Barna: Most Americans Believe
In recent months pollster George Barna has been surveying Americans to see what we believe about the Bible's most famous stories. If you spend much time caught up in the "culture wars" debates about faith, science, and truth, you could get the idea that believing the Bible puts you in the minority. Not so.
Fully 75%(!) of Americans believe in the literal truth of both the virgin birth and Christ's resurrection from the dead. It's tough to get 75% of the population to agree on any one thing. Barna's breakdown indicates that not all of those who agree are "born again Christians," as we understand the term. Still, its a surprising number.
Here's the percentage of American belief in the literal truth of the other 10 stories:
Jesus turning water into wine: 69%
Jesus feeding the 5,000: 68%
Daniel and the lion's den: 65%
Moses and the Red Sea: 64%
Noah's flood: 64%
David and Goliath: 63%
God's six-day creation of the world: 60%
Jesus (and Peter) walking on the water: 60%
Eve and the serpent: 56%
Samson's strength: 49%
Of course, we don't judge the "truthiness" of our faith by the number of people who agree with us. Something is either true or its not. But one strategy of those who take joy in shaking your faith is to make you feel like you're standing along against the crowd for believing in the supernatural events described in Scripture. That may be the case in any given classroom or message board, but it's not true (for right now) on a national scale.
If you dig stats, the site is worth checking out to see how belief in these stories breaks down by sub-groups (religion, politics, gender, region, etc.).
Fully 75%(!) of Americans believe in the literal truth of both the virgin birth and Christ's resurrection from the dead. It's tough to get 75% of the population to agree on any one thing. Barna's breakdown indicates that not all of those who agree are "born again Christians," as we understand the term. Still, its a surprising number.
Here's the percentage of American belief in the literal truth of the other 10 stories:
Jesus turning water into wine: 69%
Jesus feeding the 5,000: 68%
Daniel and the lion's den: 65%
Moses and the Red Sea: 64%
Noah's flood: 64%
David and Goliath: 63%
God's six-day creation of the world: 60%
Jesus (and Peter) walking on the water: 60%
Eve and the serpent: 56%
Samson's strength: 49%
Of course, we don't judge the "truthiness" of our faith by the number of people who agree with us. Something is either true or its not. But one strategy of those who take joy in shaking your faith is to make you feel like you're standing along against the crowd for believing in the supernatural events described in Scripture. That may be the case in any given classroom or message board, but it's not true (for right now) on a national scale.
If you dig stats, the site is worth checking out to see how belief in these stories breaks down by sub-groups (religion, politics, gender, region, etc.).
Posted by Christopher Lyon on at
9:08 AM
1 Comments:
Of the many sad indictments of the American educational system I have seen, this is perhaps the most telling.
Reading the article is would seem that Catholics had a harder time than "born-again" protestants in believing such fairy-tales as Noah's flood. This confirms a global trend, that Catholics have are more interested in education and science than their protestant counterparts.
This depressing article will, one day, pay testament to why the American empire fell and the Chinese empire advanced. No empire that disregards science and learning in this wholesale a manner can ever succeed in the long term.
Mr Hume, famous disappointed philosopher.
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