Tuesday, September 28, 2010

The Pew Survey on Religious Knowledge

I spent over an hour looking for the survey questions themselves and could not find them. There was an 11 or 12 item questionnaire which I took until the connection was cut (too many people going to the Pew computer I believe).
One of the questions that I took bothered me.
When does the Jewish Sabbath Begin?
The Proper Response is Friday. This however involves knowing that the Jewish day is computed from SunSet to SunSet rather than from Midnight to Midnight. A completely proper response, from a Jewish point of view, would be on Saturday, of course.
This is really a trick question depending on fairly detailed knowledge of the Jewish religion from a non-Jewish point of view. It probably should not have been a part of the questionnaire.
I'll continue this thread after I find the entire questionnaire and go through its questions.

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