The Religious Knowledge Void

Religious Knowledge Survey

In 2010 the PEW Forum on Religion and Public Life published a “U.S. Religious knowledge Survey”. The following was the intro to the survey: “In his 2007 book, Religious Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know – And Doesn’t, Boston University professor Stephen Prothero wrote that “Americans are both deeply religious and profoundly ignorant about religion.” “To support his contention, Prothero offered many compelling anecdotes and some isolated findings from public opinion polls. He also cited a few studies about the extent of biblical literacy among young people. But, as he discovered, there was no comprehensive, national survey assessing the general state of religious knowledge among U.S. adults. To address this gap, the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life set out to gauge what Americans know about their own faiths and about other religions. The resulting survey covered a wide range of topics, including the beliefs and practices of major religious traditions as well as the role of religion in American history and public life. Based on an analysis of answers from more than 3,400 people to 32 religious knowledge questions, this report attempts to provide a baseline measurement of how much Americans know about religion today.”

Executive Summary

“Atheists and agnostics, Jews and Mormons are among the highest-scoring groups on a new survey of religious knowledge, outperforming evangelical Protestants, mainline Protestants and Catholics on questions about the core teachings, history and leading figures of major world religions.

On average, Americans correctly answer 16 of the 32 (50%) religious knowledge questions on the survey by the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life. Atheists and agnostics average 20.9 (65%) correct answers. Jews and Mormons do about as well, averaging 20.5 (64%) and 20.3 (63%) correct answers, respectively. Protestants as a whole average 16 (50%) correct answers; Catholics as a whole, 14.7 (46%). Atheists and agnostics, Jews and Mormons perform better than other groups on the survey even after controlling for differing levels of education.

On questions about Christianity – including a battery of questions about the Bible – Mormons (7.9 out of 12 [66%] right on average) and white evangelical Protestants (7.3 [61%] correct on average) show the highest levels of knowledge. Jews and atheists/agnostics stand out for their knowledge of other world religions, including Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism and Judaism; out of 11 such questions on the survey, Jews answer 7.9 [72%] correctly (nearly three better than the national average) and atheists/agnostics answer 7.5 [68%] correctly (2.5 better than the national average). Atheists/agnostics and Jews also do particularly well on questions about the role of religion in public life, including a question about what the U.S. Constitution says about religion.”

A 2013 PEW survey indicated that “the number of Americans who do not identify with any religion continues to grow at a rapid pace. One-fifth of the U.S. public – and a third of adults under 30 – are religiously unaffiliated today, the highest percentages ever in Pew Research Center polling.” It also said “with few exceptions, the unaffiliated say they are not looking for a religion that would be right for them. Overwhelmingly, they think that religious organizations are too concerned with money and power, too focused on rules and too involved in politics.” It appears that not only is there a growing ignorance in religious knowledge in the America but also a growing apathy in religious beliefs, especially among the younger generations.

Faith Legacy

Most Christians inherit their faith from their parents and it is reinforced by church attendance, if church attendance diminishes then so does the indoctrination and reinforcement. For the majority of believers the only Christian education they experience is via Sunday school and listening to the homilies and liturgies taught by clergy during church services and by watching religious documentaries and epic movies on television aired during the Easter and Christmas holiday seasons. Surveys suggest that while the Bible is the best-selling book of all times it is also the least read. A recent 2014 nationwide survey of over 2,000 participants commissioned by the American Bible Society found that only 37% of those who owned bibles read them and that 26% of all American adults never read the Bible. Perhaps more telling is that 39% of Millennials (age 18-29) never read the Bible.

A previous religious PEW survey taken in the U.S.A. indicated that while most people have read parts of the Bible, few have read it in its entirety cover to cover. While one can only speculate as to the possible causes for this phenomenon the following reasons seem probable. The bible is filled with stories that are difficult to read and understand literally or figuratively and appear to represent ancient renderings or interpretations of God. People have a tough time relating to ancient civilizations in far-off regions of the world. People are growing weary of a slow evolving and unchanging religion that is founded on man-made creeds and rituals frozen in time; faith born out of supernaturalism and superstition out-of-sync with modern knowledge, science and reality; a faith that relies on antediluvian tribal beliefs.

Faith without Reason

If you believe that our beliefs define who and what we are as individuals and collectively as a human race then there is nothing more important than our beliefs. Because of their importance and how they influence our behaviors it is critical that they are grounded in ‘reason’. We can certainly believe that our beliefs are grounded in ‘truth’ but the actual truthfulness of faith is a difficult claim to measure or substantiate. However, most would agree that trust, confidence and loyalty in anything doesn’t just happen without at least a presumption of truth. Religious believers don’t come to their beliefs without reasons for their beliefs.

Even though a person’s beliefs are born out of a presumption of truth they are also generally born in a vacuum, in that they were either inspired by or inherited from parents who hail from or live in a particular country or region of the world. These beliefs are strongly influenced by that country’s prevailing faith, ethnicity and culture. Chances are you would inherit the predominate faith of that particular nation or region of the world. The other factor that is often overlooked is that the average child is generally initiated, indoctrinated and possibly baptized into a religion without a choice. The bottom line is that we are essentially born with a bias. Yes, we can eventually change our minds and broaden our perspectives as we mature; however converting to a different faith tradition other than what we were born into is the exception rather than the rule. Protestant Christians may choose to move from one denominational church to another but generally stay Christian. Unfortunately, most individuals are ignorant about faith traditions other than their own, and have little interest in learning about other religions once their own faith is established.

The word ‘faith’ has essentially four meanings. It can mean an unquestioning belief in something but especially God or a religion. It can be used as a synonym for the word religion. It can mean a complete trust or confidence, and finally it can merely mean loyalty. In the phrase “faith without reason”, the word ‘faith’ is a synonym for religion but can apply to all four definitions. It simply suggests that credible religious beliefs should at minimum require sound reasoning. The elements of faith, trust, confidence and loyalty in a person or belief are generally earned. In the case of religion, it is attempting to discern fact from fiction, myth from reality, and faith from fallacy; it is a quest for truth.

TJA