Um, the Pope's here.

By Joseph Walther

Speaking of religion—and I don’t advise doing so—hordes of incessant TV and radio talking heads have analyzed the Holy Father’s visit to death, whether any of them knew what they were talking about or not. So, I’m not going to perpetuate it here.

Instead, I’m going to use the occasion to examine why religion, in general, tends to be such a potentially lethal subject—both physically and culturally.

In the United States, from the moment they become self-aware until the moment of their death, people express a blind belief in God. In fact, it takes a fair amount of guts to express otherwise.

The polls all agree; we are a religious lot. About 72% of the world’s population—around 84% in the United States—believes in a Deity, including a belief in Heaven and Hell. Here’s a breakdown of world religions.

As religious as we claim to be, though, we know little about our religion, and virtually nothing about most of the world’s other religions.

It’s a sad commentary that, in America, ample numbers of Protestants can’t differentiate between the Old and New Testaments, correctly recite the Protestant Version of the Ten Commandments, or name all four Gospels.

Equal numbers of Roman Catholics don’t know the Stations of the Cross, can’t name all the mysteries of the Holy Rosary, name all of the Sacraments, or the Ten Commandments. And, as many Catholics as Protestants can’t name the four Gospels, either.

The Jews don’t score any better. Many can’t adequately define the difference between Orthodoxy and Reform Movements or adequately define their own precepts. Neither can many of them name the five books of Moses.

Not so in European countries! Even though average Europeans would as soon have their hemorrhoids ripped out with needle-nose pliers… WITHOUT anesthesia, than attend church services, they know plenty about religion.

They know all about the things that we Americans don’t. More importantly, they also know many things about most of the world’s religions: the 4-Noble Truths of Buddhism, the 5-Pillars of Islam, the 8-Fold Path of Buddhism, the Ten Commandments (Jewish, Catholic, and Protestant Versions), to name just a few of them.

In this country, we don’t teach people about religion. In fact, the ACLU bounds out from the public school corridor shadows at the mere mention of the word religion. Public school officials assume a fetal position as the pros and cons take to microphones condemning each other.

In European countries, comparative religion courses are part of public school curricula from the beginning. They are also part of all university programs.

This is a dangerous situation in this country. Not only do we appear blindly dogmatic, it makes us look a bit silly to the rest of the world: not our blind belief in God, but rather our obvious cluelessness about religion.

It is more than a simple question of cultural diversity. Even before, but especially since 9/11, ignorance of various religions has proven, in some cases, to be physically lethal.

I wonder what would have happened in Waco, Texas if the FBI had assigned a religion expert to the case, especially regarding apocalyptic Christianity. Such and individual could have done a profile on David Koresh’s crackpot interpretation of the book of Revelation.

I’m not saying that it would have turned out differently. I’m merely saying that it could have had the FBI understood that Koresh believed with every fiber of his being that it was his God-destined duty to bring about the kind of apocalyptic end that ultimately occurred.

I read about a man from India who lived in Arizona. Right after 9/11, he was at a gas station, putting gas in his car, when some loony-assed, self-professed patriot zealot shot and killed him.

Because the man was wearing a turban, the assassin thought he was another one of those “towel-heads” gassing up to go and kill other Americans.

Muslim or not, it was not justification for murder. But, the victim was not a Muslim; he was a Sikh. But, what the hell, they all looked alike to this idiot. And, I’m afraid; they all look alike to many Americans.

I wonder how things would have turned out had George Bush attempted to learn, just a little bit, about the religious tenets of the multiple religious factions residing in pre-invasion Iraq.

The religious strife in the region, especially between Iran and Iraq, had been going on for centuries. The real fundamentalists are in Iran. Iraq was a secular country under Saddam Hussein, who wanted no part of radical Islam.

Iran tried numerous times to get rid of Saddam so that they could move into the country and install an Islamic Government. But, religious ignorance and all, George and his band of Neo-Cons took care of it for them. We’ll be living with that mess for decades.

All we ever seem to hear about in this country is the multiplicity of legal cases involving separation issues over “church and state.” While some of them are legitimate, many are not.

Regardless, however, teaching about religion has nothing to do with the theology of religion and our Constitution does not prohibit our public schools from teaching the former.

In addition to teaching Americans about religion—starting in grade school--perhaps we should also begin teaching our schoolchildren the difference between a scientific theory and a theological belief.

Of course, this must include the fact that believing in God is not grounds for non-believers to declare believers stupid. It’s just that such a belief isn’t a scientific theory because there’s no way—at least not yet—to develop a falsifiable a hypothesis.

Maybe… if we do this, we can vastly improve our religion literacy quotient and possibly avoid going to war so quickly and stupidly. And, let’s not discount improving our ability to compete with the rest of the world in science and math.

Back next week. I’m sure that something Earth-shattering will happen before then, especially with Barack and Hillary at each other’s throats. If not, I’ll come up with something.

Joe Walther is a freelance writer and publisher of The True Facts. You may comment on his column by clicking here.