TEXAS FAITH: Why is there such a lack of religious knowledge?

A recent survey by the Pew Forum for Religion & Public Life offered up some counter-intuitive findings. Among them, agnostics and atheists scored the highest of all respondents to the survey of religious knowledge. Not far behind were Jews and Mormons, so it wasn’t that no faith tradition scored well on the 32-question quiz. But the findings did show that Protestants and Catholics particularly lacked a good understanding of religion in general. Mainline Protestants, for example, averaged correct answers only about half the time. The same was true for white Catholics

No one who teaches theology, leads a house of worship, or takes their faith seriously can like the numbers in that poll, even if your own tradition did okay. In general, the report shows a lack of religious knowledge among quite a few people of faith.

So, here’s this week’s question:

Although there are some exceptions, a wide of range of people of faith apparently don’t possess a deep knowledge about religion in general. Why is this?

Read on for the answers from a wide range of our panel.

http://religionblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2010/10/texas-faith-pew-forum-study-on.html

Mike Ghouse is a speaker on Pluralism and Islam offering pluralistic solutions to the media and public on issues of the day. His blogs and sites are listed at www.MikeGhouse.net