Knowing what we don’t know

Knowing what we don’t know

The (Toledo) Blade: The next time an American says something ignorant about this being a Christian nation or President Obama being “a Muslim,” consider the source.

According to a new survey by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, most Americans don’t know what they’re talking about when it comes to their faith or the religion of others.

Although 82 percent of those polled knew that Mother Teresa was Catholic, only 45 percent could name the four gospels. Forty-seven percent correctly identified the Dalai Lama as Buddhist, but only 27 percent knew that Indonesia is a Muslim country.

The United States is the most self-consciously religious nation in the West. But the Pew survey offers more evidence that religious literacy among average citizens is abysmal.