What Do You Know?

A few people I know posted links to a news article today about a survey by the Pew Foundation showing that Americans Don't Know Much about Religion. The quiz (found on the Pew Foundation's website) covers a few basic questions from the world's major religions. The study found that atheists knew more about religions that did most religious people.

Do we follow brainlessly? That's been the stereo-type of religious people for decades (popularized by Nietzsche). There is also the other extreme where we become so heady in our faith that we loose it at some point.

I heard someone talking a few weeks ago (it may have been on the radio--I've forgotten where I came across this) about knowing about how too often we know the written word, but we don't fully know the Living Word. The written word won't transform us--only the Living Word will.

It is important that we don't go into our faith blindly. We need to study--both our own faith and the faiths of others. But what is more important is taking what we know to heart. Some of us have a harder time doing this than others. What we know can't change anything unless we let it, unless we open ourselves to the Holy Spirit, letting the Living Word transform our lives.