Who Knows What about Religion?

The Pew Research Center prides itself on nonpartisan disinterest in the outcomes of its work. This week, its Forum on Religion and Public Life released a survey on religious knowledge in the United States. Some findings about one of the most religious of the developed countries are surprising. Atheists and agnostics are the best informed, along with Mormons and Jews. Evangelicals, Mainline Protestants and Catholics did not do so well when it came to the core teachings, history and leading figures of the major world religions — sometimes even their own. What does this mean in one of the most religious of the developed nations -- and one of the most diverse? What are the implications for policy and politics? When a proposed Muslim center near Ground Zero has created so much dispute what are the prospects for interfaith dialogue?