Gallup Again - The Bible

[Brian37]

Saw this one today - Gallup is on a roll.

Fewer in U.S. Now See Bible as Literal Word of God

As someone who wants to believe as many true things as possible and disbelieve as many false things as possible, as well as encourage others to do so as well, this is encouraging.  For me, this was probably the first major domino to fall and everything else accelerated quickly thereafter.

It now stands at about 20%, roughly half of the 38% in 1976 and 40% in 1980.  A few points of that went from "actual" (ie: literal) to "inspired", but most of the shift was all the way to "fables".  Not surprisingly, the literals tend to be older, less educated, republican, conservative and protestant (much of which is further broken down in the pdf linked in the story).

Of course, it's still terrifying to me that 20% of Americans apparently believe in talking snakes and beating their slaves, but there you go...

I just had a very good friend, and well intended Christian liberal, visit me today and basically say, "I don't literally believe in a magic man called Jesus, but I do believe he existed and was a good person.". Well certainly far less insane than "I'll chop your nuts off and feed them to my dogs if you don't worship me", but still flawed logic. 

I explained to her, that Jefferson felt the same way. He didn't believe in a man/God, but he still believed that God existed, but simply stepped aside after making us and let us make our own mistakes. And that Jesus was still a real mere mortal with good morals. 

Well, not so fast my dear friend and Jefferson. It is absolutely true that you CAN find nice motifs of caring for the poor, railing at pure greed, and helping others. The Jesus character of the NT certainly had some nice moments off seeming compassion and empathy.


BUT, here is the rub. If he was a mere mortal but still a messenger of the God who made everything but stepped aside to let us make our own mistakes, there is a VERY HUGE flaw in that logic. Jesus is still supporting the jealous vengeful God of the OT who had a beef with an adult Pharaoh King and not only punished the king, but sanctioned his followers to murder all the firstborn males of Egypt, even if they were not adults even if they were merely toddlers or even babies.

It is not Anti Semitic to point out mere bad logic. I do not want to stick all Jews in an oven for believing a flawed logic story. 

But, just like the trend you rightfully point out in this survey. The further back in time you go, the more literal people took the words of their holy writings. And that was true for all of antiquity, even in polytheism and Buddhism. 

Ask a lot of Buddhists or Hindus whom are more liberal if they believe in the literal superstition of magical revenge called "Karma" which is a bullshit superstition. Stalin went his entire life never being punished for the monster he was. So bad people can go their entire life without being punished.

So subconsciously, instead of flat out ditching the word "Karma" they attempt to strip it of its mythological superstitious past, and try to water it down to metaphor not realizing or simply not wanting to accept the further back you went in time, in both Hinduism and Buddhism the more people truly believed there was some magical force like Yoda defeating Darth Vader.

So lets take Malachi 2:3 in the bible for example. I literally debated a theist about that verse. "Behold I will corrupt your seed and spread dung upon your faces." He stupidly tried to counter, "That comes from the KJV version, in the NIV version it uses the word "refuse" not "dung". HE REALLY FUCKING ARGUED THAT BULLSHIT.

I responded, "I DGAF, if you say dung or refuse, do you literally believe it would be ok to punish an adult even if their only crime was not kissing his ass, by spreading dung or trash in their faces?"

He answered, "No, it is just metaphor."

No shit Sherlock. But the further back in time you go the more people who interpreted either version thought spreading trash or shit in your face if you didn't behave, even if your only crime was not wanting to be in the same club took that as a real lagit punishment.