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A QuestionofFaith: Workbook
A Simple Question
Toward Ultimate Truth
By Tor Constantino
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Table of Contents
Introduction
Basic Knowledge of Religion is Lacking in the U.S. Pew Forums Basic Religious Knowledge Quiz 15 Multiple Choice Quiz
Quiz Answers - National Results of the Basic Religious Knowledge Quiz
Reflection Questions Part I
Growing Lack of Religious Interest in the U.S.
Reflection Questions Part II Level of Religious Engagement Personal Assessment Tool
Reflection Questions Part III
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Introduction Virtually every civilization on earth has a faith tradition or religious
belief that exists beyond the seen world.
There seems to be a near universal need to connect beyond themortal coil of humanity.
This workbook is a companion tool to the book titled A Question
of Faith: A Simple Question Toward Ultimate Truth. Downloadthe first three chapters for FREE here: http://thedailyretort.com/book/
That book and this workbook are based on three assumptions:
First, that deity exists.
Second, absolute truth exists.
Third, meaningful insights into both of those previousassumptions can be obtained through faith and
religious study.
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Introduction (cont.)
Each of us faces all kinds of questions every day that need
answers. If you are someone who is seeking spiritual insight, Iwould offer that there is no greater question than what faith tochoose and believe.
The simple fact is that people rarely give a great deal of thoughtto their personal religious beliefs and simply adopt the faithsystem that their parents or family follows or thatspredominantly practiced within their respective community orpeer group.
While thats a perfectly acceptable reason tobelieve, I had a spiritual curiosity that droveme beyond that approach.
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Introduction (cont.) The main book, A Question of Faith, and this workbook strive to
empower the reader to consider the available options for themselves.
The actual book also provides a logical approach to select a faith if theyso choose. Some may find that approach controversial, but its intendedto drive personal discovery, study and dialogue.
Personally, I wish I had a book like this to reference when I went to
college because thats where I had a crisis of faith, and I didnt know whatto believe at the time.
Everything sounded good to me in college, but I lacked a basicunderstanding of the various religions so I was not prepared to
decide for myself.
I was overwhelmed by the secular nature and generalirreligious regard I experienced on campus. Again I wish Idhad the book A Question of Faithand this workbook then.
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Basic Knowledge of Religion is
Lacking in the U.S. We frequently hear news reports citing standardized test results
that the U.S. lags other countries in math, science and fluency
in other languages.
Additionally, Americans are lacking in a basic understanding offundamental beliefs at the heart of ex-U.S. cultures as well.
Technology continues to shrink the globe, forcing us to interactand relate more widely with different cultures and beliefs on aglobal scale - and Americans simply aren't prepared for thatengagement.
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Basic Knowledge of Religion is
Lacking in the U.S. (cont.) For example, basic knowledge of various world religions is
severely lacking among Americans according to results from a
recent study by the Pew Foundation that can be accessed atthe following link.
http://pewforum.org/Other-Beliefs-and-Practices/U-S-Religious-Knowledge-Survey.aspx
Beyond the executive summary, the Pew Forum web site alsolists a 15-question quiz that you can take to determine yourgeneral grasp on basic tenets of the major faiths.
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Basic Knowledge of Religion is
Lacking in the U.S. (cont.) Over the next few pages, take Pews short, 15-question quiz to
see how you compare with the 3,412 randomly sampled adults
who were asked these and other questions in the U.S. ReligiousKnowledge Survey.
This national poll was conducted by the Pew Research CentersForum on Religion & Public Life from May 19 through June 4,
2010, in both English and Spanish.
Pick only one of the multiple-choice answers for each questionon the following five pages.
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Pew Forums Basic Religious
Knowledge Quiz 1.) Which Bible figure is most closely associated with leading the
exodus from Egypt?
Elijah
Moses
Abraham
2.) What was Mother Teresa's religion?
Catholic
Jewish Buddhist
Mormon
Hindu
3.) Which of the following is NOT one of the TenCommandments?
Do not commit adultery
Do unto others as you would have them do unto you
Do not steal
Keep the Sabbath holy
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Pew Forums Basic Religious
Knowledge Quiz (cont.) 4.) When does the Jewish Sabbath begin?
Friday
Saturday Sunday
5.) Is Ramadan?
The Hindu festival of lights
A Jewish day of atonement
The Islamic holy month
6.) Which of the following best describes the Catholicteaching about the bread and wine used for Communion?
The bread and wine actually becomethe body and
blood of Jesus Christ.
The bread and wine are symbolsof the body and blood
of Jesus Christ.
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Pew Forums Basic Religious
Knowledge Quiz (cont.) 7.) In which religion are Vishnu and Shiva central figures?
