The comments keep on coming, so… reposted to the top AGAIN

28 Percent Believe the Bible Is Literally True

A little more than one quarter of Americans believe the Bible is the literal word of God, down 10 percentage points since 1976.

According to a recent survey by the Gallup Poll, 28 percent of Americans believe the Bible is literally true, compared to 38 percent 30 years ago. The survey was conducted among 1,002 adults, aged 18 or older. Nearly half, 49 percent, said the Bible was the “inspired word of God,” while 19 percent called it an “ancient book of fables.” Only 3 percent had no opinion.

Literal belief in the Bible was highest among older Americans (36 percent), those with lowest levels of education (39 percent), Southerners (39 percent), Republicans (33 percent), and Protestants and other non-Catholic Christians (37 percent).

Should career Christians (clergy, church administrators, etc.) be concerned about this downward trend? Probably not if they are close to retirement. :-)



  1. Mike Voice says:

    Every person today, Jew, Greek, whatever, must live their life according to the New Testament.

    Every person today… must…”

    That sounds so arrogant and self-righteous to me.

    Christianity claims their New Testament has superceded Judaism’s Torah…

    Islam’s Qu’ran claims to have superceded Christianity and Judaism…

    The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints believe their Book of Mormon is another testament of Jesus Christ…

    I am weary of people telling me I just need to read their particluar faith’s book “with an open heart” – when I seriously doubt the same people would read any of the other faith’s books with that same open heart.

  2. PcMonster says:

    #120 Gary, Come on man, do you really think I am ignorant of the laws that God gave to the Jews? What I did to him was called a rebuke. It means, to criticize sharply, or reprimand.
    You know that I meant not that the laws themselves were crap but that the fact that he would come into this discussion the way he did was crap.
    He came in pretending to understand something that he had no clue about just for the sake of trying to start an argument, and using, “do you eat pork? Do you eat shrimp, lobster, clams or oysters? Do you seek to put your neighbor to death for working on the Sabbath?”
    I guess you probably don’t see how ignorant that type of argument is, because you have made some the same types of arguments. You really should stop trying to use those types of arguments if you ever want what you say to have any credibility. All it does is proves that you have no acumen whatsoever when it come to the Bible.
    You portend to school me and others in the Bible?
    It’s funny that people who do not profess to be Christians claim to know more about the Bible than those who do even though Christians have the benefit of Gods Spirit, the Holy Spirit, to guide in their understanding.
    I have read and do read the Old Testament, and I have a good understanding of many of the principals it contains.
    I would never as you say run and hide from my faith, that’s ridiculous. If I were that type of person I surely wouldn’t have spent so much time in this thread would I?
    I am not ashamed of the Word of God, nor do I apologize for any of its contents.
    I do however apologize for calling you a child Berry.

    Proverbs 1:7
    7 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction.

    James 1: 5-7
    5 If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all men generously and ungrudgingly; and it will be given to him.
    6 But let him ask in faith, never doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind.
    7 For the doubter, being double-minded and unstable in every way, must not expect to receive anything from the Lord.

  3. Roman Berry says:

    Jesus did away with the Old Law

    That’s not what Jesus said. See Mathew 5: 17-18

    Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill.

    For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.

    Next.

  4. Roman Berry says:

    How can you possibly come here with that crap? You obviously have no understanding of the Bible.

    OIC. Because my understanding is different from yours, I have “no understanding.”

    I shouldn’t even give you my time it will take to type a response to your comment.

    You’re right. Looking at your post, you probably should not have bothered.

    Just to fill you in a bit more, Jesus Christ did away with the old law

    See my previous post. And see Matthew 5: 17-18 while you’re at it. After you’re finished with Matthew, how about letting all the gay bashers who depend on Leviticus know that they too are out of date. Then read Matthew 6: 1-6. And finally, when you’re done with all of that, stop telling me that you’re a Christian and let me figure it out by your words for myself.

    Christ is love. Telling me I am full of crap? I don’t see the love.

  5. Higghawker says:

    I post this only with the intention of love and understanding that you may choose to believe or not. I am only presenting what the Bible, I beleive teaches.
    (Romans 15:4) “For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.”
    (Colossians 2:14) “Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross.”
    (Heb:8:8:) “For finding fault with them, he saith, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Juda”
    Matt. 5:17-18 is Jesus answer to the Jews about his fullfiling prophecy. He was the Messiah they should have known about, through their reading of the scriptures. They denied he was who he was.
    The New Testament is now the binding Testament in our worship to God, and in our Salvation. Christ nailed the Old Testament to the cross.

  6. Gary Marks says:

    Lucky you, Higghawker and PcMonster! You got the new and improved deal, lemon fresh with extra mercy added. Let’s all have a moment of silence in remembrance of the many millions of God’s non-children who lived and died without having been offered ANY deal, old or new. They were completely unaware that the Hebrew God even existed, and they’re paying dearly for their ignorance as they burn in hell.

    Let’s have another moment of silence for all the pre-Christian people who knew they were supposed to follow the Hebrew laws, but couldn’t live up to them, before God’s “new deal” added the extra flexibility and mercy. Of course, God knew in advance that he would be supplanting the old deal with a new one, but the timetable for his wonderful plan didn’t allow for offering the new deal any earlier. Hmmm…

    It’s not our place to question God’s plan.

  7. JimR says:

    It’s seems to be official then. For every affirmative quote from the new testament posted here, there’s a corresponding dissenting quote. The Bible is essentially indifferent.

    If God is so perfect he wouldn’t have allowed such a convoluted, ambiguous, contradictory, and wildly interpretive representation of himself to circulate. His word would have been concise, with absolutely no misunderstanding of our requirements or his intentions, by any person with average intelligence. Divine intervention could have given the apostles or any other appointed scribe the ability to do so, or he could have simply done it himself. Why didn’t Jesus write things down?

    It is impossible to believe that a god would put the responsibility of saving billions of all his future “children” into the hands of a handful of imperfect humans. That is a huge mistake of the obvious, and a amateurish lack of foresight, not something you’d expect a god would be guilty of. There are two explanations I can think of. The God of the Bible is a fool, he doesn’t exist.

    Higghawker, here’s a challenge to you. Try and quote 3 verses from the Bible that are accepted as literal, and to which there are no contradicting verses. No words can have unnatural meanings… literal only. For instance you interpretation of the word ‘pride’ in “PROVERBS 8:13 – The fear of the lord is to hate evil: pride, and arrogance, and the evil way, and the forward mouth.” as vain pride. Vain pride is vanity. There are separate Greek and Hebrew words for ‘vanity’ and they are different from those used for the word pride. If the author meant vanity he would have used vanity. I won’t accept you having to add words to have something make sense. Also, take nothing out of context. Quote several verses to complete a sentence or thought.

    I haven’t been so thorough as to cross reference EVERY passage in the bible, so you may get lucky. In any case, it should be extremely easy for you if the Bible is what you say it is.

  8. JimR says:

    Sorry, fella. Your silence indicates that the Bible is nothing but a very popular work of fiction. When you die you’ll rot back into the earth like the rest of all life on this planet.

    CIAO


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