merican atheists and agnostics tend to be people who grew up in a religious tradition and consciously gave it up, often after a great deal of reflection and study, said Alan Cooperman, associate director for research at the Pew Forum.
"These are people who thought a lot about religion," he said. "They're not indifferent. They care about it."
People who just go with the flow and take comfort in their idea of what religion is have no need or reason to know much about their religion.
As the title suggests however what I did find interesting was the complete ignorance of both Catholics and Protestants to key facts about the reformation. Protestants not knowing who Martin Luther was is just sad really, I wonder why those people think Protestantism is different from Catholicism. The flip side is more interesting if you know the history, that 40% of Catholics think the bread and the wine in communion symbolisesChrist's body. This is Protestant thinking, Luther, Zwingli and Calvin et al put forward this interpretation of Communion as part of a general opposition to Catholicism's general claims to holy powers, as seen in things like Indulgences. However the Catholic and Orthodox view of Communion has always been God magics the wine and the bread into the actual blood and flesh of Christ, essentially holy cannibalism. Back during the reformation this was a big issue.
I just find it really funny through apathy and ignorance people have switched doctrine. At the same time I find it intriguing an issue that was of paramount importance in a disagreement that lead to centuries of very bloody warfare in Europe now doesn't matter at all to most people. Maybe in a future centuries time people wont go to war over who would win in a fight between Batman and Superman. That is the dream anyway.
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