Do People Actually Believe This Way?
by Brett Palmer, © 2007
Do most Christians believe the Bible is the literal truth, a divinely inspired manuscript authored by God? Is such a literal belief in the Bible actually an aberration, or exaggeration of what most Christians profess? When showing the errors of biblical literalism, are critics actually attacking a straw man? According to an ABC News poll [1] taken in early 2004,
Overall, 64 percent believe the story of Moses parting the Red Sea is "literally true, meaning it happened that way word-for-word." About as many say the same about creation (61 percent) and Noah and the flood (60 percent). About three in 10 say, instead, that each of these is "meant as a lesson, but not to be taken literally." …
Literal belief peaks among evangelical Protestants, and especially among evangelical Protestants who attend church at least once a week. In that group, 96 percent take the Red Sea story literally. It's a still-high 85 percent among evangelical Protestants who attend church less often.
Three in four Protestants or more take these biblical stories as literally true, compared with half of Catholics or slightly fewer. One reason for the difference is that Protestants are nearly three times more likely than Catholics to consider themselves born-again or evangelical Christians, 58 percent to 21 percent.
But even among Catholics, church attendance helps shape views of the Bible. Those who attend Mass at least once a week are 15 to 21 points more likely to believe in the literal truth of these stories.
About eight in 10 adult Americans are Christians; a quarter are evangelical Protestants, about one in five are non-evangelical Protestants, just over one in five, Catholics; and about one in 10, other Christians. About one in 10 profess no religion.
And the ABC poll is certainly not the only type of its kind reflecting this belief in the literal truth of the Bible. A Gallup poll [2] "based on aggregated data from surveys in May of 2005, 2006 and 2007" found that "About one-third of American adults believe in the actual word of God and that it should be taken literally. And people who attend church more frequently are more likely to believe in the literal truth of the Bible...54 percent of Americans who attend church weekly believe the Bible should be taken literally word for word" and that of these Americans, "Southerners are most likely to believe in a literal Bible."
A prime example of a denomination that can support the poll's results is the Southern Baptist Convention --the largest Protestant group in the nation. Their "Faith and Mission" statement states, "The Holy Bible was written by men divinely inspired and is God's revelation of Himself to man. It is a perfect treasure of divine instruction. It has God for its author, salvation for its end, and truth, without mixture of error, for its matter. Therefore, all Scripture is totally true and trustworthy."
It would seem, therefore, that while not all Christians read the Bible literally and believe all historical claims in the Old and New Testaments are factually true, a sizable number of them do. And, especially, those "fundamentalist" Christians who attend their churches regularly tend to take the Bible more seriously and believe in the literal truth of its historical claims. When critics aim at biblical literalism, they are not attacking a phantom.
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