Study Shows most Americans don't know much about religion

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_rel_religious_literacy_poll


oh the irony

 

...Wow. That's... disappointing. :\

I mean, depending on the questions, I'd like to think I know plenty about my former religion. And it's not like I dropped it because I started learning about it and hated it, I just gradually lost identification with it. But I feel like a lot of people did do that. Most atheists I know seem to be atheists because they were raised in a highly religious environment; I hope this isn't connected to that.

 

Human nature dictates that man wants what he doesn't have. if your raised in a religious background you will want to become atheist, most of the time it isn't out of disbelief but out of dis-obediance or trying to find independance. Alot of people in a non-religious background become athiests because it offers comforts beyond what they have previously experianced. I am athiest but not out of dis-obediance but because it clouds a truth behind it.

The Reason athiests know more about religion than theists is because those who are athiests who do it out of dis-obediance educate themselves against the insecurity of being wrong and the reason thiests know so little is because usually all their friends are the same and believe that they don't need any education on the subject as long as they believe. Alot of teen theists don't even believe in God but they use it as an excuse for everything.

 

Of all of the information in that article, these points disturbed me the most.
I mean, sure, the Protestant Reformation was hundreds of years ago, but you would think that the majority of Protestants would want to know how and why they differ from Roman Catholics.

And the Dalai Lama is a huge political and religious leader. I had hoped that more people knew why he is who he is.

Granted, I have taken world religion courses, so you may call me biased. But I think that a basic teaching of international religions should be mandatory in school systems.

 

To be honest, I didn't think Buddism had a central leader and was focused around the philosophy given to us by one Siddartha Gutama (sp?). I thought the Dalai Lama was Hindu. Man, I can't believe how wrong I was.