Are all atheists this ill-informed about religion?

[Pat Mustard]

I suppose any theist who has read this part of the forum has to chuckle at how terrible atheist critiques of theism are.

Give me an example, please.

But I find that the vast majority of people I know who profess a religion (i.e. they say they're catholic) are deeply ignorant of the religion they are supposedly members of. Most have had sex outside marriage, most have used contraception, some are divorced, very few go to mass or confession and so on almost ad infinitum. Needless to say all of these are strictly verboten to the point of excommunication.

From talking to my fellow atheists, I find that there is one common thread amongst those who've given up religion and that is that they know the religion they've left in depth (and probably have studied others) to a far greater extent than their religious friends and neighbours*. But, while it is very common for those atheists who were brought up arreligiously to be better at religion than the religious, there are a few who've never developed the interest in looking at religion.

*It's actually a hypothesis of mine that the first necessary step in giving up religion is the proper study and understanding of it.