CNN's Belief Blog reports today on the results of a huge 32-question study released by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, and the results may surprise you.
Of the 3,400 people who took the poll by telephone, atheists and agnostics answered the most questions correctly, while Southern "Bible Belt" residents (primarily Southern Baptists, by the demographics) had the most incorrect responses. Only about half of Catholics knew about the doctrine of transubstantiation, and only a third know it's legal for a public school teacher to conduct a comparative religion class using the Bible as literature. Overall behind the 'unaffiliated', Jews and Mormons scored higher than Catholics and Protestants.
The United States is self-defined as a "religious" country, with about 80% of the population claiming affiliation with one branch of Christianity or another - numerically greater than any other country in the world.
How does all this translate to how people use religion in politics and public life? We are all familiar with the "Talibangelicals" Marcos highlights in his new book American Taliban, their constant pressure against women's right to choose, for instituting prayer in public schools, their anti-gay bigotry and their historically ignorant pronouncements about America's foundation and architects. From the Moral Majority to the Christian Coalition and all the way to today's Tea Party Republicans, we are treated to their displays of theocratic authoritarianism constantly. So I for one am kind of ironically amused that the most prominent of these wannabe mind-tyrants (the SBC and affiliated fundamentalists) turn out to be the most ignorant about not only their own religion, but everybody else's too!
So now we know the truth about the American Taliban, what do we do with it? Is there any way to make an issue of their ignorance as we approach November? Not just individually with the Palins and O'Donnells and assorted other know-nothing ignoramuses, but the entire demographic. They need to be brought to terms publicly for their stupidity about their own religion (and others), as a means to highlight their concurrent ignorance of American history and the principles upon which this country was founded. I should think this Pew study could be a useful tool in that effort. That's not some evil progressive or commie liberal slapping a label on 'em, it's their own actually displayed cluelessness!
Anyway, just let me be among the first to say, "Hahahahahaha!!!!" What numbnuts these posers are…
P.S. Don't forget to take the 10-question 'test' of your own religious knowledge while you're there (at CNN). Post your scores in the comments, then we'll have a small overview of how much Kossacks know about the subject that self-professed religios don't know. I got 10 of 10, and I am in the 'unaffiliated' column.
Update: Don't miss this diary by Giles Goat Boy, who links to a NY Times article on the same survey.
Update #2: Here is the pdf link to the full Pew report.