American Christians: Faking Religiosity

Christ!This morning, while I was surfing the interwebs for something to clear my mind with before starting work, I ran into an article on ReasonWeekly.com. The topic was whether or not Americans are faking their religiosity. I was intrigued because for a long time I have been telling my friends and anyone who will listen, that as far as religion goes, Christians tend to be the most ignorant about their own religion. It doesn't help that Christianity is so broken up into different denominations and that the Bible is interpreted to fit into whatever ideology is most convenient for that particular brand.

What I found most interesting in Reason Weekly's article was the statistics. I wasn't so much interested in the numbers of church attendance because seriously, who really likes going to church? Is it really a surprise that the number of people claiming to be Christian, doesn't add up to church attendance. Church is boring, I know, I was raised a Catholic. At least some of the Protestant churches try to make Sunday services fun by having young and "hip" pastors, or flamboyant characters preaching the sermon. Catholic service on the other hand...

Anyway, one thing I have to give the Catholics is that they don't go around beating people over the head with biblical scripture. From my understanding,(and granted I was a child when I heard this) some priests believe the Bible is too difficult and inconsistent for the average person to be reading. I want to point out that I was raised in a Latin American brand of Catholicism, so the priests tend to be condescending pricks to the parishoners, but whatever.

Back to the article, what I found most interesting about it was what it revealed about Christians' understanding of their own religion. For instance:

"According to a study conducted for the Catholic Biblical Federation in 2008, 93 percent of Americans have at least one copy of the Bible at home. Twenty-seven percent of Americans surveyed believe that the Bible is “the actual word of God, which must be taken literally, word for word,” and 78 percent view its contents as true. Almost half of American respondents agree–either somewhat or completely–with the statement “The Bible should be studied at school,” and 56 percent have given a Bible as a gift at least once. In addition, a Harris poll conducted the same year showed that Americans overwhelmingly name the Bible as their favorite book."

Wow! Americans sure LOVE the Bible! But do they KNOW the Bible(I don't mean that in the biblical sense either)?

"Not so. According to polls, a mere half of Americans are able to name a single Gospel, and a majority are unfamiliar with the fact that Genesis is the first book of the Bible. Thomas, according to 22 percent of Americans, wrote one of the books, and Sodom and Gomorrah were married, if we are to listen to half of American high school seniors.

While a majority of Americans maintain that they use the ten biblical commandments as a life guide, 60 percent are unable to name more than four. Among adult and teen believers, “God helps those who help themselves” is the most widely-known verse in the Bible; only 38 percent of respondents correctly said that this was not a Bible quotation, while 42 percent thought it was, and 20 percent did not hazard a guess."

So the majority of American Christians polled don't know that Genesis is the first book of the Bible? Where do they think Adam and Eve came from? Americans seem to have a similar relationship to their Christian beliefs as they do about the history of the country and the world. It is skewed by bias, and ignorance and a lack of critical thinking. If American Christians were really sincere about the Bible being their favorite book, and the true word of "god", then they would probably find the following video very hilarious.