You Mean Jesus Was Jewish?

A new poll reveals that Americans, while religious, know very little about religions, including their own. (And we also learn, from the footnote, that the New York Times doesn’t know how to spell “Teresa.”)

On average, people who took the survey answered half the questions incorrectly, and many flubbed even questions about their own faith.

Those who scored the highest were atheists and agnostics, as well as two religious minorities: Jews and Mormons. The results were the same even after the researchers controlled for factors like age and racial differences.

“Even after all these other factors, including education, are taken into account, atheists and agnostics, Jews and Mormons still outperform all the other religious groups in our survey,” said Greg Smith, a senior researcher at Pew.

That finding might surprise some, but not Dave Silverman, president of American Atheists, an advocacy group for nonbelievers that was founded by Madalyn Murray O’Hair.

“I have heard many times that atheists know more about religion than religious people,” Mr. Silverman said. “Atheism is an effect of that knowledge, not a lack of knowledge. I gave a Bible to my daughter. That’s how you make atheists.”

Among the topics covered in the survey were: Where was Jesus born? What is Ramadan? Whose writings inspired the Protestant Reformation? Which Biblical figure led the exodus from Egypt? What religion is the Dalai Lama? Joseph Smith? Mother Teresa? In most cases, the format was multiple choice.

I figured atheists would score highest, because it’s my experience that atheists know more about religion than all but a very few religious people.  Mormons, however, scored highest on questions relating to Christianity, so it’s clear someone over there is doing their job.

And by the way, when I took the test I got all 32 questions right.   The evidence would seem to indicate that I’m a non-believer.