Islam
Hinduism
Taoism
8.) Which Bible figure is most closely associated with remainingobedient to God despite suffering?
Job
Elijah Moses
Abraham
9.) What was Joseph Smith's religion?
Catholic Jewish
Buddhist
Mormon
Hindu
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Pew Forums Basic Religious
Knowledge Quiz (cont.) 13.) What was the name of the person whose writings and actions
inspired the Protestant Reformation?
Martin Luther
Thomas Aquinas John Wesley
14.) Which of these religions aims at nirvana, the state of being freefrom suffering?
Islam Buddhism
Hinduism
15.) Which one of these preachers participated in theperiod of religious activity known as the First GreatAwakening?
Jonathan Edwards
Charles Finney
Billy Graham
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Pew Forums Basic Religious
Knowledge Quiz: ANSWERS
Question Correct Answer% of Survey
RespondentsAnsweringCorrectly
1. Which Bible figureis most closelyassociated withleading the exodus
from Egypt?
Moses 72%
2. What was MotherTeresa's religion?
Catholic 82%
3. Which of thefollowing is NOT oneof the Ten
Commandments?
Do unto others asyou would have them
do unto you
55%
4. When does theJewish Sabbathbegin?
Friday 45%
5. Is Ramadan? The Islamic holy
month
52%
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Pew Forums Basic Religious
Knowledge Quiz: ANSWERS (cont.)Question Correct
Answer
% of SurveyRespondents
Answering Correctly
6. Which of the followingbest describes theCatholic teaching aboutthe bread and wine usedfor Communion?
The bread andwine actually
becomethe body
and blood of JesusChrist
40%
7. In which religion areVishnu and Shiva central
figures?
Hinduism 38%
8. Which Bible figure ismost closely associatedwith remaining obedientto God despite suffering?
Job 39%
9. What was JosephSmith's religion?
Mormon 51%
10. According to rulingsby the U.S. SupremeCourt, is a public schoolteacher permitted to lead
a class in prayer, or not?
No, not permitted 89%
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Pew Forums Basic Religious
Knowledge Quiz: ANSWERS (cont.)Question Correct Answer
% of SurveyRespondents
Answering
Correctly11. According to rulings by theU.S. Supreme Court, is a publicschool teacher permitted toread from the Bible as anexample of literature, or not?
Yes, permitted 23%
12. What religion do mostpeople in Pakistan considerthemselves?
Muslim 68%
13. What was the name of theperson whose writings andactions inspired the ProtestantReformation?
Martin Luther 46%
14. Which of these religionsaims at the state of nirvana
Buddhism 36%
15. Which one of thesepreachers participated in theperiod of religious activityknown as the First Great
Awakening?
Jonathan Edwards 11%
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Find Out How You
Compare to Others Here are some of the highlights. Atheists and agnostics, Jews and
Mormons were among the highest-scoring groups on that exact surveyyou just took.
Those groups outperformed evangelical Protestants, mainlineProtestants and Catholics on questions about the core teachings, historyand leading figures of major world religions even after controlling fordiffering levels of education. Heres a breakdown:
Average Americans correctly answered only 16 of the 32religious knowledge questions on the survey by the PewResearch Centers Forum on Religion & Public Life.
Atheists and agnostics averaged 20.9 correct answers.
Jews and Mormons did about as well, averaging 20.5 and20.3 correct answers, respectively.
Protestants as a whole averaged 16 correct answers,while Catholics as a whole only answered 14.7 questions
correctly.
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Reflections Part I If you visited the Pew Forums site, what most surprised you
about the findings of its 2010 religious survey?
What question(s) did you find the most difficult to answer foryourself?
Why do you think that was the case?
What question(s) were easiest for you to answer and why?
What was the most interesting thing you
learned after completing Part I?
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Growing Lack of Religious
Interest Within the U.S. Not only is there a growing lack of knowledge in the basic
tenets of the major faith traditions. There is also a growing lackof interest in organized religion as well.
Specifically, another study also conducted by the Pew Forumfound a general disinterest in religion among Millennials andyoung adults in the U.S.
Details of that study can be accessed at this link.http://pewforum.org/Age/Religion-Among-the-Millennials.aspx#introduction
http://pewforum.org/Age/Religion-Among-the-Millennials.aspx#introductionhttp://pewforum.org/Age/Religion-Among-the-Millennials.aspx#introductionhttp://pewforum.org/Age/Religion-Among-the-Millennials.aspx#introductionhttp://pewforum.org/Age/Religion-Among-the-Millennials.aspx#introduction7/31/2019 Question of Faith Workbook
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Growing Lack of Religious
Interest Within the U.S. (cont.) By some key measures, Americans ages 18 to 29 are
considerably less religious than older Americans.
