Lexis Galloway
Journal Contributor
Just how much do Americans know about religion? Not enough, apparently.
A recent article in the New York Times reported on a survey done by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. Phoning more than 3,400 Americans to ask them 32 basic questions about well-known world religions and famous religious figures was shown to puzzle many people. On average, people who participated in the survey answered half the questions wrong and even missed questions about their own religion.
What was interesting was that the people who knew the most were atheists and agnostics. It’s funny that people who choose not to follow a religion know more about faith than those who go to church and read the Bible.
Jews and Mormons also knew many of the questions asked that stumped most Christians and Catholics. So what does this mean? Considering that close to 80 percent of Americans declare themselves either Christian or Catholic – myself included – is it safe to say we really don’t know as much as we think?
It is shocking how many people don’t know some of the most basic, fundamental questions of their own faith, and somewhat ridiculous considering this country was basically founded on religion.
Some of the most unbelievable statistics included that 53 percent of Protestants were unable to name Martin Luther as the leader of the Protestant Reformation, while 54 percent of Catholics didn’t realize that the church teaches that bread and wine in Holy Communion are not just symbols, but actually become the body and blood of Christ. As a Catholic who hasn’t been to church in years, I could still answer that correctly.
I just can’t understand the concept of wanting to follow a religion without bothering to learn about it in the first place. I’m not saying people who want to identify themselves as Christian or Jewish should read the Bible or the Torah in their entirety before committing, but at least do some reading.
Because religion has always been such a prominent part of society, I still believe religious people should know the basics of their religions as well as the basics of others. Like everything else in this world, one must always be able to back up their beliefs. Religion should be no exception.
Sheilah • Oct 10, 2010 at 10:25 am
Americans, it seems, like to belong to a group, like to be able to share a label or status. It’s unfortunate that they don’t take the responsibility to be active, contributing members of these groups. America would be a better place if more than 15 or 20% of the population volunteered to help others instead of letting some one else do it. It’s always the same people that make things happen.
Louis Rocco • Oct 8, 2010 at 3:32 pm
Lexis,
I thank you for your well-written piece in this week’s Journal. I would like to take this opportunity to provide a different perspective on the results of the resent Pew Research poll on America’s knowledge of basic religious facts.
As you say in your article, it is interesting “that the people who knew the most were atheists and agnostics.” I had a different reaction to these results. It should come as no surprise that the average atheist or agnostic knows more about religion than the average believer. As Dave Silverman, president of American Atheists says in the same New York Times article you cite, “Atheism is an effect of that [religious] knowledge, not a lack of knowledge.”
The more one learns about religion, where it came from, who wrote the stories in the Bible and Koran, how these books were edited and put together, the history of religious conquest and (most importantly) what these books actually say, it is not hard to see why one would reject religion altogether. The fairytales and superstitions found in these books reflect the values, behaviors and primitive understanding of the world held by the barbaric nomads who first conjured them up. It is beneath human beings of the 21st century to subscribe to the ignorant, homophobic, misogynistic ramblings of these desert morons.
You also say, “It is shocking how many people don’t know some of the most basic, fundamental questions of their own faith,” adding later, “I just can’t understand the concept of wanting to follow a religion without bothering to learn about it in the first place.” This brings us to the subject of tradition, which is one of the reasons I believe most people still follow a religion. I would argue that most (not all) people who believe do so because they were taught to by their parents when they were very young. As such, they don’t think to (or refuse to) question or challenge those beliefs later on in life and pass them on to their children and so on and so forth. The only reason they continue to believe in this nonsense is because they’ve been doing it for countless generations and because tradition is comforting.
You add, “I’m not saying people who want to identify themselves as Christian or Jewish should read the Bible or the Torah in their entirety before committing, but at least do some reading.” This is a terrible suggestion. Why shouldn’t one read the entire Bible or Torah before committing to beliefs as consequential and life-changing as those found in those books? It would be like reading only part of the Communist Manifesto before becoming a die-hard Marxist. Although, on the other hand, if people did read the entire Bible or Torah (and kept an open-mind) they would most likely be repulsed by the instances of divinely commanded slaughter, genocide and slavery and would hopefully become atheists.
You conclude by writing, “Like everything else in this world, one must always be able to back up their beliefs. Religion should be no exception.” This is in essence the thesis of my article from September 22 and I am in complete agreement with you. There is a difference, however, between being able to recall basic facts about one’s beliefs and being able to provide good reasons for believing in the first place. Simply put, there is no evidence or reason to believe in the doctrines of any of these religions. Therefore, even if one were to master the basic facts of a religion, that doesn’t give them a good reason to believe in it. In fact, it does the exact opposite, it gives them every reason not to believe in the antiquated, inhumane doctrines of the world’s religions.
Louis Rocco
President, Suffolk University Coalition of Reason
Graceland • Sep 21, 2011 at 6:24 am
I literally jumped out of my chair and danced after reaidng this!
karen baker • Oct 7, 2010 at 3:38 pm
how right you are ms. galloway…so what does all this tell you?…that many people are religious in “name only” …they might have grown up catholic or protestant or jewish but they don’t practice their faith nor live by its standards, and superficially only by their customs…we celebrate christmas or hannakah but not with the heart of a believer in our chosen faith but more as a holiday from school or work…you are right to say that we need to be reading the bible or the torah more than merely having one more book on the shelf…perhaps if we did read these books that we are told are the inspired word of God, He might start talking to us more and showing us how we need to live our lives and what we need to do to change things in this world…
good article– keep exploring this subject…i think you’re on to something!!