented those who played electric and pipe organs in Pittsburgh.

They would have called me the "intellectual elitist" and the "effete snob".

In reality, they weren't capable of playing to anyone other than themselves and if they had wanted the lunch time job that I turned down, they wouldn't have passed the audition. They were convinced they were the cream of the crop in the city. They were convinced they knew better than anyone else.

That is the truth and not me being arrogant or snobbish or even feeling hurt. I went on to be a chemical engineer and I have no regrets about not making a life in nightclubs, weddings and parties.

That's the same as I have no regrets about commenting about certain religious views that come from the most arrogant and irgnorant people who behave just like that organ group. I see that repeated in many of the politically active religious groups.

If anyone wants to see the whole 32 question test this is the link to the telephone script for the test. You have to wade through a lot of set up to find the 32 questions, but it might interest a few.

http://pewforum.org/uploadedFiles/Topic ... opline.pdf

Transward