Embarrassing but predicatable: once again, the atheists make us Christians look like morons. Is there a lesson here?
Michelangelo‘s Creation of Adam with a significant 21st-century alteration. Can you find it? Source: www.fotodiario2.it
Well, friends, it has happened just as we knew it would: They performed a survey of basic religious knowledge, “they” being the Pew Forum on Religion & Life — and we nice church persons didn’t do so well. In fact, the atheists thrashed us soundly. Here’s a quote from today’s Belief Blog at cnn.com:
Although the United States is one of the most religious developed countries in the world, most Americans scored 50 percent or less on a quiz measuring knowledge of the Bible, world religions and what the Constitution says about religion in public life. The survey is full of surprising findings. For example, it’s not evangelicals or Catholics who did best – it’s atheists and agnostics. It’s not Bible-belt Southerners who scored highest – they came at the bottom. Those who believe the Bible is the literal word of God did slightly worse than average, while those who say it is not the word of God scored slightly better. Barely half of all Catholics know that when they take communion, the bread and wine literally become the body and blood of Christ, according to Catholic doctrine.
Etc., etc., etc.
Now this does not surprise us here at psnt.net. We are friends with a number of fine atheist persons and we are regularly impressed with their overall knowledge not only of Christianity and the Bible, but of many of the world’s faith traditions. But even if we had no atheist friends, we may have reasoned our way to these results.
Atheists do not become atheists because atheists are popular or because they grew up in atheistic households. In fact, atheists are discriminated against and the majority of the them were probably raised in extremely conservative religious homes. No, they become atheists because, in their view, the weight of evidence is against the existence of God. We suspect that this is not a self-evident conclusion for them; instead we’re betting that they had to do some research work to arrive at their position. Which means learning about religion. Which those Christians who never question their faith never really do. These folks are like fish who don’t know they’re wet; their faith is the water they swim in.
This whole thing really embarrassing to us here at psnt.net. If atheists know what they reject, shouldn’t we Christians at least know what we accept? Shouldn’t we know what others believe? Or are we afraid that if we look too closely at our own faith it will disappear? Or if we look at the faiths of others, they will prove too attractive? Let’s at least learn our own religion, dear friends! Let’s ask questions! Let’s doubt! We have no reason to be afraid!
I should stop now.
But there’s one more thing. Just for grins, you can answer 10 of the 32 questions posed in the Pew survey here. Have fun!
