Atheists know more about religion; That
For Humanist Network News
Oct. 6, 2010
The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life just released a new study on U.S. religious knowledge. One of the key findings is the fact that atheists/agnostics scored highest among various faith (or non-faith) groups when it came to basic religious knowledge.
Why is that? There is no definitive answer, but I can offer a few theories. Many atheists left religion in the first place because we learned too much about our faith. Atheists pay attention when we hear religious groups make ridiculous statements. Atheists tends to be better educated than the rest of the population.
Many atheists left religion in the first place because we learned too much about our faith.
They say a little knowledge can hurt you, but in our case, a lot of knowledge led us to believe that what we were being taught in our churches, synagogues and mosques were a collection of lies — well-meaning lies in most cases, but certainly not reflective of reality.
As we speak to other atheists and read their books, we find that their stories are similar to ours. Lies are lies, no matter how they’re wrapped, and their stories stick with us. We learn a lot about other religions partly because we notice that delusion isn’t limited to the faith we left. It’s all around it, wherever a god is present.
Atheists pay attention when we hear religious groups make ridiculous statements.
When Catholics get offended because someone desecrated a communion wafer, we realize that it’s because they really believe the wafer is the body of Christ. It’s not symbolic! They really believe they’re digesting Jesus. It’s silly. And we notice.
When the children of Christian Scientists get killed because their parents refused to take them to a doctor for an otherwise-treatable infection, we are appalled. And we learn about their religious beliefs in that way.
Time after time, we are bombarded with religious beliefs. We take note of them. We point out how foolish it all sounds, but so many religious Americans give those beliefs a pass because “it’s somebody’s faith and we ought to respect it.” Maybe they let it slide, but those beliefs stick with us.
Atheists tends to be better educated than the rest of the population.
Study after study has shown that there is a correlation between a person’s level of education and that person’s level of religiosity. The more education we get, the less religious we are. It’s no surprise that college-educated scientists have a problem with, say, the evangelical Christian stance on evolution. It’s no surprise that educated people have a problem with how women are treated in the Catholic Church and in certain Muslim nations.
Educated people also tend to be more skeptical and critical. We don’t take what religious leaders say at face value. We want to study their claims for ourselves and, too often, we’ve come to find that those leaders are on the wrong side of the truth. The same applies to their holy books. It should be noted that the Pew Forum study showed that atheists/agnostics fared better than “believers who had a similar level of education.” So while education helps, it isn’t the only factor at play.
As I said at the beginning, these are only my theories as to why we atheists scored higher in this study than people from other faiths. As this study makes the rounds, I’m really curious to hear why church-goers feel they scored lower than we did. And I’d love to know if (and how) they plan to fix that.
Hemant Mehta is the Chair of the Secular Student Alliance (SSA) Board of Directors. He has worked with the Center for Inquiry and also is an SSA representative to the Secular Coalition for America. Hemant received national attention, including being featured on the front page of the Wall Street Journal, for his work as the “eBay Atheist.” Hemant’s blog can be read at FriendlyAtheist.com, and his book, I Sold My Soul on eBay, (WaterBrook Press) is now available on Amazon.com. He currently works as a high school math teacher in the suburbs of Chicago.