“Atheists and agnostics, Jews and Mormons are among the highest-scoring groups on a new survey of religious knowledge, outperforming evangelical Protestants, mainline Protestants and Catholics on questions about the core teachings, history and leading figures of major world religions.” Pew Survey
When one is in the minority (2% of Americans are atheists or agnostic) it is difficult not to question one’s belief and questioning should include trying to understand the beliefs of others. It is unfortunate more people don’t question their belief perhaps then there would be better understanding of others and thus more tolerance. Many of the conflicts in the world would go away if people simply understood that belief is not knowledge. It is fine to believe in one God or many or none as long as one understands that they don’t KNOW; that another’s belief is no more or less valid.
Test your knowledge of religion:
http://features.pewforum.org/quiz/us-religious-knowledge/
and check out the Pew report:
http://pewforum.org/Other-Beliefs-and-Practices/U-S-Religious-Knowledge-Survey.aspx
-
« Home
-
Categories
Comments 3
I’ve seen surveys that suggest 10% of Americans are atheist or agnostic.
Wikipedia says “A 2004 BBC poll showed the number of people in the US who don’t believe in a god to be about 9%.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_atheism
Posted 30 Sep 2010 at 5:29 pm ¶I heard the 2% number somewhere recently, perhaps on a radio interview about the survey. Thanks for a better documented number.
Posted 30 Sep 2010 at 7:15 pm ¶By the way, it gets me that agnostics are labeled as not believing in a god. There is a difference between belief and knowledge. Agnostics say they don’t know. Just because they don’t know doesn’t preclude them from believing. I’m campaigning for a world of agnostics; agnostic Christians, agnostic Muslims, agnostic atheists, and agnostic Jews.
Posted 30 Sep 2010 at 7:20 pm ¶Post a Comment
You must be logged in to post a comment.