question of faith workbook

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Visit: www.torconbooks.com 1

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.
http://thedailyretort.com/book/http://thedailyretort.com/book/


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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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Notes:

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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Notes:

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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Notes:

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#introduction


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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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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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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-2010


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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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Notes:

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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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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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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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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Notes:

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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Notes:

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.
http://www.psy.miami.edu/faculty/mmccullough/Religion_Research.htmhttp://www.psy.miami.edu/faculty/mmccullough/Religion_Research.htm


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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&papetoc


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Notes:

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/

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