My dear friend and colleague Deen Chatterjee just finished doing an interview for the TV news. The topic is philosophy and religion. An article in the New York Times brought about the interest. Here it is:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/28/us/28religion.html?_r=1&src=ISMR_HP_LO_MST_FB

"But 51 percent knew that Joseph Smith was Mormon, and 82 percent knew that Mother Teresa was Roman Catholic."
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I'm wondering about the 18% who didn't know that Mother Theresa was Roman Catholic! Are these people living under a rock? Perhaps they are FLDS.

The questions on that survey were very basic. However, I am not all that surprised that so many people got it wrong. After all, we live in a country where a number of people believe the president is not a citizen and is a Muslim.

Exactly. Good point about the Prez. The questions were extremely superficial, but the results are pretty telling. Everyone needs to do better on this!

It is pretty pathetic, but I have taught school for 30 years and am not surprised. I have had students who didn't whether Washington fought on the side of the colonists or British in the American Revolution , how to locate the North and South Poles or how to tell time on a clock with hands. The kid who couldn't tell time was in 7th grade and was not mentally challenged.I believe just about anything LOL

You'd have to work at it to be that ignorant. Sigh.

Here's a link to the quiz. I aced it, of course.

http://connect2utah.com/news-story/?nxd_id=110485

It's interesting to note that if it regards something that is part of their own religion, Mormons score quite high. That's no wonder with all of the seminary and other nonsense they must endure. But when it concerns the beliefs of those outside of Mormonism and Christianity, they're clueless. Only 37% of Mormons knew which religion teaches the concept of Nirvana.

Troy Wrote:
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> It's interesting to note that if it regards
> something that is part of their own religion,
> Mormons score quite high. That's no wonder with
> all of the seminary and other nonsense they must
> endure. But when it concerns the beliefs of those
> outside of Mormonism and Christianity, they're
> clueless. Only 37% of Mormons knew which religion
> teaches the concept of Nirvana.

Actually that was a poor question since several religions teach the concept of Nirvana and it originated with the Hindus.Buddha came from a Hindu family. The quiz did not accept Hinduism as a correct. Sounds like the people who made up the survey could have done a bit more homework too.

That quiz was being discussed on the Endless Thread on Pharyngula (along with the TV show "Sister Wives"), so a bunch of Pharyngulites took the quiz. Ten out of ten for all of them.

That nest of vipers, that den of atheists, knows more about religion that do most practitioners of religion. Figures.

As far as the Sister Wives show is concerned, the coercion is there, it's just veiled. Joe Smith's wife, Emma, was forced into accepting polygamy. She was not a "consenting" adult, she was a coerced adult. No matter how consenting the women may appear, or may have deluded themselves into thinking they are, those women have been coerced by religious doctrine. They're full of the bullchip doctrine of "obedience", as are most of the mormon women posting at the Babycenter Community. Obedience to a patriarchal doctrine of obedience does not bode well for informed consent.

Polygamy for consenting adults might be okay if one could remove religion from the equation. Good luck with that.