The infamous religion quiz

I think most people have probably heard about the religion quiz set up by the Pew Forum that the majority of Americans failed, and which showed that Athiests and Agnostics seem to know the more about the various religions of the world than most people who practice an organized religion, and that Catholics know the least among various groups.  Not a surprise, if you ask me.

None of it is a surprise to me, really.  I feel like Athiests and Agnostics tend to reach the decision to believe as they do after a lot of consideration.  Religions came to exist for a reason, and to walk away from believing in any faith at all is not a decision that I think anyone could make lightly.  So I feel like people who have no faith in any higher being, or who believe in something, but they're not quite sure what, tend to have weighed their options within existing belief systems before getting there.  I will keep my opinions on the Catholic church to myself.

It's 32 questions long, and I strongly encourage everyone to take it and see where you fall.  Here's the link.

And here's a summary of the average results:
Americans overall: 16/32 correct
Athiests/Agnostics: 20.9/32 correct
Jews: 20.5/32 correct
Mormons: 20.3/32 correct
Protestants: 16/32 correct
Catholics: 14.7/32

For the record, I got 29/32 correct.

Tags of the week! 10-20-10 edition

Yay!  It's been SO LONG since I did this!  These are definitely not all radio songs, but they're all worth checking out.  Without further ado, here are my top 5 today:

1) Mumford & Sons: Little Lion Man



The first time I ever heard this song, it was stuck in my head for four days.  I adore it.  Check out the whole album - Sigh No More - it's all good stuff.  Something about a banjo and an upright bass . . . it's part folky Irish coffee shop feeling, and part downhome bluegrass jam session, but all awesome.

2) Florence and the Machine - Dog Days Are Over



This is another one where I chose the radio song, but the whole album really is excellent.  Her voice is so rad, and the songs are so catchy.  This is like the rockin' version of that chick Adele.  Love.

3) Seether - Careless Whisper



Dude, I like the Wham version of this song, okay?  And I love Seether.  I think they did a great job on this.  Maybe better than the original.  Not Johnny-Cash-doing-Hurt better than the original, but real, real good.

And while we're talking about covering old 80's songs:

4)  Chris Cornell - Billie Jean



I actually haven't researched where this came from at all, if you can believe that.  J found it and played it for me, and I almost had a heart attack.  I could listen to this man sing all. day. long.  Nevermind acoustic and covering an MJ classic.  Alien Ant Farm did an AMAZING job on Smooth Criminal a few years back, too.  Check that out, whenever you have a chance.

5)  The Black Keys - Chop And Change



This was a toss up between this song, which I heard on the Twilight: Eclipse soundtrack or The Black Keys' Tighten Up, which is a tagged radio song in my phone.  They're just a really rad band.  Kind of southern funky.  I dig their bass lines.

There's gonna be more music recs coming soon.  I have so much new stuff that I'm into right now.  On the off chance that you're in the market for something completely different - check out Sigur Ros.  They're Icelandic, and they sing in either Icelandic or this other language that they created.  My high school intern introduced me to them, and I can't thank her enough.  It makes awesome working or driving background.

Whoops!  Clearly, something needs to be done about my mobile blogging functionality!  This post was supposed to say:

Instant cake and muffin mixes are our gift from the WW2 generation.   Powdered milk, powdered butter, powered eggs, and flour - all in one convenient package?  Just add water?  Yes, please.