According to the media, the latest Pew Forum\u2019s report has once again produced discouraging news for religious Americans. Headlines read: \u201cBasic Religious Test Stumps Most Americans,\u201d \u201cAmericans Don’t Know Much About Religion,\u201d \u201cAtheists Know More About Religion Than Believers.\u201d<\/p>\n
The current survey focused on religious knowledge.<\/a> There were a few questions about Biblical facts but many were trivia questions regarding world religions or religious history. Most scored around 50%. Atheists and agnostics made the highest grades by getting an average of 20 out of the 32 questions right, but let\u2019s face it \u2013 that\u2019s still not a passing grade \u2013 more like 62%.<\/p>\n I\u2019m not sure the results portray America as a godless nation as much as an uneducated one. The scores probably wouldn\u2019t have been any better if they had focused on math, literature, science, history, or geography. I\u2019m sure it\u2019s nice to know the denomination of Mother Teresa, the main religion of Pakistan, when the Jewish Sabbath starts, and who participated in the \u201cGreat Awakening,\u201d but truthfully that doesn\u2019t make you a better Christian \u2013 just a more informed one.<\/p>\n Now don\u2019t get me wrong. I believe in being informed and educated. When I took the Pew Religious Knowledge sampling quiz<\/a> I scored 100%. (I\u2019m not saying this to brag. I\u2019m sure if I took a math quiz my scores would plummet.) It\u2019s just that I don\u2019t find this Pew report as discouraging as former ones showing that Christians don\u2019t read their Bibles or know what they believe.<\/p>\n Mark Twain\u2019s adage that the Bible is \u201ca book that people praise and never read\u201d is all too true. Which is sad considering there are over 3000 English translations including everything from a Bible for Dummies, teen Bibles, Children\u2019s Bible, the Message, a text speak version to the 500 or more \u201ctraditional\u201d versions such as NIV, NKJ, NRS, NC, NAS, RS, LB, and so on. It would seem Christians could find at least one they could read consistently.<\/p>\n A residual effect of not reading the Bible is that most who call themselves Christians are even hazy about what they believe. They just believe in some sort of nebulous God and his son Jesus Christ who allow good people to go to heaven and send bad people to hell. It\u2019s much easier to take this approach than to actually take the time to study and find out who God really is. Which is sad, because they rob themselves of a relationship with the One who could give them peace, comfort, and joy \u2013 the very things they so desperately seek.<\/p>\n If you want to have more knowledge about world religions then read a book on world religions. If you want to know how to live, read the Book of Life \u2013 the Bible.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" According to the media, the latest Pew Forum\u2019s report has once again produced discouraging news for religious Americans. Headlines read: \u201cBasic Religious Test Stumps Most Americans,\u201d \u201cAmericans Don’t Know Much About Religion,\u201d \u201cAtheists Know More About Religion Than Believers.\u201d The … Continue reading