You may have heard about that survey of the religious knowledge of USAnians and wondered what the questions were. Here’s the full survey (and interesting to note that it’s not expected that a survey taker knows how to pronounce Episcopal, among other words) and the full report.

Perhaps more significant is the fact that there is no historical baseline for any of this data, so there’s no way to know if this has changed over time. There is also no indication that this knowledge is necessary or significant in people’s lives. The survey report admits all of this and the fact that it’s mostly a promotion for a PBS special on religion in the US. And when I first saw the promo for that special last month I thought “well, I guess they think that sucking up to religious people will help their government funding, eh?”