Faith of Our Fathers
There's a review of a new book on religious illiteracy in the Post this morning. Worth a read. From the first paragraph: "Americans are . . . the most religiously ignorant people in the Western world. Fewer than half of us can identify Genesis as the first book of the Bible, and only one third know that Jesus delivered the Sermon on the Mount."
So, religiosity in the United States often consists of vague religious sentiments, not grounded in any specific doctrine or church. This is not news, but it is interesting to think about.
For example, in class last week I covered the school prayer cases. What's interesting to me is how controversial school prayer is, when what is at issue in most of the cases are bland, non-sectarian prayers that should be more offensive to believers than non-believers. For example, the prayer that started it all in Engel v. Vitale: "Almighty God, we acknowledge our dependence upon Thee, and we beg Thy blessings upon us, our parents, our teachers and our country." But people get outraged when public expressions of watered-down, non-sectarian theism are prohibited. Why? Well, apparently, those bland, watered-down expressions are religion for many, many people who count themselves as believers and even "persons of faith." Thus:
Approximately 75 percent of adults, according to polls cited by Prothero, mistakenly believe the Bible teaches that "God helps those who help themselves." More than 10 percent think that Noah's wife was Joan of Arc. Only half can name even one of the four Gospels, and -- a finding that will surprise many -- evangelical Christians are only slightly more knowledgeable than their non-evangelical counterparts.
One final point: The American people are an easy mark. Survey their levels of political/cultural/scientific knowledge, and you quickly discover that most people don't know shit. But somehow the world goes on. Schumpeter said something about this, I believe.
posted by Number Three @ 8:41 AM
8 Comments:
Joan of Arc, wife of Noah! I didn't expect that one.
Yeah, Schumpeter said stuff about it, but the idea that it's all OK just doesn't really hold for me any longer.
I agree with your last point, bug, about surveying the American people on just about anything.
But at what point are you going to question the survey?
How can you possibly believe a statistic that says that fewer than half of Americans can identify Genesis?
At least Paul's BS statistics about how many fifteen year olds are knocking boots have a sheen of believability (the old "don't judge a statistic by your own white bread, suburban understanding of fifteen year old behavior" routine).
But there is no way on God's green earth that fewer than half of American adults know Genesis.
For smart people, suprise should lead naturally to skepticism.
In response to fronesis, I'm not really saying that the ignorance of most people is a good or bad thing, just that it is a fact of life. I would like to believe that the situation could be improved, but I am skeptical.
Which brings me to CL's point. I agree that skepticism is warranted. But the figure on Genesis is not really that surprising, given the low levels of political and cultural knowledge, generally. For example, a solid minority of Americans (around 40%, although it varies from survey to survey) can't tell you which of the two major parties is more conservative. Earlier studies of political ideology found that very few people can think about politics in ideological terms (even with relaxed assumptions, Converse found about 16% was the ceiling). People like CL and me take knowing these things for granted. But one of the values of survey research is to show how unusual people like us are.
Btw, the Bible is a book, and I'm not sure that most people have very good recall even about books they've read. Which, my guess is, that most folks haven't actually read the Bible.
Lex,
I believe the original question about Genesis went something like, "What is the first book of the Bible?" I suspect that fewer than 50% of Americans would know the answer to that question, which is quite different than the apparent question you imagine: "Have you ever heard of the book of Genesis?" Not that the former question absolves Americans of ignorance a whole lot more, but it is a more difficult question.
Since you bring up our earlier exchange about whether or not it's believable that 10% of 13-year olds have had sex, your big beef with that statistic seemed to have been that when you were 13 there was no way that 10% of your friends in your locker room had lost their virginity, therefore the statistic was impossible.
You might want to consider the fact that there was another locker room across the hall full of girls who weren't with you snapping asses with towels and doing astro sit-ups -- a few of whom dated older boys 'cause they thought their peers such immature dweebes. Plus a few girls and possibly boys had probably been raped, usually by male relatives (incest), and they would not have wanted to broadcast that in the lockeroom. Also in poorer, predominately minority communities (I'm guessing you didn't grow up in one of these) it's often a badge of honor for a girl to give birth to a kid ASAP. Taken all together, the figure of 10% is likely to be pretty darn close to the true figure. But of course you could never believe that, apparently because you have the firm conviction that your (I'm guessing) white, suburban male peers are the only statistical pool that matters.
