Religion General Knowledge #5

Can you answer these questions about various world religions, past and present?
Quiz by Quizmaster
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Last updated: September 20, 2018
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First submittedFebruary 15, 2018
Times taken29,482
Average score70.0%
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Question
Answer
What country has the most Orthodox Christians?
Russia
What Indian religious principle can be roughly defined as "what goes around comes around"?
Karma
According to 2014 Gallup poll, what major country has the highest percentage of people who don't consider themselves religious (90%)?
China
What Islamic religious symbol can be found on the flags of 19 different countries, including Turkey and Malaysia?
Crescent
What religious symbol is depicted on the flag of Israel?
Star of David
Who was the Greek goddess of wisdom?
Athena
What is the name for the belief that, after death, a person starts a life in a new body?
Reincarnation
What is the term for a person who has been canonized?
a Saint
According to Jewish folklore, who had a first wife named Lilith?
Adam
What country has the most Shia muslims?
Iran
What hallucinogenic desert plant do some Native Americans consume for religious purposes?
Peyote
In Chinese philosophy, what is the opposite of "Yang"?
Yin
What is the Asian country with the largest Christian population?
Philippines
The Chinese government recognizes five religions: Buddhism, Catholicism, Islam, Protestantism, and ... ?
Taoism
What American religious group is famous for eschewing modern technology?
The Amish
What title was given to the supreme Islamic leaders who succeeded Muhammad? (Hint: starts with C)
Caliph
Who called religion "the opium of the masses"?
Karl Marx
Who was the first patriarch of the Jewish religion?
Abraham
What is the name for a form of government based on religion?
Theocracy
What are Seraphim and Cherubim?
Angels
+1
Level 66
Feb 15, 2018
It's kind of odd that the Chinese government recognizes Buddhism. It's really not a religion and more of a way of life.
+15
Level 85
Feb 16, 2018
That's how a lot people view their own belief system.
+17
Level 69
Feb 16, 2018
I'm a Buddhist and I'm fine with calling it a religion, as it has many of the traditional components: mythologies, rituals, sacred texts, holy days, ordination, study, contemplation, etc. Some people find calling a school of thought that doesn't recognize God as being inherently disqualified from being called a religion, but I think most of those people probably believe in God :-)
+1
Level 69
Aug 23, 2023
it's essentially an atheist religion. A type of atheist gnostic spiritualism
+7
Level 75
Sep 13, 2018
Right - a religion does not have to be theistic
+5
Level 64
Sep 7, 2021
Western, hippified Buddhism is more of a "way of life." In rural Thailand you're gonna find something that looks a lot closer to a traditional religion.
+1
Level 69
Aug 23, 2023
could also be said for daoism
+2
Level 63
Feb 16, 2018
"Metempsychosis" for "reincarnation" should also be accepted.
+4
Level 82
Feb 16, 2018
That question's not well worded anyway, as reincarnation isn't the word for the belief but for the process.
+5
Level 76
Feb 19, 2018
Agreed - it's interesting to realise there's no actual word that means "having a belief in reincarnation". That's a riddle that'll take me few lifetimes to contemplate.
+2
Level 94
Feb 17, 2018
agreed, i think metempsychosis is even more correct
+1
Level 51
Feb 16, 2018
Would Quakers be an acceptable answer for the 'eschewing modern technology' question?
+3
Level 87
Feb 16, 2018
No. Quakers, generally speaking, do not avoid modern technology.
+2
Level 62
Sep 8, 2021
I remember visiting a friend who had moved to Pennsylvania and as we drove on a country road she happily pointed out the easiest way to distinguish a Quaker house from an Amish house- the former would have a telephone line going to the house, while the latter would have it going to the barn.
+2
Level 84
Feb 16, 2018
Tried payote, payoti, payotte, payotti, pajote, pajoti, pajotte, pajotte, pyote, pyoti, pyotte, pyotti. If the quiz was a few more hours, I might have eventually tried peyote. Or maybe there could be some flexibility on this one?
+5
Level 86
Feb 26, 2018
Well I tried peyotl, which is the original Nahuatl name (and also what it's called in French).
+1
Level 10
Feb 22, 2018
you should do a 1900s music quiz
+1
Level 82
Mar 19, 2018
That China answer surprised me. Notwithstanding the government's official position on the matter, I would have thought there would be much higher religious adherence amongst the population.
+2
Level 82
Oct 29, 2018
Contemporary Chinese life is still heavily influenced by Confucianism and Maoism and some consider these to be religions (with a dash of Buddhism, Taoism, and ancestor worship thrown in for good measure), but I think what this says is that the average Chinese person does not think of it this way.
+2
Level 87
Mar 11, 2020
Few of us practice "Maoism" in any way that would be considered a religion. The reason we are so low is because the Communists murdered a massive amount of religious people in the past century and still underreport stats (theories put Christian population between 40 and 100 million).

Most Chinese people are not Atheist, they are agnostic. Chinese people are actually very open to religion, as most of us are vaguely spiritual in some way.

