Literal Belief in Bible Down 10 Points in 30 Years

28% believe the bible is literally true, yet more than 50% still believe in a literal 6-day creation.

“The Bible has lost its position of cultural prominence.”

We can only hope!

This will undoubtedly piss some people off, but that's the mood I'm in:

It went down from "You have to be kidding me" to "Man there are still a lot of stupid fucking people in the world."

I mean, does the 28 percent believe King James was the literal messenger of god, or that the bible was literally written in English? I've seen examples of both beliefs, but neither has much to do with fundamentalism; Genesis 1:1 starts off with the subject of "Elohim", which happens to be plural ("Gods"), yet you rarely see the literal translation, "In the beginning, Gods created..." (although some uberfundamentalists insist it anticipated the Trinity by a few millenia)

And they're really effing things up around here. :cry:

It was reported on by the Religion News Service, and the original study was carried out by the Fuller Theological Seminary. Although Fuller is known for its high intellectual standards and has often been accused of promoting apostasy, there is a strong conservative fundamentalist faction there as well.

Most religious and philosophical groups that conduct polling do so to provide motivation for their groups. Thus, atheist groups have reported that 95% of all Americans believe in God, but Fundies report that only 28% believe in the inerrancy of the Bible. Both figures are strongly disturbing to those who commissioned them; Fundamentalists will despair that 28% is far too few people who Accept Jesus Christ As Their Lord And Savio(u)r, and that the number is decreasing, while the Atheists/Freethinkers/Naturalists look at the 95% figure of believers and may be reinforced in thinking that there is a mental virus that causes religion.

In another example, Republicans doing polls may find that only 20% of Americans approve or "condone" Gay Marriage; Democrats would find that only 20% of Americans approve of discriminating against Gays in any way whatsoever. It's all in the way the poll is worded. So-called "Push Polls" are even more blatantly slanted: "Do you believe that Bill Clinton is a murderer, or merely responsible for manslaughter?"

Americans are quite religious, as a rule, especially compared to Europeans, who look to their history and see how much trouble has been caused when the Church and State have jumped into bed together. But the level of religionizing in America isn't nearly as great as the critics of religion may think -- it's mainly conducted by the conservative factions of the Fundamentalists, who are strong, but losing power at this point. To those of us who resent and combat the increasing intrusion of religion into our private and civic lives, there is more cause for hope than meets the eye. People really aren't stupid, and by making the effort to provide them with the information they need to get educated, the trends and the numbers will only turn in our favor.

--p!