A survey conducted by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life , including basic questions about Christianity, the Bible, and world religions found that the most knowledgeable groups were atheists, agnostics, Mormons and Jews.
A good write-up about the survey was published today in the New York Times.
This shouldn't come as a shock to anyone. It certainly wasn't a shock to Dave Silverman, president of American Atheists. From the Times:
"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."
I can confirm Mr. Silverman's statement. After a number of years studying various faith traditions in our Unitarian-Universalist church, my son casually but firmly declared himself an atheist. And a Democrat.
Could anything make a father more proud?
Here is the link to the Pew survey results. From their executive summary:
On average, Americans correctly answer 16 of the 32 religious knowledge questions on the survey by the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life. Atheists and agnostics average 20.9 correct answers. Jews and Mormons do about as well, averaging 20.5 and 20.3 correct answers, respectively. Protestants as a whole average 16 correct answers; Catholics as a whole, 14.7.
There is a link on the Pew page to an online quiz, but I think it's being overwhelmed. "The page cannot be displayed."