Do Atheists Really Know the Bible Better Than Christians?

The Pew Research results might surprise you

Key Data Points from the Analysis

• Breadth vs. Depth: The Pew surveys measure general cultural religious literacy (Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, etc.) rather than deep textual familiarity with the Bible.
• 2010 Survey: Only 11.1% (7 of 63 questions) of the test was Bible-specific.
• 2019 Survey: Bible-specific questions accounted for 20% (6 of 30 questions) of the total score.
• Overall Rankings: Jews, Atheists, and Agnostics consistently rank highest in general religious knowledge.
• The Bible Subset: When looking exclusively at Bible-specific questions, white evangelical Protestants score highest, followed by atheists and agnostics.

Claims about who “knows the Bible best” are frequently justified by appeals to Pew Research Center surveys. Depending on how the results are summarized, the conclusion is either that atheists know the Bible better than Christians, or that evangelical Christians outperform non-believers and therefore demonstrate superior biblical knowledge.

Both conclusions rest on a misunderstanding—not of the data, but of the instrument used to generate it.

To understand what the Pew surveys actually show, it is necessary to examine the structure of the two Religious Knowledge surveys, the distribution of question topics, and the rankings those instruments produced. Only then is it possible to see what the surveys can—and cannot—tell us.

Table of Contents

1. The Pew Religious Knowledge Surveys (2010 and 2019)
2. Structure and Scope of the Tests
3. The 2010 Religious Knowledge Survey
4. The 2019 Religious Knowledge Survey
5. What the Pew Surveys Measure—and What They Do Not
6. Why the Results Are So Often Misinterpreted
7. Why a Different Kind of Test Is Needed
8. Conclusion
9. Appendix A: Bible-Specific Questions in the Pew Surveys

The Pew Religious Knowledge Surveys (2010 and 2019)

The results most often cited in online discussions come from two standalone Pew Research Center studies:

– the 2010 U.S. Religious Knowledge Survey
– the 2019 survey, What Americans Know About Religion

Both surveys were designed to measure general religious knowledge across multiple traditions. They were not designed to test depth of familiarity with any single sacred text.

That design choice governs how the results should be interpreted.

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Structure and Scope of the Tests

Breadth Over Depth

Both surveys tested knowledge drawn from several domains:

– Christianity and the Bible
– Judaism
– Islam
– Hinduism and Buddhism
– religion in U.S. history and public life

They were comparative cultural literacy tests, not Bible exams. Overall rankings therefore reflect performance across a wide range of topics, most of which have nothing to do with biblical texts.

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The 2010 Religious Knowledge Survey

Test Composition

The 2010 survey contained 63 scored knowledge questions.

Using a strict and transparent classification—counting only questions that directly require knowledge of biblical texts, figures, or narratives—seven questions qualify as Bible-specific.

That is 11.1% of the test.

The remaining 88.9% measured knowledge of non-biblical religions or religion as a social and historical phenomenon.

2010 Results: Overall Rankings

Based on average scores across all 63 questions, Pew reported the following ordering:

1. Jews ranked first overall
2. Atheists ranked second
3. Agnostics ranked third
4. Christian groups ranked below these three overall

These rankings reflect performance on a test dominated by cross-religious and cultural knowledge.

2010 Results: Bible-Specific Questions Only

When analysis is restricted to the seven Bible-specific questions:

– white evangelical Protestants scored highest
– atheists and agnostics scored below evangelicals
– atheists and agnostics scored above the overall Christian average

This outcome is exactly what one would expect from a test with a small, introductory Bible component embedded in a much larger religious literacy assessment.

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The 2019 Religious Knowledge Survey

Test Composition

The 2019 survey shortened the instrument to 30 scored questions.

Applying the same classification criteria, six questions qualify as Bible-specific.

That is 20% of the test.

Although the proportion increased relative to 2010, the difficulty level did not. The Bible questions remained elementary and narrative-based.

2019 Results: Overall Rankings

The overall ranking at the top of the distribution remained unchanged:

1. Jews ranked first overall
2. Atheists ranked second
3. Agnostics ranked third
4. Christian groups ranked below these three overall

The consistency across two separate surveys points to test structure, not chance.

