Like most religious people, Americans are breathtakingly ignorant. We already knew we were ignorant about science and other factual matters, of course—but it turns out we're equally ignorant about religion! Except for the atheists. A new survey by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life found that most religious Americans don't know shit about their own religions. Sample fun finding: “A majority of Protestants, for instance, couldn't identify Martin Luther as the driving force behind the Protestant Reformation.” On questions about Christianity – including a battery of questions about the Bible – Mormons (7.9 out of 12 right on average) and white evangelical Protestants (7.3 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 correctly (nearly three better than the national average) and atheists/agnostics answer 7.5 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. So if you have a question about god, ask an atheist. If you can't find one, a Jew will do in a pinch. Or a Mormon, I guess. http://gawker.com/5649907/study-atheists-know-the-most-about-religion added by: pjacobs51
