There has been a flurry of interest in and much speculation about the recent Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life survey on US Religious Knowledge. The survey asked a cross-section of the American public about their knowledge of the various doctrines, practices and beliefs of their own and other religions. It also put the same questions to those of no belief.
Many have expressed surprise at the headline finding that atheists and agnostics had better scores than religious people, especially the evangelical Protestants and many Catholics. Daniel Dennett has written an article analysing the results and suggesting explanations for this disparity.
Whilst many in the UK and Europe have no doubt expressed a little amusement at this survey, I can't help but wonder, despite the common study of comparative religion in our schools, whether our results in a similar study conducted here would differ so greatly.
I am often stunned at the complete ignorance of the diversity of belief within the various Christian denominations, and the often false beliefs about other religious groups, if people are even aware of their existence. The ignorance of beliefs within their own religion and denominations is similarly common, if my experiences are anything to go by. It seems ridiculous to me, and I'm sure to many others that people are building their lives around the profession of religious faith, whilst being less than knowledgeable about the doctrines, practices and distinctions of the group which they choose to identify with. Furthermore, the ignorance of, and misconceptions about, other religions must surely be even more widespread.
Many people will regard this as having little relevance to them and their lives, but as religious fundamentalism shows little sign of abating, and is actually multiplying in the western industrialised societies, then this is relevant to us all. Had we the proper safeguards of a truly secular society, then we could ignore this to some extent, but we do not have such a society; religious influence is embedded within the establishment of many nations, regardless of the actual beliefs of their people. Nor can we ignore the blight that such ignorance has on the lives of individuals, whether in terms of the discrimination they may face, the opportunities denied to them, and the simple pleasure and clarity of the truth, when revealed. If you are going to choose to follow a faith-based religion, and embrace it's practice with all that that entails, then surely you should at least know what that religion actually professes, and what the alternatives are?
5 days ago
I've also been thinking about this survey. The results do not seem surprising at all to me and fall right in line with my observations over many years. One of the many things about religious literacy in the United States is that so few are aware of what "separation of church and state" actually means. It does not mean that our educational system should neglect teaching about the role and diversity of religion in the United States. If the issues, histories, and challenges of religious diversity are neglected in public education and civic discourse, we essentially surrender the conversation to fundamentalism and allow a very few to define the terms of the debate. "Religion" gets condensed in sound bites and pretty stupid ones at that. Superficiality and sensationalism are good for ratings, but not much good for peace.
ReplyDeleteHystery,
ReplyDeleteDid you read Daniel Dennett's analysis? What did you think?
Not only do the majority of people (in both US and UK) not understand "separation of church and state", but they have little understanding, if any, of secularism, and how important both of these are to the protection of religious freedom (and freedom from it).
I'm all in favour of the academic study of religion at school level, in the form of comparative religion, as long as it is done impartially, and considers all aspects of religion, and its impacts on society. I think that would be a valuable educational experience for children. It's very hard to see how that would happen in a country like America with the current religious/political climate; indeed, it's hard enough in Europe, without the political overtones that accompany religion in the US, and with the far lower levels of religious fervour that would presumably oppose such lessons, especially to the equality of treatment of faiths, and of non-faith.
And there's no guarantee it would make that much difference to the survey results, as I am pointing out above, because it seems that, although the current schoolkids will be knowledgeable, the majority seem to forget almost all of it later. I guess that is true of much of what we are taught at school, but maybe more so in religion, as the domestic and national cultural background seems to drown out the school lessons; a further example being the status of acceptance of evolution in the US, strongly influenced by the religious beliefs taught and repeated outside school.
Comparative religion has been taught in many schools in the UK, and much of Europe, for at least the past two decades, but many in their 20s and 30s still seem remarkably ignorant about it, though this may, at least in part, be a symptom of both a widespread disinterest in religion, and of the rise of fundamentalist ideas, which deny any such equal understanding of other religions, and the proper analysis of their own religious beliefs and practices. We can still try, though!