2019 Results: Bible-Specific Questions Only

On the six Bible-specific questions:

– white evangelical Protestants scored highest
– atheists and agnostics scored below evangelicals
– atheists and agnostics scored above the overall Christian average

The same pattern observed in 2010 was replicated.

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What the Pew Surveys Measure—and What They Do Not

The Pew Religious Knowledge Surveys were designed to assess general religious literacy in a pluralistic society. They measure:

– familiarity with widely taught religious narratives
– exposure to multiple religious traditions
– basic cultural knowledge about religion

They do not measure:

– depth of biblical reading
– textual analysis
– historical development of scripture
– familiarity with redaction, genre, or contradiction
– sustained engagement with biblical literature

A respondent can score highly without having read the Bible closely, just as a respondent deeply familiar with the Bible can lose points on questions about Buddhism or Islam.

This is not a flaw. It is a matter of scope.

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Why the Results Are So Often Misinterpreted

Problems arise when a broad religious literacy test is treated as a Bible knowledge exam.

Claims that atheists “know the Bible better than Christians” rely on extrapolating from instruments in which:

– fewer than one-quarter of questions concern Christianity
– fewer than one-fifth concern the Bible
– all Bible questions are introductory

The data do not support conclusions that exceed those limits.

The accurate takeaway is narrower:

– non-believers perform well on religious knowledge as a category
– evangelicals perform best on basic biblical facts
– neither result addresses deep biblical literacy

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Why a Different Kind of Test Is Needed

The Pew Religious Knowledge Surveys answer an important question: how familiar are Americans with religion as a cultural domain. They were designed to test breadth rather than depth, and they succeed on their own terms.

But that design leaves a separate question unanswered.

If the question is not who knows the most about religion in general but who knows the Bible itself, in detail, then a different kind of instrument is required. A test focused on biblical literacy must devote most of its questions to biblical texts, move beyond introductory narratives, and assess familiarity with structure, content, and historical context.

Results from a broad cultural literacy test cannot be repurposed to answer a narrow textual question it was never designed to address.

Readers interested in that narrower question can find a Bible-focused assessment here:

https://the-hatchetman-atheist.ghost.io/bible-knowledge-quiz1-general-information/

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Conclusion

The Pew Religious Knowledge Surveys are frequently cited and just as frequently misunderstood. They do not show that atheists know the Bible better than Christians, nor do they demonstrate deep biblical mastery among any religious group. What they show—consistently, across two separate surveys—is that general religious literacy and biblical literacy are different things, and that the surveys were designed to measure the former.

When claims about “who knows the Bible best” are built on instruments that devote a small fraction of their questions to the Bible—and limit those questions to elementary material—the resulting conclusions exceed what the data can support.

Understanding what a test measures is a prerequisite for interpreting its results. Without that, even accurate data can be made to say things it never meant.

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Appendix A: Bible-Specific Questions in the Pew Surveys

2010 U.S. Religious Knowledge Survey (7 of 63 questions)

1. What is the first book of the Bible?
2. Name the first four books of the New Testament.
3. Where, according to the Bible, was Jesus born?
4. Which of the following is not one of the Ten Commandments?
5. Which biblical figure is most closely associated with leading the Exodus from Egypt?
6. Which biblical figure remained obedient to God despite suffering?
7. Which biblical figure was willing to sacrifice his son at God’s command?

Source:
https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2010/09/28/u-s-religious-knowledge-survey/
https://assets.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/11/2010/09/religious-knowledge-questionnaire.pdf

2019 What Americans Know About Religion Survey (6 of 30 questions)

1. What is the first book of the Bible?
2. Which book comes first in the New Testament?
3. According to the Bible, who led the Israelites out of Egypt?
4. Which biblical figure remained obedient to God despite suffering?
5. Which biblical figure was willing to sacrifice his son at God’s command?
6. Where, according to the Bible, was Jesus born?

Source:
https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2019/07/23/what-americans-know-about-religion/
https://www.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2019/07/Religious-Knowledge-full-draft-FOR-WEB-2.pdf