Our beliefs and faith are based in what we think is true. Why do we have faith in Christ? We may believe He is who he says he is, the fulfillment of God's promise for a Messiah, because we grew up hearing this good news. We may have seen this truth being lived out by others and become interested in the peace and confidence they had. We may have been convicted of the truth as we read through Scripture. We may have tested out other ideas and found Jesus to be a better answer than any other.
The Pew Forum released results of a recent survey of Religious Knowledge in America. While people may argue whether these questions represent the important basic facts of major world religions, the survey found that as a whole, Americans have significant knowledge gaps in their religious education. Unfortunately, Christians did not stand out as the most knowledgeable group. In fact, atheists did better than all other religious groups. (Click this link to take the test for yourself).
At TCU, students must take a class in religions tradition to complete the core curriculum. It can be a comparative religion class, one grounded in Christian history, or more specific to another religious tradition. Dr. Andy Fort, a religion professor at TCU, commented that he doubted any religion professor was surprised by the results of the Pew survey. This is both a shame and a wonderful opportunity. We know there is no truth greater than God's truth, and deep faith comes from testing and critically evaluating knowledge claims. The only way to change a belief is to change the underlying knowledge base. Education matters. Knowing what we believe and why we believe it is key to a lasting spiritual foundation.
Would you pray:
The Pew Forum released results of a recent survey of Religious Knowledge in America. While people may argue whether these questions represent the important basic facts of major world religions, the survey found that as a whole, Americans have significant knowledge gaps in their religious education. Unfortunately, Christians did not stand out as the most knowledgeable group. In fact, atheists did better than all other religious groups. (Click this link to take the test for yourself).
At TCU, students must take a class in religions tradition to complete the core curriculum. It can be a comparative religion class, one grounded in Christian history, or more specific to another religious tradition. Dr. Andy Fort, a religion professor at TCU, commented that he doubted any religion professor was surprised by the results of the Pew survey. This is both a shame and a wonderful opportunity. We know there is no truth greater than God's truth, and deep faith comes from testing and critically evaluating knowledge claims. The only way to change a belief is to change the underlying knowledge base. Education matters. Knowing what we believe and why we believe it is key to a lasting spiritual foundation.
Would you pray:
- TCU would be a place where God's truth shines brightly, in classroom instruction and in believers' lives.
- those of us who know the one true and living God would be confident in sharing what we know and have experienced so that others may come to know Him as well.
- classes in religion be relevant, inspired, and clear so that students who are seeking Truth will find it.
- as we interact with people of different faith backgrounds, we be interested in what they believe and why they believe it. That we would ask insightful questions and listen, so they would see Christians as thoughtful, relational and loving.
- our Christian faith would be based in knowledge and fact, not just feelings.
Thank you!
PrayTCU
