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Americans and the Gods Trivia Quiz

Do you believe in God?! How well do you know in what the average American believes? Discover more about the fascinating religious beliefs of Americans and how they conform to other cultures, if at all.

A multiple-choice quiz by zanazana. Estimated time: 8 mins.

Author
zanazana

Time
8 mins

Type
Multiple Choice

Quiz #
272,161

Updated
Mar 08 22

# Qns
10

Difficulty
Difficult

Avg Score
5 / 10

Plays
1698

Last 3 plays: Kalibre (7/10), kirbykirbykirb (2/10), DeepHistory (8/10).

Question 1 of 10

1. To score well, you don`t have to recall exact numbers, just have a good estimation. To facilitate legibility, I will use the term "Americans" to refer to USA adult citizens.

Let`s start with comparing beliefs in the existence of God worldwide. Harris Poll conducted a survey to Financial Times in Dec. 2006 in which they compared beliefs in France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy and Spain as well as USA. Considering the answer to "Do you believe in any form of God or any type of supreme being?" - Which country is the most religious? Hint

Spain

USA

Italy

Great Britain

NEXT>

Question 2 of 10

2. According to the December 2004 Newsweek poll, how many Americans believe every word of the Bible is literally accurate? Hint

Quarter

Three quarters

Half

One third

NEXT>

Question 3 of 10

3. Approximately how many adults replied "Yes", according to the Newsweek Dec. 2004 poll, to the question "Do you believe that Jesus Christ was born of the Virgin Mary, without a human father?" Hint

Three quarters

A third

Half

A quarter

NEXT>

Question 4 of 10

4. Do you believe in miracles? One comparative study, run in 1991 by the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago, asked people from 17 countries if they "definitely believe in religious miracles". What did they find out? Hint

More Americans believe in miracles than people from any other country

Italians believe in miracles more than Americans

More Israelis believe in miracles than people from any other country

Americans and British people equally believe in miracles

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Question 5 of 10

5. Creationism (the belief that humans were created in their present form by a deity) is an idea held by all major religions and was an issue of hot debates for many centuries in human Western history. More recently, novel variations appeared under labels like "Creation science" and "intelligent design".

Can you estimated which is the most frequent belief Americans hold regarding the emergence of the human species, according to a 2006 CBS poll? Hint

Other

Humans evolved, but God guided the process

God created humans in their present form

Humans evolved, but God did not guide the process

NEXT>

Question 6 of 10

6. Regarding the scientific theory of evolution, are Americans` beliefs more "scientific" than those of citizens of other countries? In a comparative study published by Science journal in 2005, data from surveys in 34 countries was analyzed. The question was "Do you believe that human beings, as we know them, developed from earlier species of animals?" What were the results? Hint

Americans and Europeans believe it about equally

Excluding Turkish people, Americans are the most skeptical of evolution

A majority of the Americans believe it is true

Americans agree with that statement more than people from Italy and Ireland

NEXT>

Question 7 of 10

7. This question refers to an issue in which private beliefs of one group of people have direct implications on the life of others who does not share the same beliefs.

Americans conceive themselves as democrats and pluralists, and in fact, according to a 2004 Newsweek poll, 60% declared they favor teaching "creation science" in addition to scientific Darwinist evolution in public schools.

But what where the figures when the question was reformulated to: "Do you favor teaching creation science instead of evolution in public schools?" Hint

25% would substitute Evolution for Creationism

40% would like Creationism taught instead of Evolution

10% would substitute Evolution for Creationism

Only a marginal minority (2%) declared such radical position

NEXT>

Question 8 of 10

8. Most of the official holidays in the USA and Europe are related to the Christian religion, although many do not share that religion. What if we suggest officially recognizing celebrations of religions other than Christianity as public holidays? A 2004 Newsweek poll answered that:

Hint

In all six countries, a majority is in favor

Only in France do a majority view the idea positively

Italians and Spaniards opposed the idea much more than Americans

In five out of six countries, only one third is in favor

NEXT>

Question 9 of 10

9. Let's get more intimate. Do religious beliefs influence views on homosexual marriage? According to a 2003 Princeton Survey Research, how many Americans opposed gay marriage?

Hint

One third

A quarter

Half

More than half

NEXT>

Question 10 of 10

10. To finish with a focus on the big (political) picture, a Gallup 2007 survey asked how much confidence the average adult American has in several institutions. Considering the highest degree of confidence ("Great deal"), how frequently were different institutes cited? Hint

The Supreme Court (24), The medical system (14), The Church or organized religion (13)

Banks (24), The Supreme Court (18), The Church or organized religion (14)

Newspapers (24), The Congress (12), The Church or organized religion (8)

The Church or organized religion (24), Police (23), Banks (13)

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Most Recent Scores

Dec 03 2024 : Kalibre: 7/10
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Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. To score well, you don`t have to recall exact numbers, just have a good estimation. To facilitate legibility, I will use the term "Americans" to refer to USA adult citizens. Let`s start with comparing beliefs in the existence of God worldwide. Harris Poll conducted a survey to Financial Times in Dec. 2006 in which they compared beliefs in France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy and Spain as well as USA. Considering the answer to "Do you believe in any form of God or any type of supreme being?" - Which country is the most religious?