Fully one-in-four members of the Millennial generation - socalled because they were born after 1980 and began to come ofage around the year 2000 - are unaffiliated with any particularfaith.
In fact, Millennials are significantly more unaffiliated thanmembers of Generation X were at a comparable point in theirlife cycle (20% in the late 1990s) and twice as unaffiliated asBaby Boomers were as young adults (13% in the late 1970s).
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Growing Lack of Religious
Interest Within the U.S. (cont.) Young adults also attend religious services less often than older
Americans today. And compared with their elders, fewer young peoplesay that religion is very important in their lives today.
No one can adequately predict the impact that this general disinterest inreligion will have on a society that was once known as one nationunder God but there is a marked desensitization toward faith amongyoung adults in this country that cannot be ignored. This fact is bourn out
in the following statistics.
What used to be basic, universally-known truths aboutChristianity are now unknown mysteries to a large andgrowing share of Americans--especially young adults. Forinstance, Barna Group studies in 2010 showed that while mostpeople regard Easter as a religious holiday, only a minority ofadults associate Easter with the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
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Growing Lack of Religious
Interest Within the U.S. (cont.) Other examples include the finding that few adults believe that their faith
is meant to be the focal point of their life or to be integrated into everyaspect of their existence.
Further, a growing majority believe the Holy Spirit is a symbol of God'spresence or power, but not a living entity. As the two youngergenerations (Busters and Mosaics) ascend to numerical and positionalsupremacy in churches across the nation, the data suggest that biblical
literacy is likely to decline significantly. http://www.barna.org/culture-articles/462-six-megathemes-emerge-from-2010
The Barna Group reports that in the U.S., about 50% of self-identified Christian college freshman will forsake theirChristianity before their senior year.
http://www.barna.org/culture-articles/462-six-megathemes-emerge-from-2010http://www.barna.org/culture-articles/462-six-megathemes-emerge-from-2010http://www.barna.org/culture-articles/462-six-megathemes-emerge-from-2010http://www.barna.org/culture-articles/462-six-megathemes-emerge-from-2010http://www.barna.org/culture-articles/462-six-megathemes-emerge-from-20107/31/2019 Question of Faith Workbook
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Growing Lack of Religious
Interest Within the U.S. (cont.) In several ways, teenagers are much less inclined toward spirituality than
were teens a dozen years ago.
The study cited below assessed nine different forms of teenageinvolvement; six of those religious activities are at their lowest levelssince Barna Group began tracking such teen behaviors. These included:
small group attendance, prayer,
Sunday school participation, donations to churches,
reading sacred texts other than the Bible, and evangelism byChristian teens (explaining their belief in Jesus Christ with otherswho have different faith views).
http://www.barna.org/teens-next-gen-articles/403-how-
teenagers-faith-practices-are-changing
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Reflections Part II In your opinion, what are possible contributing factors to the
general lack of religious knowledge among average Americans?
What are possible contributing factors to the general lack ofreligious interest among average Americans?
What might be driving this trend even faster among youngadults and teens?
Do you believe America is a religious nation or a secularnation? Why?
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Assess Your Personal Level
of Religious Engagement Each of us has a different level of religious belief and faith-
based engagement. This next few pages are intended to helpquantify in general terms the Religious Engagement level ofyou or another individual you care about.
Using the 0-10 scale (low to high), simply circle the number, orplace on the line, that corresponds with the specific behavior
listed.
Based on the results of this assessment, you maywant to share them with a trusted person of faith withwhom you fellowship or a youth-group leader foradditional direction and guidance.
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Assess Your Personal Level
of Religious Engagement (cont.)Attends Religious Services Regularly
0 510
Participates or attends a faith-based youth group a regular basis:
Engages in prayers or the act of praying on a consistent basis:
1050
0
5
10
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Assess Your Personal Level
of Religious Engagement (cont.)Actively reads the scriptures or holy text of a given faith tradition:
0 510
Discusses or talks about religious issues with other believers:
Shares personal faith beliefs and religious views with non-believers:
1050
0
5
10
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Assess Your Personal Level
of Religious Engagement (cont.)Thinks about or meditates on religious concepts:
0 510
Seeks out entertainment choices, consistent with the faith tradition:
Have friends at school or work that share views on faith:
1050
0 5 10
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Reflections Part III Based on your assessment, how would you classify your
level of religious engagement? Low, Medium or High?
Did the results of the assessment surprise you? Why orwhy not?
Is your level of religious engagement where you wouldlike it to be?
Which questions on the assessementwould you like to increase?
What steps might you take toward thatgoal?
