Love, hate, apathy, faith<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"One of the most important facts to grasp about the small, but growing, flock of Americans who call themselves unbelievers is that most of them are\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2010\/10\/love-hate-apathy-faith\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Love, hate, apathy, faith\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"One of the most important facts to grasp about the small, but growing, flock of Americans who call themselves unbelievers is that most of them are\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2010\/10\/love-hate-apathy-faith\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Terry Mattingly\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-10-11T13:04:33+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"tmatt\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"tmatt\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2010\/10\/love-hate-apathy-faith\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2010\/10\/love-hate-apathy-faith\/\",\"name\":\"Love, hate, apathy, faith\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2010-10-11T13:04:33+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2010-10-11T13:04:33+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/#\/schema\/person\/76ce2260a572ff41a28fb285de9350f1\"},\"description\":\"One of the most important facts to grasp about the small, but growing, flock of Americans who call themselves unbelievers is that most of them are\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2010\/10\/love-hate-apathy-faith\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2010\/10\/love-hate-apathy-faith\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2010\/10\/love-hate-apathy-faith\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Love, hate, apathy, faith\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/\",\"name\":\"Terry Mattingly\",\"description\":\"On Religion\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/#\/schema\/person\/76ce2260a572ff41a28fb285de9350f1\",\"name\":\"tmatt\",\"description\":\"Terry Mattingly directs the Washington Journalism Center at the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities. 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{"id":2005,"date":"2010-10-11T09:04:33","date_gmt":"2010-10-11T13:04:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.tmatt.net\/?p=2005"},"modified":"2010-10-11T09:04:33","modified_gmt":"2010-10-11T13:04:33","slug":"love-hate-apathy-faith","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2010\/10\/love-hate-apathy-faith\/","title":{"rendered":"Love, hate, apathy, faith"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

One of the most important facts to grasp about the small, but growing, flock of Americans who call themselves unbelievers is that most of them are converts.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you meet people who identify themselves as \u2018atheists\u2019 or \u2018agnostics,\u2019 these are people who are taking a stand, they\u2019re committing themselves to a strong stance in this culture,\u201d said Greg Smith, senior researcher with the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life. \u201cPeople just don\u2019t wind up in the atheists-and-agnostics camp. They are there for a reason.\u201d<\/p>\n

While some came of age in atheistic homes, the vast majority of atheists \u2014 four out of five in one survey \u2014 were raised as Baptists, Catholics, Jews or in some other faith, he said. Then they changed their minds, usually after intensely personal experiences, years of reading or both.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you say you\u2019re an \u2018atheist\u2019 that usually means that you\u2019ve made a choice,\u201d said Smith.<\/p>\n

This is a crucial fact to remember when reading news reports about the recent \u201cU.S. Religious Knowledge Survey<\/a>\u201d released by the Pew Research Center.<\/p>\n

While the New York Times headline calmly stated, \u201cBasic Religion Test Stumps Many Americans,\u201d the Los Angeles Times was more typical of the national norm, offering a zinger that said, \u201cIf you want to know about God, you might want to talk to an atheist.\u201d USA Today proclaimed, \u201cUnbelievers aced out the faithful when it comes to religious knowledge.\u201d<\/p>\n

In this survey, 3,412 Americans \u2014 18 years old and up \u2014 were asked 32 questions about the Bible, Christianity, other world religions and America\u2019s laws that govern faith and public life. Jews, Mormons<\/a>, atheists and agnostics were \u201coversampled to allow analysis of these relatively small groups.\u201d<\/p>\n

Overall, atheists and agnostics \u2014 who were grouped together \u2014 answered an average of 20.9 out of 32 questions correctly. The score for Jews was 20.5 and members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints<\/a> scored 20.3. There was a sizable gap, at that point, before reaching white evangelical Protestants, who scored 17.6, and white Catholics, who scored 16.0. Members of liberal Protestant churches scored 15.8.<\/p>\n

The survey found that atheists and agnostics knew the most when asked about the beliefs of world religions. Mormons and evangelicals knew the most about the Bible and fine details of Christian beliefs.<\/p>\n

Those who dug deeper found other complex dynamics at work, noted Smith. For example, while many noted that atheists and agnostics scored well, few commentators noticed the low score \u2014 15.2 \u2014 earned by the much larger group of participants who choose the \u201cnothing in particular\u201d option when describing their beliefs.<\/p>\n

This finding is significant in an age in which the number of Americans who describe themselves as \u201cspiritual, but not religious\u201d continues to rise. Some of the \u201cnothing in particular\u201d Americans are quite secular, said Smith, but others have their own \u201cbeliefs and religious practices that they say are quite important to them.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the same time, it\u2019s important that believers who reported attending religious services once or more a week had higher levels of knowledge than those who attended less often. These scores rose higher when believers reported that they frequently read scripture, educational websites and books about religion. Believers who practiced their faith more often were also more likely to discuss religious issues with other people, further raising their scores.<\/p>\n

The bottom line: People who hold strong beliefs about faith \u2014 positive or negative beliefs \u2014 seem to know more about religion than those who are less committed. Passion, not apathy, is what leads to knowledge.<\/p>\n

Consider, for example, this crucial Catholic question. In one of the Pew survey\u2019s most surprising findings, 45 percent of the Catholics polled did not know that their church teaches that the bread and wine consecrated during the Mass are not merely symbols, but are believed to truly become the body and blood of Jesus Christ. However, nearly 70 percent of white Catholics who attended Mass once a week answered that question correctly.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe already knew that Catholics who attend Mass every week act differently and even vote differently than other Catholics,\u201d said Smith. \u201cWhat this survey shows is that Catholics who are more active in their faith think differently than other Catholics, too. \u2026 Of course, it isn\u2019t surprising that people who enthusiastically practice their faith also know more about their faith, and even religion in general, than those who do not.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"