Tag Archive for: blind faith

Blind Faith

I read a book recently that provoked my thinking on blind faith. Claiming to believe in something without precisely defining what that something is, is close to believing nothing at all.

Stephen Prothero, author of Blind Faith, makes some interesting observations on the nature of religious literacy in the United States. I imagine a similar situation exists in Canada.

Prothero researched polls which found that roughly 75 percent of adults believe that the bible teaches God helps those who help themselves. Roughly 50 percent can only name one of the four Gospels. Only 50 percent can identify Genesis as being a book in the bible. And 10 percent think that Joan of Arc was Noah’s wife.

You can take Prothero’s religious literacy quiz here. He also wrote a very thought provoking article in USA Today about whether the church is losing the millenial generation.