[lbo-talk] Biblical Literalism

[Michael Pugliese]

Eugene Volokh posts a table from a poll showing that about 60 percent of 
Americans say they believe Biblical stories like the 7-day creation, Noah's 
flood and Moses' parting of the Red Sea to be literally true. This is 
rather higher than other estimates I've seen of Biblical Literalism. Based 
on GSS data (the GSS is the best available public opinion survey in the 
U.S. with a long time-series), we know that in 1998 about 30 percent of 
Americans agreed with the statement "The Bible is the actual word of God 
and is to be taken literally, word for word".  This was down from about 40 
percent in 1988. (Most of the decline seems to have happened in the late 
1980s, however.)  About half of Americans agree that "The Bible is the 
inspired word of God but not everything in  it should be taken literally, 
word for word." And a steady 15 to 17 percent agree that it's "an ancient 
book of fables, legends, history,  and moral precepts recorded by men." 
Here's a graph, I put together of these trends, in pdf format.

http://www.crookedtimber.org/archives/002026.html
http://www.kieranhealy.org/files/misc/BT-plot.pdf