Among the many misconceptions about atheists is the one that we are ignorant of the basic tenets of the major religions. I’ve been in situations where I’ve identified as an atheist and believers assumed I needed a primer on the differences between the Old and New Testaments or something equally basic. Of course, they don’t know that I went to a Catholic college and was required to take theology courses. I can’t quote biblical chapter and verse, but I have a reasonably good grasp of the core beliefs of the world religions. In fact, a recent Pew survey found that atheists may know more about the faith than some Christians. For example, 53% of Protestants didn’t know that Martin Luther began the Reformation. But Christians aren’t alone in their ignorance. Fewer than half of all respondents knew that the Dalai Lama is a Buddhist.
That many of the faithful lack any curiosity about the historical context of their beliefs and posses a complete disinterest in other belief systems isn’t shocking news. I remember one of my college classmates expressing disbelief when I explained that Christianity spun off from Judaism. Our public schools have been scared away from doing any serious teaching of religion and it shows in the study’s results. And as long as Christian fundamentalists get apoplectic when anyone even mentions a sacred text that isn’t the Bible, that’s unlikely to change. Perhaps we atheists should start teaching some afterschool classes in comparative religion. I’m sure nobody will raise a fuss.
My theory is that you have to know something about a mainstream belief to not believe in it. Basically, an atheist, for the most part, will have to explore religion in order to come to the conclusion that they don’t believe. For many believers, they never explore it because OF COURSE they are believers because everyone is. (And I’m a Christian saying this.)
Same with people who are not capitalists. Ask the American public if they are capitalists, assuming they know what the word sort of means, they will say yes. But most will not be able to identify the basic tenets of capitalism. But find a communist and they will be able to define capitalism because they needed to know about it before they could define themselves against it.