> On Tuesday, June 15, 2004, at 10:11 AM, Michael Pugliese wrote:
>
>> 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. <snip>
>
>
> first, congrats to michael for a thoroughly legible post! keep it up! :-)
>
> now, on the topic of biblical literalism, and this relates to the
> antichrist thread and the bush and god thread. not to sound/read like a
> broken record, but i've made this kind of case on this list, before:
>
> i've come more and more to the point where i don't think the bible as a
> text has all that much to do with our grasp of mainstream american
> christianity. to focus too much on the bible is to misunderstand where
> these people are actually coming from, even if it's ultimately also to
> understand the bible much much better than they do.
>
> many of the religious students in my classes (who would say, for
> example, that they believe that god created the world in six days
> because that's what it says in the bible), actually know very little of
> the bible, and what they do "know" is understood through the tinted
> lenses of their catechism, bible study classes, or catholic/parochial
> schools. when they come to actually read the text in my classes, they
> can't believe it doesn't say what they think it says. and they have
> never ever had to grapple with the bible itself, and some of the truly
> profound questions addressed in it, precisely because of the role of
> tradition and indoctrination in their previous bible instruction (not to
> say bible "reading").
>
> it is what i'm starting to call, riffing on W, "faith-based biblical
> interpretation". so-called biblical literalism is neither, in most
> cases. and when it is actually biblical, it is no more literal than any
> other reading -- it is much too sophisticated for that, despite its
> adherents' protestations (ba-dum-dum) that they adhere to the bible
> "literally". you might say that, in this context, literally doesn't
> literally mean literally. ;-)
>
> on americans' poor knowledge of the bible, see, e.g.,
> http://www.theologicalstudies.org/americans.html, from which, the
> following:
Excellent points, Jeffrey. It's important to understand that so-called "religious Americans" are illiterate when it comes to the bible. One of my anarchist buddies is a former bible-banger who can cite scripture to tear apart religious people who say stupid things to him. What you suggest is that religious Americans--at least the ones who are ignorant of scripture--actually believe in a unique form of pop culture religion.
Would it be more accurate to call this "biblical literal American exceptionalism," since the beliefs that make up this movement are tied closely to bullshit like American patriotism, the idea that Americans are a chosen people because of "our democracy" and the "fact" that we are the "freest nation on earth"?
My favorite part about biblical literalism is the part about making menstruating women live in separate tents.
Chuck0