America, Number One In Ignorance?

From Don't Know Much About Theology, Don't Know Much Philosophy... by Susan Jacoby:

That one out of five Americans who identify themselves as atheists also say that they believe in God or a "universal spirit" and that one out of ten pray at least once a week can lead to only one conclusion. These people don't know that an atheist is, by definition, someone who does not believe in God or in the supernatural. To say that you're an atheist who believes in God and prays is the equivalent of saying that you're a vegetarian who loves to scarf down barbecued ribs and T-bone steak. Or a Christian who rejects the teachings of the New Testament. Or a religiously observant Jew who also believes that Jesus was the Messiah. Or a Muslim who believes that Jesus was God.

I think that the explanation for these seemingly contradictory findings lies in a phenomenon I discuss at length in my recent book, The Age of American Unreason. Americans as a people have become supremely ignorant about and indifferent to the specific meanings of words, and they are equally confused about important historical distinctions. This is a serious cultural disease throughout our nation. A majority of Americans, in what is supposedly the most religious nation in the developed world, cannot name the four Gospels or identify Genesis as the first book of the Bible. Why shouldn't some American atheists be as ignorant about the meaning of atheism as many religious Americans are about religion?

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