Soul Play: Belief in God-Knows-What

It has been my experience with a number of people that Americans do not understand their own faith very well, let alone the faiths of others. The book Religious Literacy, by Stephen Prothero, is dedicated to this idea. Prothero argues that, for a nation that revolves so closely around religion, we are helplessly religiously illiterate.

      I take this to heart. It is my duty as a believer, especially a passionate one, to be able to back up the theology I adhere to, or at the very least, to understand it for myself. It is perfectly normal to have doubts or even to change one’s mind from time to time. But, to brashly proclaim to believe one thing, while remaining completely oblivious to what that entails, is not just sketchy. It is embarrassing and sad.

      The only people who have consistently given me a concise, definitive response to my inquiry into their beliefs are fundamentalist Christians and atheists. It does follow that the most extreme ends of the spiritual spectrum would be the most resolute. As for the rest, those for whom religion is merely a weekly obligation or even just a Facebook detail, their convictions are astoundingly flimsy. Many people simply do not even know how to begin to define their religion.

      Still, the evidence shows that America is a very religious nation. The idea that culture in America has evolved from religious to reasonable, from superstitious to scientific, is not really true.

      90 percent of Americans purport to believe in God.

      80 percent venture to say that religion is important to them personally.

      70 percent of Americans say they pray daily.

      85 percent are Christian.

      40 percent are Christians who have been “born again.”

      34 percent believe the bible is literal.

      The Left has argued that President Bush has been trying to turn America into a sort of theocracy. That is not actually fact. To counter, the Right is expressing horror that America is being secularized, that religion in our nation is dying fast and quiet. Both are mistaken. The Leftist argument is a grave exaggeration. And we know now that religion is still alive and kicking and just as relevant to our society as it has ever been.

      America is becoming a multi-religious nation. It is swiftly shifting from a Judeo-Christian nation to a Judeo-Christian-Islamic nation. In fact, Islam rivals Judaism for the number-two spot next to Christianity as our nation’s major religion. Eastern religious ideas are infiltrating Western thought as well. 13 percent of Americans say that Buddhism has impacted their spiritual life.

      Despite all this, Americans’ conception of religion is cloudy at best. 10 percent of American teens cannot name the five major world religions, and 15 percent cannot name one. Almost two-thirds of Americans hold that the bible answers most of life’s questions, but only a measly 50 percent can name even one of the four gospels, and most Americans cannot name the first book of the bible.

      So, for a nation that is apparently so religious, shouldn’t we know a little bit more about ourselves?

Sources:

-Religious Literacy, Stephen Prothero



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