{"id":64163,"date":"2014-09-24T09:00:20","date_gmt":"2014-09-24T14:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/?p=64163"},"modified":"2014-10-13T15:43:21","modified_gmt":"2014-10-13T20:43:21","slug":"why-dont-religious-people-know-more-about-religion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/2014\/09\/24\/why-dont-religious-people-know-more-about-religion\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Don&#8217;t Religious People Know More About Religion?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Economist Robin Hanson has an <a href=\"http:\/\/www.overcomingbias.com\/2008\/09\/politics-isnt-a.html\" target=\"_blank\">\u201cit isn\u2019t about\u201d<\/a> list. It begins:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Food isn\u2019t about Nutrition<\/li>\n<li>Clothes aren\u2019t about Comfort<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Also on the list is:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Church isn\u2019t about God<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Maybe church isn\u2019t about religious ideas either.<\/p>\n<p>I was reminded of this recently when I followed a link to a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.pewforum.org\/quiz\/u-s-religious-knowledge\/\" target=\"_blank\">Pew quiz<\/a> on religious knowledge. It\u2019s a lite version of the 32-item quiz Pew used with a national sample in 2010.\u00a0 One of the findings from that survey (the full report is <a href=\"http:\/\/www.pewforum.org\/2010\/09\/28\/u-s-religious-knowledge-survey\/\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>) was that people who went to church regularly and who said that religion was important in their lives didn\u2019t do much better on the quiz than did those who had a weak attachment to church and religion.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/files\/2014\/09\/25.jpg\" data-rel=\"lightbox-image-0\" data-rl_title=\"\" data-rl_caption=\"\" title=\"\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-64164\" src=\"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/files\/2014\/09\/25-500x511.jpg\" alt=\"2\" width=\"500\" height=\"511\" srcset=\"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/files\/2014\/09\/25-500x511.jpg 500w, https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/files\/2014\/09\/25.jpg 567w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The strongly committed averaged 17 correct answers out of the 32 questions; the uncommitted, 16.\u00a0 This same pattern was repeated in the more recent 15-question quiz.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/files\/2014\/09\/3.jpg\" data-rel=\"lightbox-image-1\" data-rl_title=\"\" data-rl_caption=\"\" title=\"\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-64165\" src=\"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/files\/2014\/09\/3-500x104.jpg\" alt=\"3\" width=\"500\" height=\"104\" srcset=\"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/files\/2014\/09\/3-500x104.jpg 500w, https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/files\/2014\/09\/3.jpg 615w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The committed may derive many things from their church attendance and faith, but knowledge of religion isn\u2019t one of them.<\/p>\n<p>To be fair, the quiz covers many religions, and people do know more about their own religion than they do about others.\u00a0 \u201cWhat was Joseph Smith\u2019s religion?\u201d Only about half the population gets that one right, but 93% of the Mormons nailed it. Mormons also knew more about the Ten Commandments. Catholics did better than others on the transubstantiation question.\u00a0 But when it came to knowing who inspired the Protestant Reformation, Protestants got outscored by Jews and atheists.<\/p>\n<p>Overall, nonbelievers, Jews, and Mormons did much better than did Protestants and Catholics.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/files\/2014\/09\/42.jpg\" data-rel=\"lightbox-image-2\" data-rl_title=\"\" data-rl_caption=\"\" title=\"\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-64166\" src=\"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/files\/2014\/09\/42-500x361.jpg\" alt=\"4\" width=\"500\" height=\"361\" srcset=\"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/files\/2014\/09\/42-500x361.jpg 500w, https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/files\/2014\/09\/42.jpg 651w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>One reason for their higher scores might be education \u2013 college graduates outscore high school or less by nearly 8 points out of 32.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/files\/2014\/09\/11.jpg\" data-rel=\"lightbox-image-3\" data-rl_title=\"\" data-rl_caption=\"\" title=\"\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter  wp-image-64167\" src=\"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/files\/2014\/09\/11-500x306.jpg\" alt=\"11\" width=\"415\" height=\"254\" srcset=\"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/files\/2014\/09\/11-500x306.jpg 500w, https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/files\/2014\/09\/11.jpg 581w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 415px) 100vw, 415px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>It may be that nonbelievers, Jews, and Mormons are more likely to have finished college. Unfortunately, the Pew report does not give data that controls for education.<\/p>\n<p>But another reason that these groups scored higher may be their position as religious minorities. Jews and Mormons have to explain to the flock how their ideas are different from those of the majority. Atheists and agnostics too, in their questioning and even rejecting,\u00a0 have probably devoted more thought to religion, or more accurately, religions. On the questions about Shiva and Nirvana, they leave even the Jews and Mormons far behind.<\/p>\n<p>For Protestants and Catholics, by contrast, learning detailed information about their religion is not as crucial. Just as White people in the US rarely ask what it means to be White, Christians need not worry about their differences from the mainstream. They are the mainstream. So going to church or praying can be much more about feelings \u2013 solidarity, transcendence, peace, etc.\u00a0 That variety of religious experience need not include learning the history or even the tenets of the religion itself. As Durkheim said, the central element in religion is ritual \u2013 especially the feelings a ritual generates in the group. Knowing the actual beliefs might be a nice addition, but it\u2019s not crucial.<\/p>\n<p><em>Cross-posted at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.psmag.com\/navigation\/books-and-culture\/dont-religious-people-know-religion-91857\/\" target=\"_blank\">Pacific Standard<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<span class=\"ft_signature\"> Jay Livingston is the chair of the Sociology Department at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/profilepages\/view_profile.php?username=livingstonj\">Montclair State University<\/a>.  You can follow him at <a href=\"http:\/\/montclairsoci.blogspot.com\/\">Montclair SocioBlog<\/a> or on <a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/#!\/JayLivingston\">Twitter<\/a>.<\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Economist Robin Hanson has an \u201cit isn\u2019t about\u201d list. It begins: Food isn\u2019t about Nutrition Clothes aren\u2019t about Comfort Also on the list is: Church isn\u2019t about God Maybe church isn\u2019t about religious ideas either. I was reminded of this recently when I followed a link to a Pew quiz on religious knowledge. It\u2019s a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":258,"featured_media":64166,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[34,2104,868,283,42,23659],"class_list":["post-64163","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-education","tag-knowledgeintelligence","tag-power","tag-prejudicediscrimination","tag-religion","tag-religion-prejudicediscrimination"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/files\/2014\/09\/42.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64163","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/258"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64163"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64163\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":64454,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64163\/revisions\/64454"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64166"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64163"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64163"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64163"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}