by Mike Gray

Polls of any kind should never be regarded as unimpeachable, and telephone polls even more so. Nevertheless, the results of one are now in:

Recent survey results released by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life suggest that atheists and agnostics know more about religion than evangelicals and Catholics.

Pretty, ahem, damning at first blush; however, it’s always necessary to understand the nature of the questions:

While this study may suggest that Christians don’t know as much about religion as atheists do, it appears that the questions that were asked pertained to trivial knowledge related to religion rather than to specific doctrines, or—more importantly—the application of doctrinal teachings to practical life. For example, knowing that the Dalai Lama is Buddhist is probably not as helpful to everyday living as, say, being familiar with Jesus’ teaching to pay taxes. Unlike Caesar—or any other governing body, past or present—the Dalai Lama won’t punish people for tax evasion.

Read Christine Dao’s ICR article about the survey here.