Misconceptions of Christian theology

[Angrboda]

Ah thanks for the clarification. But the news didn't break it down that way at first. Ah, well...

I would suggest that John is misrepresenting the results of the survey. Yes, education is a strong confounding factor, but the report explicitly states that even after controlling for education, atheists rank at or near the top. Moreover, the spread is interesting as well, out of a total of 12 questions specific to Christianity, Mormons averaged 7.9 right, white evangelicals 7.3, and atheists 6.7; Protestants as a whole, 6.5, and Catholics 5.4. Moreover, if these questions are as mind numbingly simple as John suggests, that only makes the inability of Christians as a whole to answer them mind numbingly embarrassing for Christianity. This fact is only made worse by the fact that atheists are being tested on something that isn't central to their lives, and that such knowledge should be central to the life of a Christian. Moreover, this is also glossing over the abysmal ignorance of Christians concerning religion and public life, consisting of 4 questions, with the average number correct being 2.8 for Atheists, 2.7 for Jews, Mormons and white evangelicals 2.3, and Protestants and Catholics overall at 2.1. (In defense of white evangelicals, there is a concerted anti-intellectual disinformation campaign among white evangelicals to mislead and misinform their constituency about matters of religion as it relates to public life, so their failures here may be partly a consequence of having been lied to by their own people.)

But I suggest you read the study for yourself rather than rely on John's dishonest spinmeistering.



(ETA: Grabbing a quick figure from Beliefnet.com, it appears that white evangelicals only make up about 12% of Christians [U.S.?], making their performance in the Pew survey even less spectacular. This may not be a reliable figure, as I haven't adequately researched the matter. [see here])