A reader comments about the Bible-Believers,
Do the study authors divide their group by those who believe the Bible is the LITERAL word of God? As in, word by word completely true and accurate?
That belief would fit most evangelical Christian sects in this country, I think. However, I know it does not fit the Catholic church, and by extension I would presume would not fit other similar churches (orthodox, Episcopalian). The latter take the Bible as a collection of stories which are allegorical.
The authors use the phrase, “Those who believe the Bible is the word of God.” Discovering what percentage of Christian sects believe in inerrancy is difficult, and my searches in that regard failed; it may be more interesting to ask how many Americans believe in the inerrancy of the Bible is unclear, but even that is unclear. This Rasmussen poll from 2005 suggests 63% of us are literal Bible believers, while venerable Gallup, from 2007, pegs it at 33%. A more recent Slate article suggests the terminology “inerrant” means different things to different people:
Thirty percent chose the second statement: that the Bible is “without errors” but that “some parts are meant to be symbolic.” This isn’t what secular people tend to think inerrancy means. But it is what a lot of Christians apparently believe. Most people who believe that the Bible is inerrant do not believe that this means everything in it is literally true.
I can certainly see inerrancy and symbolic meaning working together, and may be a way to explain what appears to be an assertion vs behavioral abyss.