Answer: USA

73% vs. 19% of the Americans gave an affirmative reply. Italians were far enough behind, with 62%, but in all other countries religious believers are the minority with only 27% in France.
Thus, using as a discriminative the belief in the existence of a non-materialist entity, Americans are more religious than Europeans.

2. According to the December 2004 Newsweek poll, how many Americans believe every word of the Bible is literally accurate?

Answer: Half

55% declared they believe the Bible is literally accurate vs. 38% who said it is not.
From a scientific (i.e., historical) perspective, the Bible is all but literally accurate. For example, it is replete with internal contradictions. To cite just one, in Genesis God is said to have created the "beast of the earth" and later "Man" (King James Version, Genesis 1:25-27). Later on, God also created the "beast of the field" to help Man (KJ, Genesis 2:18-19).

3. Approximately how many adults replied "Yes", according to the Newsweek Dec. 2004 poll, to the question "Do you believe that Jesus Christ was born of the Virgin Mary, without a human father?"

Answer: Three quarters

An incredible 79% replied "Yes". Technically, it cannot be proven that so many millions of people are wrong, but it is a fact that the same textbook that made that affirmation and is those believers "factual" basis, also ascribes two completely different genealogies to Jesus (KJ, Matthew 1:6-16 and Luke 3:23-31).

It is surprising that, according to the same survey, only 15% thinks Jesus will return in their lifetime.

Answer: More Americans believe in miracles than people from any other country

46% of the Americans declared strong beliefs in miracles vs. 33% (Italians), 26% (Israeli), 23% (Polish) and 15% (Great Britain).

For the sake of neutrality, I will not comment this result.

5. Creationism (the belief that humans were created in their present form by a deity) is an idea held by all major religions and was an issue of hot debates for many centuries in human Western history. More recently, novel variations appeared under labels like "Creation science" and "intelligent design". Can you estimated which is the most frequent belief Americans hold regarding the emergence of the human species, according to a 2006 CBS poll?

Answer: God created humans in their present form

These are the exact results: God created humans in their present form (55%); Humans evolved, but God guided the process (27%); Humans evolved, but God did not guide the process (13%).
It means that 82% (!) of the adult Americans attribute the emergence of the human species to a spiritual entity in direct opposition to all current scientific knowledge.

But scientific knowledge is different from scientists' beliefs. In 1999 a Gallup survey checked the beliefs of people holding academic degrees. Almost half (45%) attributed at least some part of the evolution story to God...

Answer: Excluding Turkish people, Americans are the most skeptical of evolution

The data was collected from studies performed between 1985 and 2005. About 40% of Americans declared the scientific theory of evolution is false, as compared to 30% in Poland, 25% in Ireland and 10% in Japan.

7. This question refers to an issue in which private beliefs of one group of people have direct implications on the life of others who does not share the same beliefs. Americans conceive themselves as democrats and pluralists, and in fact, according to a 2004 Newsweek poll, 60% declared they favor teaching "creation science" in addition to scientific Darwinist evolution in public schools. But what where the figures when the question was reformulated to: "Do you favor teaching creation science instead of evolution in public schools?"

Answer: 40% would like Creationism taught instead of Evolution

Yes, almost half of the Americans would exclude teaching of Evolution in favor of Creationism, while 44% opposed such a "revolution" of current public schools.

Answer: In five out of six countries, only one third is in favor

In the sixth country, Germany, the figures are even lower. The final numbers are 35% (GB), 34% (Italy), 33% (USA), 30% (France), 29% (Spain) and 22% (Germany).
These results suggest that independently of the frequency of religious believers, acceptance of religions other than Christianity is very low.

9. Let's get more intimate. Do religious beliefs influence views on homosexual marriage? According to a 2003 Princeton Survey Research, how many Americans opposed gay marriage?

Answer: More than half

In this survey with 1515 subjects, 59% declared opposition to gay marriage, but only 32% were in favor. The picture is even clearer when we consider that 55% indicated they believed homosexual behavior to be a sin.

This study showed that this belief was highly correlated with level of religiosity.

Opinions change, of course. A 2017 Pew Research Survey found that 62% of Americans supported gay marriage.

Answer: The Church or organized religion (24), Police (23), Banks (13)

Yes, the Police reached the confidence level deserved to Religious organizations. In God and the Police We Trust. But not the Presidency or Congress (10% and 4%, respectively).

Sources:
http://www.harrisinteractive.com/news/allnewsbydate.asp?NewsID=1131
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6650997/site/newsweek
http://www.religioustolerance.org/rel_comp.htm
http://www.religioustolerance.org/ev_publi.htm
http://www.livescience.com/health/060810_evo_rank.html
http://people-press.org/reports/print.php3?PageID=767
http://www.galluppoll.com/content/?ci=27946

PS1: Discrepancies between different surveys results do exist, as responses are sensitive to the time period and question formulation, but overall, the results used in this Quiz give a coherent descriptive profile.

PS2: This Quiz is not an effort to proselytize you to any specific religion.

Source: Author zanazana

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor CellarDoor before going online.
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