[Redliner]

Pretty sad, really. As someone who would identify himself as being religious, I would hope that anyone who would claim belong to any religion would at least know what they are supposed to believe in. Many religions (if not most) are structured as though they are to be central to the lifestyle and choices of the adherent, so for someone to "stand up and be counted among the faithful", I would expect (rather naively, as it turns out) that they would have at least a basic understanding of what they are standing up for.

To have even a somewhat comprehensive knowledge of every religion out there requires a tremendous amount of study, but it would be nice if people could at least make an effort to learn the basics. I personally don't think that a world religion class would be out of place in a public school system. Not to indoctrinate, but to educate. I took several religious studies courses in University and they were some of the most interesting classes I had. Right or wrong, there isn't much out there that has had more of an effect in shaping the world through the ages than religion.