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Why Bother With Religion? Many individuals view religion as pie in the sky hyperbole that holds an
unprovable promise for the future sweet by and by with little benefit forthe earthly here and now.
Dr. Michael E. McCullough is a researcher at the University of Miami whohas studied the relationship between religion and health publishingmore than a dozen studies on the topic.
Here is a link to a list of Dr. McCulloughs published studies and results
on a wide area of health factors and how they intersect with religion:http://www.psy.miami.edu/faculty/mmccullough/Religion_Research.htm
Dr. McCullough goes to great lengths to beobjective, acknowledging that some of his studieshave small sample sizes, may have a correlation butnot necessarily a direct causal impact as well asother competing drivers.
However, the following pages list some of the moreinteresting highlights of McCulloughs studies.
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Why Bother With Religion? (cont.)
McCulloughs results published in Psychological Bulletinsuggest thatreligious affiliation helps people quit smoking.
A study McCullough presented in the Journal of Drug Issues, found thatin neighborhoods where there were high alcoholism rates, churchattendance was more effective than Alcoholics Anonymous.
Those who attended religious services more than once a week over
the course of a year were 24 percent less likely than others toabuse alcohol.
In a study paper published in 2000, McCulloughanalyzed 42 studies about religion and life span
comprising 125,826 people. The meta-analysisfound that religious followers were nearly 30 percentmore likely to live longer than nonreligious studyparticipants.
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Why Bother With Religion? (cont.) In the Journal of Clinical and Social Psychology, McCullough analyzed 64
studies about religion and health issues such as hypertension and heartattack. In the majority of cases, a correlation existed between regularworship service attendance and a lower incidence of health problems.
According to McCulloughs research, religious people were less vengefulthan irreligious individuals. Both groups were attached to electrodes tomeasure their blood pressure, heart rate and perspiration as indicators ofanger and stress then asked to relive a situation when theyve been
wronged. This study was published as Beyond Revenge: The Evolutionof the Forgiveness Instinct(Jossey-Bass, 2008).
For a gratitude study, McCullough assigned twogroups of students to write daily journals. The first
group wrote what they were thankful for, the othergroup listed their problems. The results found thatthose who practiced gratitude increased happinessby nearly 30 percent.
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Why Bother With Religion? (cont.) A completely different and more recent study published in 2011 by
Columbia University found interesting results between religious belief anddepression. It looked at 114 adults over a 10-year period.
Heres the link to the study published in the American Journal ofPsychiatry:http://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/abstract/appi.ajp.2011.10121823v1?roi=echo3-9666805893-6579645-
fce0427afa2d058811e3a59821c49408&papetoc
Here are the highlights of the 10-year study:
Subjects who reported at the start of the study that religionor spirituality was highly important to them had about one-
fourth the risk of experiencing major depression comparedwith other participants.
Those at the highest risk for depression because they werethe child of a depressed parent had the biggest reduction inrisk due to their spirituality, experiencing about one-tenththe risk of experiencing major depression compared with
those who did not.
http://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/abstract/appi.ajp.2011.10121823v1?roi=echo3-9666805893-6579645-fce0427afa2d058811e3a59821c49408&papetochttp://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/abstract/appi.ajp.2011.10121823v1?roi=echo3-9666805893-6579645-fce0427afa2d058811e3a59821c49408&papetochttp://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/abstract/appi.ajp.2011.10121823v1?roi=echo3-9666805893-6579645-fce0427afa2d058811e3a59821c49408&papetochttp://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/abstract/appi.ajp.2011.10121823v1?roi=echo3-9666805893-6579645-fce0427afa2d058811e3a59821c49408&papetochttp://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/abstract/appi.ajp.2011.10121823v1?roi=echo3-9666805893-6579645-fce0427afa2d058811e3a59821c49408&papetochttp://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/abstract/appi.ajp.2011.10121823v1?roi=echo3-9666805893-6579645-fce0427afa2d058811e3a59821c49408&papetoc7/31/2019 Question of Faith Workbook
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Reflections Part IV Did any of the research findings covered in the past few pages
surprise you?
What study results resonated the most with you? Why do youthink thats the case?
Is there anyone that comes to mind that might be interested in
some of these survey results?
Do any of these findings lead you to consider religion in adifferent light?
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Conclusion
We hope you found that this workbook contained usefulinformation and helped provide a different perspective onreligion in general.
Hopefully you will explore the topics of faith and religion ingreater detail.
The following book, might be a great place to start! A Questionof Faith: A Simple Question Toward Ultimate Truth.
Download the first three chapters for FREEhere: http://thedailyretort.com/book/
http://thedailyretort.com/book/http://thedailyretort.com/book/