Basic Religion Test Stumps Many Americans | Hacker News Reader

Basic Religion Test Stumps Many Americans

nytimes.com

10 pointsaraneae17 comments

Those who scored the highest were atheists and agnostics

That doesn't surprise me, since, based on my experience, atheists and agnostics tend to study several religions before deciding not to follow one.

Fifty-three percent of Protestants could not identify Martin Luther as the man who started the Protestant Reformation

This also does not surprise me, because this is more of a history question than religion. To draw a non-religious analogy, a computer programmer doesn't need to know who wrote a language to be able to code in it.

Or, people who are atheists and agnostics tend to be better educated, because having time to grapple with religious choices --- and, more importantly, the wherewithal to walk away from the community that provides your second most important support system --- is a "first world problem".

The survey methodology at Pew does not indicate that they weighted to account for socioeconomics, which in some cases religion is a proxy for.

And I'd be very surprised if anywhere near 50% of Java programmers had ever heard of James Gosling. In fact, I'd be mildly surprised if 50% of Python programmers have heard of GvR.

To draw a non-religious analogy, a computer programmer doesn't need to know who wrote a language to be able to code in it.

I'm not sure the analogy fits. I'd argue it's more like a group of .NET programmers who had never heard of Bill Gates. Luther is such a towering figure in the history of the religion, it's hard to believe that any Christian, Protestant or otherwise, would not be aware of his role. That a decent percentage said Protestants are Lutherans is just too painful to even think about.

The other half of the first quote: as well as two religious minorities: Jews and Mormons.

Which also makes sense, because they usually know about their own religion and also the majority religion.

"This also does not surprise me, because this is more of a history question than religion. To draw a non-religious analogy, a computer programmer doesn't need to know who wrote a language to be able to code in it."

Are there programmers who work in languages whose origins they don't know? People (at least people I know) who care about stuff tend to try to learn more about it.

Also this question is probably particularly confusing to Americans, who hear about Martin Luther King Jr far more often than they hear about Martin Luther.

Is this really germane to HN? Does it really 'gratify your intellectual curiosity'? To me it looks a lot more like "hah hah, gotcha!".

Basic <subject> Test Stumps Many Americans

For what value of "subject" is this not a surprise?

If they ever found one, they'd just rewrite the test with harder questions until people stopped getting it right, then write the headline

Basic <subject> Test Stumps Many Americans

because the alternative headline

Most Americans Do Reasonably Well on Basic <subject> Test

would never appear in the New York Times, and if it did it wouldn't be discussed here.

I beg to differ.

If the US ever got anywhere near the top of, say, the PISA study, you can be sure it would make the front page of the New York Times.

It's not all schadenfreude, really.

I see it as: there is a correlation between general religious groups and level of knowledge and education, and between level of knowledge and education and doing well on tests.

Since when did I have to register to view articles on nytimes.com?

anybody know where to get a copy of the test?

Appendix B from the Pew site has all the questions:

http://www.pewforum.org/uploadedFiles/Topics/Belief_and_Prac...

"The phone interviews were conducted in English and Spanish in May and June. There were not enough Muslim, Buddhist or Hindu respondents to say how those groups ranked. "

So how valueble is this research when...

1. Islam is the second largest religion in the world representing over 1.5 billion people

2. Hinduism is the forth largest religion in the world representing over 900 million

In my honest opinion, it's a complete waste of time.

Just my $0.02 worth

Facts taken from: http://www.adherents.com/Religions_By_Adherents.html

Well, when it's an interview made in America, it may not be a waste of time. That's kind of like saying that 95 % of people in the world aren't from the US, so any survey made using them is a complete waste of time.

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