Knowledge About Religions

A recent Pew Research survey found that atheists and agnostics in the United States know more about religion than those in the "nothing in particular" group. Atheists and agnostics are also on par with the Catholics and Protestants concerning knowledge about Catholicism and Protestantism by their followers.

The broad category of “religiously unaffiliated” includes atheists, agnostics and those who describe their religion as “nothing in particular.” The “nothing in particular” group are among the least knowledgeable group overall. This is interesting because roughly three-quarters of religious “nones” in the U.S. were raised as Christians. This might help explain why many atheists and agnostics are knowledgeable since they may have actively rejected these teachings.

People appear to reject their religious upbringing in one of two ways:

• They may just not care or remain unconvinced in a way that they don't bother to retain information about Christianity. This isn't surprising given the numerous video clips of Americans who don't know basic geography or civics.
• They take in and retain a religious education but then decide it's unbelievable. I fall into this category. I know a bit about religions because I continue to pay attention to them. I find it amazing that anyone with a logical mind would believe the stories and claims of our world's religions.

Another result of the survey says atheists and agnostics are among the most knowledgeable on questions about non-Christian religions. It's a shame if it's only atheist and agnostics learning about other religions. I believe a deeper study of all religions will lead to more people abandoning religion so the more we all learn then the better we'll be. I believe there should be religious education in public schools, but only if it's an honest and objective study of all religions with a purposeful comparison of their origins and beliefs.

Christians in America are surrounded by their families and social groups with other Christians echoing the same nonsense over and over. They normalize Christian beliefs into something that seems more believable in this echo chamber. Everyone else thinks and talks the same way about pray, God, and Jesus. Enough of it spills over into the public sphere that it can feel like everyone on Earth believes the same thing.

It would become more obvious that all religions are unbelievable mythological stories if the most popular religion of a place was critically studied alongside all other religions. Americans often see rejection and criticism of other religions without getting to know much about them. They aren't exposed enough to criticisms of their beliefs. It's easier to "go along to get along."

The final observation of the survey is a warning about maintaining true freedom of religion in the United States. I find it sad that only 55% of atheists and 41% of agnostics know the Constitution specifically says "no religious test" is necessary to hold public office. I'm not as surprised that the overall understanding is a meager 27%.

People are understandably confused about their freedom to believe or not believe when they add "under God" to the Pledge of Allegiance and change the national motto to "In God We Trust." The Supreme Court does mental flips and doublespeak to say that God isn't the Christian God and we still have freedom of religion with this hanging over us.

In the end, agnostics and atheist need to lead the way on what freedom of religion really looks like since we're apparently the most knowledgeable on the subject.