Study finds many Americans uninformed about religion

America is the most religious industrialized country in the world, but a new survey finds that few Americans are well-informed when it comes to religion. The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life called more than 3,4000 Americans and asked them to answer 32 questions about the Bible, Christianity and other world religions and leaders. The study found that most Americans answered around half the questions incorrectly. The people that scored highest were agnostics and atheists, with Jews and Mormons following closely behind.

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We talk with Laurie Goodstein, religion reporter for our partner The New York Times, who wrote about the study and its findings. We also talk with Steve Prothero, professor of religion at Boston University and author of “Religious Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know-And Doesn’t.” Prothero was on the panel of experts consulted by the Pew Forum to help create the study.