May 22, 2006
Literalism
Gallup Poll: Better Than 1 in 4 Americans Believe the Bible is the 'Actual Word of God'
By E&P; Staff
Published: May 22, 2006 6:15 PM ET
NEW YORK Better than one in four Americans believe that the Bible is "literally true and the actual word of God," the Gallup organization reported this afternoon.A Gallup poll taken this month gave 1,002 respondents three choices: The Bible is the actual word of God and is to be taken literally, word for word; the Bible is the inspired word of God but not everything in it should be taken literally; or the Bible is an ancient book of fables, legends, history, and moral precepts recorded by man.
The number of those backing the "literal" view was 28%, with 49% selecting the "inspired word of God" option and 19% the "fables" view.
Not surprisingly, the number of literalists rose somewhat with age, and the highest number live in the South.
By party affiliation, backing the literal word of God view, it broke down as 33% of Republicans, 26% of Democrats and 24% of Independents.
There has been a gradual decline in recent decades of those who believe that the Bible is literally true, but only by a few percentage points.
Well, then, I expect that 28% of the population to be busily studying Greek, Hebrew and Aramaic, since those were the languages God appeared to have been speaking.
Posted by Melanie at May 22, 2006 06:37 PMWhat strikes me is that there isn't all that much difference between Dems and Repubs in this regard. I would have thought there would be more of a difference.
I imagine that most of them voted for and continue to support Chimpy McFlightsuit.
Boggles the brain! We've gone through (Western World) 2,000 years.........first thousand, pretty much dark........ next couple of hundred, the first flush of new learning, then the Renaissance....... the Enlightenment and 19th Century scientific progress.......... to find in the 21st that a large percentage of people take a broken, polyglot text......... "literally"!!!!!!
Should have added a "fucking hell!" at the end of that. Sorry!
"Aramaic!?"
No! No! Didn't you know? The original language of the Bible is English and Jesus was an American.
I bet at least half of that 28% can confirm this.
Me, I tend to read the poetry of Luise Glueck and wonder if God is not still speaking.
I think for many Christians a confession of literalism probably translates into "I really take this seriously" or "this is the foundation of my life", etc. It's hard for some folks to understand that a more-than-literal or metaphorical reading can be just as foundational and serious. Or more so.
I remember reading a survey recently, that showed that a significant number of African-Americans were conservative in their theology. So I would guess that accounts, in part, for why so many Democrats are Biblical literalists.
I wonder how many literalists are members of subordinate social groups. I'm thinking white southern working class folks, African-Americans.
Rather than mock these folks- which I have done plenty of- perhaps we should be sensitive to the need people have for something solid and enduring in a social world that is increasingly insecure and changable.
A real progressive political theology would be a better source of security than Biblical literalism- but people hang on to what they can.
No need to learn those old languages: the King James is authoritative, the things the egg-heads call mis-translations are part of The Plan.
But then, I consider all texts, including cereal boxes and porn, to be divine revelation - some just requires a bit more interpretation and nothing put to paper by any human being (no matter how old it is or how many Councils of Some Obscure City approved it centuries ago in another language) is to be taken entirely at face value...
