shipperx | Survey: Americans Lack Some Religious Knowledge

Link gakked from

petzipellepingo

I heard this on the news this morning and I wasn't particularly surprised by the results (Well, maybe a little with the mormons)

Survey: Americans Lack Some Religious Knowledge

Some interesting points:

The ones that tested with the most religious knowledge were the atheists and the agnostics

It may be that the conscious choice to take a minority faith or philosophic stand requires an intellectual engagement with religion to a greater degree than experienced by Protestants and Catholics, who dominate U.S. culture. Eight in 10 atheists and agnostics grew up in a religious tradition, chiefly a branch of Christianity, says Greg Smith, a Pew senior researcher.

The single question most people answered correctly: 89% knew that according to rulings by the U.S. Supreme Court, public school teachers cannot lead their classes in prayer.

But only 36% of respondents knew teachers are allowed to teach classes comparing world religions, and just 23% knew that teachers can read from the Bible as an example of literature.

"If the public thinks there are greater restriction than there really are, how much impact does this have in the real world when they are looking at religion's place in public life?" Smith asks
Southerners scored lowest on the test

Me:  And yet by most measures the South is the most religious area of the country.

Growing up in the South this counter-intuitive fact doesn't surprise me at all. As a child in Sunday School, I caught on fairly early that Sunday school teachers frequently didn't have an answer for "why?" Particularly for sticky Bible stories such as Lot offering up his daughters to be raped (Yikes!) The wtf-ness of this was readily apparent even to an eight year old.

My sister and myself -- 12+ years apart in age -- credit our Sunday School Teacher, Mrs. Miller, with much of our religious ambivalence because at some point in our Sunday School/Bible School 'education' we were (separately) told that you cannot question the Bible or the word of God and to do so meant that you weren't really 'saved'... to which -- separately but remarkably identically -- my sister and myself concluded that we were screwed from the start. I mean, I can't not question. The questions are just... there. I have them. I can't squelch them with non-answers of 'just accept it'. (Try being 8 and explaining that to a not-exceptionally-bright Sunday School teacher. Your questions are not appreciated) So... yeah... that's pretty much how I arrived at where I am... starting from the ripe old age of eight.

I grew up in the pretty tepid and moderate United Methodist Church. My grandparents were in a far more evangelical church that I grew up thinking was just a little crazy with a minister who was more than just a little stupid (and my sister has awful tales of having gone to that church camp one summer and how awful it was. Awful in that it was big ol' religious indoctrination for 2 weeks, and really, it's summer and couldn't they just go swimming and do crafts, already?! Although, I went to the Methodist summer camp for a few summers and had pretty much the exact same feelings, so I'm not sure that it was any more awful than what I went through, though she claims there's no comparison. I think it was perhaps a matter of degree.  We did at least get to go swimming and wear shorts) And of course there were the Southern Baptists around (who in my kid-mind were most valued for having a skating rink in their community center across the street. We Methodist kids envied that skating rink. We just had a four-square court painted on the concrete on the back portico). At any rate, you can tell that during my formative years of religious instruction my head tended to be more occupied with swimming, roller skating, and playing four-square.   Though I was also endlessly fascinated by the stained glass windows (future architect in me?)

Erm... what was I talking about?

Anyway, I think I meant that I recognized as a kid that though our local ministers knew a great deal of what the Bible literally said, there was very, very little ever said (or to be perfectly honest, known) about why or how or the historical context... and I actually needed that.   In fact, the first time I ever got even a remotely satisfactory answer from a minister, it was a priest. (My sister married someone of Greek heritage. And though he isn't religious himself, he is Greek Orthodox. For a marriage to be recognized by the Greek Orthodox Church (at least then) a potential spouse would have to convert. Not being of a particularly religious nature, my sister basically shrugged and converted. Ten years after that, after my neice was born, for me to become my neice's godparent I'd also have to convert as the church insisted on Greek Orthodox godparents. Much like my sister, I shrugged and converted (it basically amounted to 6 weeks of courses in Greek Orthodoxy and being re-christened. See: My Big Fat Greek Wedding sans baby pool. I just got sprinkled.)

Anyway, my sis went with me and we... well... we had a tendency to ask difficult philosophical and historical questions.  The impressive thing about Father Emmanuel was that he had really good answers.  Father Emmanuel knew the history of the chuch -- Greek, Catholic, Protestant.  He had years of study in Greece and Turkey and was a treasure trove of accurate historical information. He also had some really good answers for philosophical questions, (far, far better than Mrs. Miller's 'you can't question the word of God')  For example, when my sister asked if he really believed in word for word Genesis (I was mortified! She was asking a priest whether he bought the story of Genesis!) and what he thought of evolution, he actually gave a really good (and science-accepting) answer, talking about literature and metaphor, and... I was impressed. What I believed was up to me, but this wasn't a man given to simple pablum answers. He was someone educated in what in the frell he was talking about and didn't give or take simple, simplified answers. (May he rest in peace. He was a wonderful man). This was quite different than other experiences I had had where the ministers, Sunday school teachers, etc. were strongly faithful and generally fine people but were not knowledgeable about the history of what they were believing or particularly inquisitive as to why.

So I guess this is a long way of saying that the results of this survey don't surprise me. My experiences with Southern forms of Protestantism were that they were largely well-intentioned (with areas of stubborn obstinancy that I did not accept) and deeply felt but not particularly worldly, historically educated, or literarily knowledgeable. I can see how these results are perfectly plausible.

And, though I mostly tend to categorize myself as agnostic, I've always been highly interested in relgion and in the history of religion. It's a fascinating subject.

Full survey here

Related article: Why care that atheists ace/faithful fail 'religious knowledge'?
Related article: Peers and Politics Shape Faith