+1
Level 82
Apr 22, 2020
Do they still sell copies of Mao's Little Red Book?
+2
Level 46
Jan 12, 2022
Yes - Generally you can buy most communist works online in China.
+4
Level 74
Jan 9, 2019
Or, to give the quiz another name, Stuff we Really Should Have Left Behind by Now.
+9
Level 87
Mar 11, 2020
Christ, you must be really low in your life to be posting smarmy comments on Jetpunk of all places.
+13
Level ∞
Jan 30, 2021
As someone's who has never been particularly religious, I'm coming to the opposite conclusion. So many people are sad, lonely, and disconnected from their communities. This only gets worse over time, and I think it's correlated to the decline in religiosity over time. Western society has been left with a religion size hole and what's replacing it is worse. Rituals give us meaning, even if they might seem silly to a rationalist. When Western societies abandoned religion, we really threw out the baby with the bathwater so to speak.
+6
Level 67
Sep 7, 2021
I find this rationalization hard to countenance. Religion may have been plugging a hole, but its loss is itself not an issue. The issue is that so many people have that hole to fill. If you have a life filled with love and meaning, you won't notice the loss of religion. People are not lonely because they are turning away from God. They are lonely because they're lonely.
+1
Level ∞
Jun 5, 2023
I suppose one could say something like "We don't need religion. All we need to do is build communities of shared meaning and belonging." That's a nice thought, but it's not actually happening in real life. There are few new communities coming up to replace those that are being abandoned. People in Western societies are more alienated than ever.

I think the principal of Chesterton's Fence is something that we should keep in mind here.

We should not destroy things that are "old and unnecessary" until their replacements have been built. And, if those replacements prove to be impossible to build, maybe there was something to those old things that wasn't so unnecessary after all.

+2
Level 70
Jan 9, 2019
Great quiz. Just one nitpicky grammar thing. Should be "hallucinogenic," not "hallucinogen."
+2
Level 37
Jan 9, 2019
include more hindu questions. If it is "Religion" quiz, it should ask equal questions about each religion. This is a request, please.
+2
Level 82
Jan 9, 2019
This request is impossible (as there are more religions than there are questions on this quiz) and impractical (as not all religions are equally well-known to visitors of this website).
+3
Level 82
Jan 9, 2019
But anyway there's this many questions about these religious beliefs: Eastern Orthodoxy (1) Hinduism, primarily (2) Irreligiosity (1) Islam (2) Judaism (3) Greek mythology (1) Catholicism (1) Shiitism (1) Navajo religion (1) Taoism (1) Amish (1) Communism (1) and Christianity (1)

so... Hinduism is ahead of most. What are you complaining about?

+2
Level 37
Jan 10, 2019
ok kal, okay. I see you, i see you
+1
Level 38
Jan 9, 2019
Can you accept 'Pallas Athena' for 'Athena'?
+2
Level 88
Jan 9, 2019
Seriously, why?
+2
Level 38
Jan 12, 2019
I was taught about her in school under this name.

Wikipedia confirms Pallas Athena refers to Athena: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pallas_Athena_(disambiguation)

+1
Level 75
Mar 14, 2021
Possibly, but it's just an epithet so would be a bit like accepting "Cunning Odysseus" in a mythology quiz - a bit odd.
+1
Level 38
Jan 9, 2019
Also, I'd expect 'Ayahuasca' as a correct answer instead of Peyote (assuming native Brasilians are counted as native americans). Probably not even the only two answers that meet the description.
+1
Level 62
Jan 9, 2019
I mean, the questions does specify desert plant, and there aren't a huge number of deserts in the Americas...
+2
Level 76
Jan 13, 2019
Yeah, the question specifies desert plant, and the Amazon rainforest is pretty much the exact opposite of a desert.
+3
Level 69
Apr 19, 2019
What is the term for a person who has been canonized? Me: Um, "Human Cannonball?" I did get the question right, but my brain fart kept making me giggle.
+3
Level 65
Sep 22, 2019
Is it bad that I only knew the one about Lilith and Adam from Supernatural?
+1
Level 78
Oct 30, 2020
Not from Frasier?
+2
Level 77
Feb 12, 2021
That definition about the Indian principle is pretty "rough". I pointed this out on the Buddhist quiz as well, but I might as well say it here, too. "What goes around comes around" is the common Western adage that has been conflated with the actual meaning of Karma. It's unfortunate that most people will never think of Karma beyond this common, glib definition. Karma are actions. The law of Karma is what the western adage aligns with!
+1
Level 79
Feb 22, 2021
In one of the questions, 'recognizes' is spelt wrong.
+1
Level 71
Dec 20, 2021
The Philippines aren't really Asia - they're Oceania. They're not a part of the Asian *Continent*.
+2
Level 82
Jun 10, 2022
They're even less a part of the Oceanic "continent" (the continental part of Oceania being Australia)... is it your position that all island nations must be in Oceania? So.. the United Kingdom is in Oceania?
+1
Level 38
Nov 16, 2023
read question 3 as in which country do more than 90% consider themselves religious, typed in vatican and gave up