Oh holy mackerel, Paul. I grew up on and around military bases. Quit trying to make me out to be some frat boy who went to a small private school in the south. I know you're used to exploiting people's guilt, but that doesn't work on me. I don't have any.
It's insane to me the degree to which otherwise smart people are wedded to statistics. It's just nuts that you think there is a statistically significant portion of the 13 year old population that was a victim of rape/incest who are - surprise - more than willing to open up about it on a survey.
And for the record, I think my flip remark was about 15 year olds, not 13 year olds.
Bug,
You're mistaking what you and me are unusual for. We're unusual because we could probably give an extemporaneous disquisition on the interrelation between the band Genesis (best song: the Brazilian), the Book of Genesis and Project Genesis without breaking a sweat. But we're not smart cause we know the first book of the bible (though we are smart because we know the first five books of the Bible).
No, I hazard to guess that this particular survey was conducted using a sample of children and Trekkies. The children just didn't know; the Trekkies answered the question in their best JT Kirk fashion: "Genesis? What's that?"
Lex,
I have no idea where you get the "exploiting" guilt bit when I was merely responding to your gratituous swipe at me by taking direct aim at your constant method of trusting your own experiences, gut and instincts over wider pools of statistical data.
By the by, it's worth repeating what you said earlier to point out your methodolgy:
Did you know that fully 10% of 13 year olds have had sex? (Where did they conduct this survey, Mary Beth Letourneau's class?) I mean, holy crap - all of Randy Williams' locker room talk was actually true? Ten of the hundred people in my sixth grade class were taking care of business?
By age 15, according to the Guttmacher (Lex Luthor screaming: "Miss Guttmacher!") that number triples. TRIPLES! Again - holy cats - where was I and why was I not in someone else's bedroom? I was on the football team. I was good looking. Close to one out of every three of my friends was gettin busy and I was - what? - watching Mtv, I guess. I have to say, all those 15 year old friends of mine were sure discreet.
Notice how you point to the fact that neither 10% of kids by age 13 nor 30% by the time they were 15 could have had sex because that wasn't your experience or your friends' experience at your own school however many years ago (i.e., note how many times you use the word "I" or "my" or "mine" in this short paragraph).
And now you say that you grew up around military base schools -- arguably one of the most conservative environments whether they be in the US or overseas -- and that's supposed to help your argument? Please. Seems to me to just be a deeper fox hole.
But again, the wider issue is whether to put more trust in statistics or personal experience. I'll take the latter any day, if done scientifically.
But if it's personal experience that you respect so much, I would not be at all surprised to find that 50% of my college students couldn't name the first book of the Bible. And those are educated students at a private univesersity that is considered one of the 50 best in the world. I also suspect that the other teachers' instincts on this list would match mine.
Paul,
Thanks for quoting me - I sometimes forget how funny I am. Mary Beth Letourneau's class. That's gold, baby.
I mentioned the military thing only because you assumed that I - like all white people - grew up in the burbs. As for the conservative angle, I can only say this: not when it comes to sex. I suspect you don't know many people in the military, but if you ever had a frank discussion with one or two who were single (or even married), you'd get a bit of an education. People in the military are emphatically not prudes. (I'm not even sure military people are reliably conservative. I think they've traditionally voted R for reasons of national defense, largely. But that's a subject for another day.)
Best of all, you spend the bulk of your response excoriating me for relying on my own personal experience and then end with this gem: "I also suspect that other teachers' instincts on this list would match mine."
Instincts, eh?
That's almost as bad as "I'll take the latter [by this I think you meant the former, statistics] any day, if done scientifically." Well, yeah. Me too. It's the "if done" part that is most troubling with all of these statistics. I don't think statistics are useless; I think they're often just wrong.
Seventy-eight percent of all people realize that.
You're right, I meant former. Any response to your other points would be a recycling of bandwidth...
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