While the United States is a highly religious country, an assessment of religious knowledge has revealed that the American people are generally not very knowledgeable about matters of general theology and religious history. The survey, conducted by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, consisted of 32 questions pertaining to general knowledge of world religions. Americans, on average, answered only about half of the questions correctly. This finding begs scrutiny by religious and nonreligious people alike.
On the surface, it might seem surprising that people of faith would score lower on the questionnaire than would people who do not practice a religion, for one would think the former would make a conscious effort to learn about the intricacies of what they believe. Yet, for most religious people, their beliefs are either a result of the way they were raised or a product of self-discovery rather than a result of a search for historical facts.
Meanwhile, atheism can result from the accumulation of knowledge and the necessary means of trial and error to satisfy the denial of God as opposed to the acceptance of God. In other words, atheists seek such religious knowledge to affirm their nonbelief. This suggests an intimate familiarity with religion on the part of nonbelievers, despite the fact that they do not follow what they explore.
Despite different justifications provided for the results of this study, both believers and nonbelievers have an equal necessity to know about world religions. The grounds for their beliefs do not exempt these parties from their duty to be educated about religion. The results of the survey indicate that many Americans follow their faith without basic theological and historical knowledge of it. This is a serious problem in a country where religion plays a powerful role in politics and lawmaking.
As Stephen Prothero, a professor of religion at Boston University, rightfully said, "From time immemorial, and for better or for worse, human beings have been motivated to act politically, economically and militarily by their gods, scriptures and priests. Without making sense of those motivations, we cannot make sense of the world."
The findings of to this survey express the need for the American public to seek religious education and become better citizens of the modern global community. The Daily advocates that all Americans push themselves to seek religious knowledge.
