Self Test for Lesson 3

1.  In most, but not all, U.S. communities, a majority of the people will be adherents of what major world religion?

Buddhism

Christianity

Islam

Judaism

Taoism

2.  Of the world's popular religions, the topmost (ranked by percentage of world population) are Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism.  Which set of numbers best represents their level of representation in the U.S.?

Christianity (85%), Islam (1%), Hinduism (0%), Buddhism (1%)

Christianity (85%), Islam (5%), Hinduism (5%), Buddhism (1%)

Christianity (75%), Islam (10%), Hinduism (5%), Buddhism (0%)

Christianity (75%), Islam (15%), Hinduism (5%), Buddhism (5%)

Christianity (65%), Islam (10%), Hinduism (0%), Buddhism (5%)

3.  The most authoritative source for a "religious diversity head count" in the U.S. comes from:

polling numbers collected by survey organizations (e.g., Gallup) hired by sponsors

accounting provided by the varied religious groups, describing themselves via web site resources  

reports produced from surveys conducted by academics with valid interest and expertise

the U.S. Census Bureau's tabulation

telephone calls conducted by the press (e.g., Scripps Howard)

4.  Which category of minority (non-Christian) outlook is the largest in the U.S.?

Indigenous (Native American)

Jewish

Nonreligious

Pagan

Sikh

5.  Which category of Christianity in the U.S. is the largest?

Baptist

Catholic

Lutheran

Methodist/Wesleyan

Protestant/Charismatic/Nondenominational

6.  The 2001 Public Agenda survey of Americans' beliefs about religion and public life concluded which of the following?

Americans are not well informed about Christianity

Americans are well informed about non-Christian beliefs and practices

Americans are generally well informed about the actual numbers of religious minorities

Americans do not care about minority outlooks

Americans are comfortable in the knowledge that ours is a nation of many faiths living together

7.  Analyzed critically, the phrase "America's religious diversity" falls somewhat short if the purpose is depicting the demographics in the realm of ultimate beliefs.  What's the problem?

American demographics regarding religion exhibit little if any diversity

The demographic picture includes the nonreligious, but the phrase does not seem to imply that

The civic perspective is of a homogeneous country with an established religion

The phrase fails to depict the many religious minorities present in the U.S. demography

There is insignificant acknowledgement of the predominance of Christianity in the population

8.  Of the two terms (religion and worldview), "religion" is definitely the better term to use whenever:

you want to portray the broad array of Americans' convictions and traditions regarding ultimate beliefs

you want to focus more on people themselves rather than the category labels

you intend to emphasize the civic perspective of including everybody on a level playing field

you seek to make your statement as religiously neutral as possible

your interest is focused on those worldview categories (beliefs and conduct) essentially religious in character

9.  For tallying of U.S. demographics, find three groupings below that would be sensible (avoid all problematic groupings)

Baptist, Catholic, Other

Baptist, Catholic, Evangelical, Other

Catholic, Protestant, Other

Catholic, Evangelical, Other Christian

Catholic, Evangelical, Other

Christian, Religious, Nonreligious

Christian, Non-Christian Religious, Nonreligious

Nondemoninational, Orthodox, Catholic, Other

Nonreligious, Religious, Other

Topic: U.S. Diversity (Realm of Ultimate Beliefs)

  True   False

10.   The largest ranking majority outlook in the U.S. is religious 

11.   The largest ranking minority outlook in the U.S. is religious 

12.   Regarding people's fundamental outlook, "worldview" is a more inclusive term than "religion"

13.   "Religion" is a term better aligned to the notion of "civic diversity" than is "worldview"

14.   U.S. Catholicism is more diverse than U.S. Protestantism

15.   When the non-Christian religious Americans are combined together, they outnumber the Americans with no religion

16.   Within Protestant Christianity there is general uniformity of beliefs and traditions that a teacher can count on

In the United States, Constitutional protections regarding ultimate beliefs are for .  Thus, a teacher who is trying to be neutral regarding religion must focus attention more on the than on identity labels and categories.

In the classroom, attention to can lead to a sort of "tunnel vision."  This inadvertently leaves out consideration of the .  To maintain the that keeps the playing field level, the teacher needs to keep in mind that each youngster in the classroom has a ; for many, if not most, it will derive from their religion.

In one sense, the United States can seem rather as regards the ultimate beliefs of the citizenry because of the high representation of one religion.  However, in another sense, the overall worldview portray something else.  Protestant Christianity, with its thousands of denominations, is quite .  There are deep doctrinal differences with America's , which constitute the largest Christian denomination. Among the , the Baptists are highest in numbers.  A significant fraction of the public does not claim any at all.  Their numbers are greater than the Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, and Hindus combined.