It wasn't even that hard, either
I first heard about the results of the PEW Religious Knowledge Survey on this morning's episode of The Takeaway and while I wasn't too surprised that Atheist/Agnostics pulled out ahead, I was surprised by how many people (percentage wise) knew less than half of the answers. To be fair, I'm not a theologian--nor am I particularly versed in a religion--but I remember studying World Religions freshman year in high school (strangely, that was the last time I was tested on my religious knowledge). It wasn't terribly in-depth but we covered the basics (suddenleap may remember the Big Book of Hinduism we made) and I don't remember doing poorly on the exam. I figured that, before I go sounding off the state of general religious knowledge in the US, I should at least answer some sample questions.
I want to say that I was stumped. Really, I do. I want to say that I had to weigh the options between two of the 4 choices and make my best guess. But I didn't. In fact, all of the questions I answered tapped on things I had learned in high school. Which is even scarier when you look at how education stacked up against percentage of correct answers.
One of my co-workers already weighed in and said that we shouldn't be surprised by these (or really, any results of general American knowledge) and part of me--the really blunt part--agrees with him. But another part of me says " what the hell are we going to do about it?" What's the point of having this information if it just sits there? Is there going to (ever) be a big sense of collective shame about how ignorant we are--and how potentially harmful that can be?"
For instance, roughly 50% of the people surveyed did not know that the Dali Lama was a Buddhist (seriously) to which I ask "how on earth does that affect John Doe's comprehension of the current China-Tibet situation? John Doe the politician? John Doe at a voting booth?" And if you want to get all nit-picky on me, just replace "religion" with "anatomy & physiology" and ask yourself how comfortable you'd feel if 50% of your health care workers didn't know that the heart circulates blood thorough the body. That's how basic these questions are.
If anything, test results and survey samples such as these should be a call to action. We can't afford to let the maxim "a person is smart; people are stupid" drive our society anymore. I mean, it's friggin' irresponsible--especially in a 1st world, post-industrial society like the one in the United States. If we're going to get anyone to take us seriously--be it regarding business deals, international trade, global warming, human rights, health epidemics and pandemics, diplomacy, and yes even regarding warfare--we have to be a nation of smart, intelligent people. We have to reassure others that yes, we are intelligent and yes, our knowledge of the fundamentals of a given situation are sound. Otherwise, they'll call our bluff and we'll lose more than just our pride. We could really fuck ourselves over in a very slow and painful way; history and religion are full of such cautionary stories* and it would be a terrible irony to simply be yet another variation on a theme.
The collective mind is a terrible thing to waste; let's not kill anymore brain cells.
*One of the reasons Rome fell was due to the fact that people "got stupid" by collectively focusing less on the intellect. No push for knowledge, no patrician/civil servant/merchant class to help keep the society together and as such, the place was eventually overrun by Goths. What did those Goths do, you ask? They tried to learn as much as they could so that they would be seen as "Roman." Kid you not.
I want to say that I was stumped. Really, I do. I want to say that I had to weigh the options between two of the 4 choices and make my best guess. But I didn't. In fact, all of the questions I answered tapped on things I had learned in high school. Which is even scarier when you look at how education stacked up against percentage of correct answers.
One of my co-workers already weighed in and said that we shouldn't be surprised by these (or really, any results of general American knowledge) and part of me--the really blunt part--agrees with him. But another part of me says " what the hell are we going to do about it?" What's the point of having this information if it just sits there? Is there going to (ever) be a big sense of collective shame about how ignorant we are--and how potentially harmful that can be?"
For instance, roughly 50% of the people surveyed did not know that the Dali Lama was a Buddhist (seriously) to which I ask "how on earth does that affect John Doe's comprehension of the current China-Tibet situation? John Doe the politician? John Doe at a voting booth?" And if you want to get all nit-picky on me, just replace "religion" with "anatomy & physiology" and ask yourself how comfortable you'd feel if 50% of your health care workers didn't know that the heart circulates blood thorough the body. That's how basic these questions are.
If anything, test results and survey samples such as these should be a call to action. We can't afford to let the maxim "a person is smart; people are stupid" drive our society anymore. I mean, it's friggin' irresponsible--especially in a 1st world, post-industrial society like the one in the United States. If we're going to get anyone to take us seriously--be it regarding business deals, international trade, global warming, human rights, health epidemics and pandemics, diplomacy, and yes even regarding warfare--we have to be a nation of smart, intelligent people. We have to reassure others that yes, we are intelligent and yes, our knowledge of the fundamentals of a given situation are sound. Otherwise, they'll call our bluff and we'll lose more than just our pride. We could really fuck ourselves over in a very slow and painful way; history and religion are full of such cautionary stories* and it would be a terrible irony to simply be yet another variation on a theme.
The collective mind is a terrible thing to waste; let's not kill anymore brain cells.
*One of the reasons Rome fell was due to the fact that people "got stupid" by collectively focusing less on the intellect. No push for knowledge, no patrician/civil servant/merchant class to help keep the society together and as such, the place was eventually overrun by Goths. What did those Goths do, you ask? They tried to learn as much as they could so that they would be seen as "Roman." Kid you not.