Thursday, September 30, 2010

The ENTIRE Pew Forum Religion Survey

Minus the demographic survey questions.
DON'T GOOGLE!!!!
The answers are in the "comments" section.

1. Who is the vice president of the United States?

2. Which political party has the majority in the US House of Representatives?
a. Republicans
b. Democrats

3. True of False? Lasers work by focusing sound waves?

4. True of False? Antibiotics will kill viruses as well as bacteria?

5. Which of the following was the name of a series of government programs passed while Franklin D Roosevelt was President?
a. The New Deal
b. The Square Deal
c. The Great Society

6. Which movement did Susan B. Anthony lead? The movement to...
a. Abolish slavery
b. Give women the right to vote
c. Prohibit alcohol

7. Who wrote Moby Dick?
a. Edith Wharton
b. Nathaniel Hawthorne
c. Herman Melville
d. Stephen King

8. What day does the Jewish Sabbath begin?
a. Friday
b. Saturday
c. Sunday

9. Is Ramadan.....
a. The Hindu festival of lights
b. The Jewish day of atonement
c. The Islamic holy month

10. Do you happen to know which of these is the king of gods in Greek mythology?
a. Mars
b. Zeus
c. Apollo

11. Do you happen to know the name of the holy book for Islam?

12. Which of these religions aims at nirvana, a state of being free from suffering?
a. Islam
b. Hinduism
c. Buddhism

13. Which religion are Vishnu and Shiva central figures?
a. Islam
b. Taoism
c. Hinduism
d. Buddhism

14. Is an atheist someone who BELIEVES in God, someone who DOES NOT believe in God, or someone who is UNSURE whether God exists?

15. Is an agnostic someone who BELIEVES in God, someone who DOES NOT believe in God, or someone who is UNSURE whether God exists?

16. What is the first book of the Bible?

17. What are the first four books of the New Testament of the Bible, that is the Four Gospels?

18. Where, according to the Bible, was Jesus born?
a. Jerusalem
b. Nazereth
c. Bethleham
d. Jericho

19. When was the Mormon religion founded?
a. Before the year 1200 AD
b. Between 1200 and 1800
c. Sometime after 1800

20. The Book of Mormon tells the story of Jesus Christ appearing to people in what area of the world?
a. The Middle East
b. The Americas
c. Asia

21. Which of the following best describes Cathoic teaching about the bread and wine used for communion?
a. The bread and wine are symbols of the body and blood of Jesus Christ.
b. The bread and wine actually become the body and blood of Jesus Christ.

22. Which one of these religious groups traditionally teaches that salvation comes through faith alone?
a. Protestants
b. Catholics
c. Both
d. Neither

23. Which of these is NOT one of the Ten Commandments?
a. Keep the Sabbath Day holy.
b. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you
c. Do not steal
d. Do not commit adultry

24. Which figure is most associated with remaining obedient to God despite suffering?
a. Moses
b. Elijah
c. Job
d. Abraham

Which figure is most associated with leading the exodus from Egypt?
a. Moses
b. Elijah
c. Job
d. Abraham

Which figure is most associated with willingness to sacrifice his son for God?
a. Moses
b. Elijah
c. Job
d. Abraham

25. Mother Theresa was...
a. Jewish
b. Catholic
c. Buddhist
d. Mormon
e. Hindu

The Dali Lama is....
a. Jewish
b. Catholic
c. Buddhist
d. Mormon
e. Hindu

Joseph Smith was....
a. Jewish
b. Catholic
c. Buddhist
d. Mormon
e. Hindu

Maimonides was....
a. Jewish
b. Catholic
c. Buddhist
d. Mormon
e. Hindu

26. Which of the following statements best describes what the US Constitution says about religion?
a. Christianity should be given special emphasis by government
b. The government shall neither establish a religion or interfere with the practice of religion
c.  The constitution doesn't say anything one way or the other about religion.

27. According to rulings by the US Supreme Court, does a teacher have the right to lead a class in prayer?  
Yes or No
Does a teacher have the right to read from the Bible as an example of literature?
Yes or No
Does a teacher have the right to offer a class teaching comparative world religions?  
Yes or No

28. Do you happen to know what religion most people in India consider themselves?
a. Christian
b. Muslim
c. Buddhist
d. Hindu

Do you happen to know what religion most people in Indonesia consider themselves?
a. Christian
b. Muslim
c. Buddhist
d. Hindu

Do you happen to know what religion most people in Pakistan consider themselves?
a. Christian
b. Muslim
c. Buddhist
d. Hindu

29. What was the name of the person whose writings and actions inspired the Protestant Reformation?
a. Thomas Aquinas
b. Martin Luther
c. John Wesley

30. Which of these people developed the theory of evolution by natural selection?
a. Sigmund Freud
b. Clarence Darrow
c. Charles Darwin

31. Which of these court trials focused on whether evolution could be taught in public schools?
a. The Salem witch trials
b. Brown vs The Board of Education
c. The Scopes Trial

32. Which of these preachers participated in the period of religious activity known as the First Great Awakening?
a. Jonathan Edwards
b. Charles Finney
c. Billy Graham


***This study was conducted by the Pew Forum. These questions were extracted from the actual phone script used in the study. I have extracted and eliminated only demographic-type questions and slightly reformatted the the script into a more readable layout. ***

I will post the answers to the "comments" section of this blog in the next few hours.

I think the most important information this study yields is that though we are a nation of many beliefs, very few of us have taken the time to learn what beliefs our neighbors and friends hold dear. I would hope that the outcome is that people are encouraged to learn more. In the (maybe not so) famous worlds of KRS-1...
Knowledge is King!

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Answers.

1. Joe Biden
2. Democrats
3. False
4. False
5. a. The New Deal
6. b. Women's right to vote. (though this is a misleading question as she was active in all 3 movements)
7. c. Herman Melville
8. a. Friday (at sundown)
9. c. The Islamic holy month
10. b. Zeus
11. The Koran
12. c. Buddhism
13. c. Hinduism
14. Does Not
15. Unsure
16. Genesis
17. Matthew, Mark, Luke, John
18. c. Bethleham
19. c. Sometime after 1800
20. b. Americas
21. b. Actually becomes
22. a. Protestants
23. b. Do unto others
24. c. Job / a. Moses / d. Abraham
25. b. Catholic / c. Buddhist / d. Mormon / a. Jewish
26. b. The government shall not establish or interfere with the religion
27. No / Yes / Yes
28. Hindu / Muslim / Muslim
29. b. Marin Luther
30. c. Charles Darwin
31. c. The Scopes Trial
32. a. Jonathan Edwards

Unknown said...

The two I didn't know...
Maimonides and Jonathan Edwards..

and to be fair.. I wouldn't have come up with Herman Melville if it weren't multiple choice.

Cele said...

Because I had taken yesterday's 15 question quiz, I knew the ones I didn't know... but I didn't know one of the ones from today... I had no clue who Maimonides was.

So to recap....
I missed two on Wednesday
I missed one on Thursday