28 Percent Of Americans Believe The Bible Is The Literal Word Of God

[hrmjustin]

Yasmine Hafiz

Many debates within Christian theology revolve around the the origins of the Bible, who wrote it, the nature of its authority, and its relationship to the Divine. According to a Gallup poll conducted in May, a solid twenty-eight percent of Americans believe that the Bible is the literal word of God and should be interpreted accordingly.

That's a 3% decrease since 2007, when about 1/3 of the United States answered that they believed the Bible was the actual word of God. However, in the late 1970s, 38% to 40% of Americans told Gallup that they believed in the Bible as God's word.

?2

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/06/04/americans-bible-word-of-god_n_5446979.html?utm_hp_ref=religion

[PoliticAverse]

1. I wonder what percentage of the 28% have actually read the whole thing. n/t

[hrmjustin]

2. lol not many I am sure.

[cbayer]

3. Way too high. Literalism is ridiculous.

There are too many contradictions, too many cultural contexts that made sense at the time and no longer do.

Even Jesus said that some of the old teachings needed to be discarded.

The only way to make sense of their responses is to add a follow up question about whether they think god could change his/her mind over time. Then you could say that god wrote it, but he evolved his POV over time and didn't mean for what he wrote to be taken literally over time.

It would be a lot easier to understand if that question were asked.

[hrmjustin]

5. As usual you make good points.

[Starboard Tack]

4. How can a book, which is an anthology written by dozens of humans over centuries...

be considered the literal word of God?
If there is a God, I'm sure he would be the first to express his dismay at such a notion.
God is described by believers to be a perfect entity. Would such an entity relinquish his perfection to such a collection of contradictory writings, which are all ascribed to humans?

[hrmjustin]

6. I guess it is just too easy to follow and not question for some.

[Starboard Tack]

8. I'm fascinated by the claim that it as the literal word of God.

Where did that originate? I don't recall it being mentioned in the Bible itself. Maybe I'm wrong.

[hrmjustin]

9. I don't know where it originated but I think the 19th century evangelicals really perfected it.

[Fortinbras Armstrong]

7. I remember seeing a painting

By, if I remember correctly, Lucas Cranach the Elder, of one of the Evangelists writing his Gospel. It showed an angel whispering into his ear as he wrote. I'd say that 28% would consider it to be a reasonably accurate depiction.

[el_bryanto]

10. It might also reflect a change in what the words "Literal Word of God" mean

I usually use the term divinely inspired - but I wonder how much of that is that since the 80s and the affiliation of large segments of evangelical Christianity with political conservatism have changed the meaning of those words.

Bryant

[okasha]

11. What I'm seeing as current usage among evangelicals

and literalists is "God-breathed,"--the uh, literal translation of of "inspired." As ST says, it's not even a single book. Ta biblia is "The Books," not one book. We regard it casually as a single volume because that's how it's currently bound, but it took Christianity about 300 years to settle on the canon, and even so, different churches accept different selections.