The Associated Press put out a story a few days ago with the headline, “Survey: Americans Don’t Know Much About Religion.” The survey was conducted by the Pew Forum. Atheists and agnostics scored highest, with an average of 21 correct answers out of 32. Twelve of the questions were about Christianity and on those, Mormons scored the highest. While I hardly think this is representative since they surveyed 3,412 Americans (out of 300 million), it is thought provoking and might spur you to learn a little more about your own faith if not all faiths.
What I found most interesting about the results, though, is that only 23% of those surveyed knew that a teacher can use the Bible in class as an example of literature. The misconceptions about “seperation of church and state” are frightening. Two things to remember:
1) That phrase came from a letter written by Thomas Jefferson–not the constitution; and
2) Jefferson was talking about keeping the state out of churches, not the other way around.
Curious to test your knowledge? http://features.pewforum.org/quiz/us-religious-knowledge/index.php
And here’s the article: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39397251/ns/us_news-life?gt1=43001