Church Executive SEPT / OCT 2019 DIGITAL ISSUE | Page 42

Survey Shows Atheists’
and Agnostics’ Familiarity
with Christianity
In a recent Pew Research Center Survey designed to measure the
U.S. public’s knowledge about a wide range of religious topics,
researchers recently found that many people who identify as atheist
or agnostic are more familiar with Christianity and other religions
than other groups who fall in the “religiously unaffiliated” category.
Here are five major findings from the research:
1. A theists and agnostics know more about religion than most
other religious groups, while people who identify as “nothing in
particular” are among the least knowledgeable.
•  O ut of 32 multiple-choice questions on the survey, atheists and
agnostics got more than half right on average with atheists getting
17.9 questions correct and agnostics getting 17.0 questions correct.
Meanwhile, those who said their religion is “nothing in particular”
got about a third (11.4 questions) of the questions correct.
•  Americans overall got an average of 14.2 out of the 32 questions right.
2. E ven the “religiously unaffiliated” groups are fairly knowledgeable
about some of the basics of Christianity. The majority of these
respondents understood common concepts such as:
• E aster commemorates the resurrection of Jesus (and not the
Crucifixion, Ascension to heaven or Last Supper).
• The Christian doctrine of the Trinity holds that there is one God
in three persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
• I nterestingly, roughly 75 percent of the religious “nones” in the
United States were raised as Christians, according to the Pew
Research Center’s 2014 Religious Landscape Survey.
3. A theists are on a par with Catholics and Protestants in correctly
answering questions about Catholicism and Protestantism.
• A bout 70 percent of atheists and agnostics knew that Catholicism
teaches that purgatory is the place where souls are purified
before entering heaven — about the same share as Catholics
who correctly defined purgatory (71 percent).
• Just under half (47 percent) of atheist respondents knew
that Catholicism teaches that the bread and wine used for
Communion actually become the body and blood of Jesus
Christ, compared to the 50 percent of Catholics who knew this.
• When asked to pick the tradition (Protestantism, Catholicism, both
or neither) that believes salvation comes through faith alone — a
key Protestant teaching that’s known as “sola fide” —roughly equal
shares of atheist respondents (25 percent) and Protestant respondents
(28 percent) responded correctly.
• A mong those whose religion is “nothing in particular,” just
39 percent answered the purgatory question correctly and 10
percent knew that Protestantism teaches that salvation comes
through faith alone.
4. A theists and agnostics are also among the most knowledgeable on
questions that are not about Christianity.
• O ut of 13 questions in the survey about non-Christian world
religions including Islam, Judaism and Hinduism, atheist
respondents correctly answered an average of 6.1 and agnostic
respondents got 5.8 right, compared with an average of about 4.3
among Americans overall.
FREE Church Executive ™ WEBINAR:
“How to Protect Children From
Sexual Abuse at Your Church”
The No. 1 reason churches end up in court is when facing allegations of sexual abuse
of a minor. In this webinar, Church Mutual and partner AG Financial — along with
Church Executive Magazine — will help you understand the facts about sexual abuse,
design a system to help safeguard young people, and train your staff how to respond.
You’ll learn:
Jerry Sparks,
CCRM, CIC, CRM
SVP, Insurance
Andy Whaley
SVP, Marketing and
Strategic Partnerships
• 6 steps to take to minimize your liability, including recommendations on upholding
community standards
• When to report allegations to law enforcement and your insurance company to
minimize risk
• How to create a comprehensive and compassionate response plan
• Simple scripts to follow during press interviews to help uphold your church’s
reputation while dealing with the media
Date: Thursday, November 7, 2019
Time: 10/11am ET
Register now at:
tinyurl.com/ChurchMutualAGFinancialWebinar
42
CHURCH EXECUTIVE | SEPT / OCT 2019