Rasmussen: 75% in Arkansas, Alabama Believe Bible Literally True

[katinmn]

Only 22% in Vermont, Massachusetts

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/2006/State%20Polls/August%202006/bibleLiterallyTrue.htm
Not surprisingly, the Bible Belt region lives up to its name with states like Alabama, Arkansas, Tennessee and West Virginia containing the highest percentage of those who believe the Bible is literally true. Alabama and Arkansas came out on top as 75% say they believe the Bible is literally true. West Virginia (70%) and Tennessee (68%) are close behind.

The northeast region of our map represents the other extreme. In Vermont and Massachusetts, only 22% of those respondents believe the Bible is literally true—the lowest percentages in all states surveyed.

Earlier this summer, a national survey found that 54% of American adults believe the Bible is literally true.

[stepnw1f]

1. I Find That Hard to "Believe" (nt)

[HereSince1628]

2. Bush's no child left behind effort seems to have some work left.

There's still 25% of kids in some states who need education in the "fundamentals" and it's worse in the NE.

[Realityhack]

30. Huh?

Whats worse in the north east?

[rpannier]

3. Good to know

Now I can set up my First Christian Apocalyptic Church of the One and True God in those areas and rake in the dough. Drive around my 100 acre estate while the peons work the fields -- as God wills it.
I will continue to remind my flock that the only way to get into heaven is to do the hardest thing imagineable -- Giver every penny they have to me. Why me? I hold it in trust for God.

[MikeNearMcChord]

4. Karl Rove in 2004, had pamphlets sent out to these people

claiming if John Kerry won, the Bible would be outlawed. H.L. Mencken had fun writing about these people.

[Warpy]

5. Alabama was like another planet

and had the most poisonous radio I heard anywhere in the south. It was at the height of the Judge Roy Moore fiasco, and they'd run out of Christian superlatives of all types and were resorting to neologisms to describe the godless who wanted the constitution respected. When I stopped to gas up my old pickup with NM license plates, I was regarded with suspicion and hostility.

People in Arkansas were downright reasonable in comparison.

[OwnedByFerrets]

9. Proud Alabamian Atheist!

Not all Alabamians drink the kool-aide.

[Warpy]

10. I know that, I've known quite a few online

I just didn't see any of them when I was there.

Unbelievers and lefties have to be incredibly strong to survive there.

[katinmn]

16. Nope! And the way to prevent the spread of these narrow beliefs

is through evidence-based education. If kids have at least some exposure to facts and differing views, they will turn out ok.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

6. I'll bet before the fall of Rome, they

had identical numbers of believers in their god-like images.

I have no proof that their beliefs led to their society's collapse, but clearly christianity did them no favors and led to the dark ages.

It is strange that we now sit again atop a cliff. That the majority's belief systems are direectly opposed to science, rational thinking and real educations. That the very religious strength so proudly proclaimed on bumper stickers and in neon billboards in front of sunday brain-washing centers are leading our society to the edge of that cliff, with blindfolds.

A century from now, humanity will look back at the great american experiment and realize that it collapsed because of religion, not inspite of it.

[azurnoir]

7. 2 weeks ago

I would not have believed it either but, my SO and I were talking to his mom she is a typical middle class Minnesota type, reasonable educated somewhat church going ELC. The subject of evolution came up and the poll that showed more then 50% of adults don't believe it, mom pipes up "well it only applies to animals certainly not to humans", we both just sat there stunned. But mom the SO said, she would brook no more discussion on the subject, but it was an eye opener for sure.

[darkmaestro019]

13. (head plus desktop) Oh how that drives me crazy...

That's the real ultimate "racism" to me, is this cute little line drawn between us and all the OTHER animals.

We're animals too. Yes, really. I wonder if it's....a self esteem issue? Like it would burst some kind of bubble to admit to yourself you're "just" another animal?

[Zebedeo]

28. Are animals moral actors?

If humans are "just another animal," can animals be held to the same moral standards as humans? Should we imprison animals that steal or kill?

[Realityhack]

29. Define your term

What is your specific deffinition of 'moral actor'.

[darkmaestro019]

32. Do we imprison humans that kill?

There are meat packing plants full of them. Sucks about the genocide the dolphins are guilty of, though, doesn't it? All those poor fish.


EDIT: And what about the White House? The military? Thou shalt not kill didn't come with an asterisk in any of the Bibles I have lying around. I'm having a problem finding anything that wasn't once alive to eat, though. Hmmm.

[hunter]

33. Am I a "moral actor" because I am human?

Or am I a human because I am a "moral actor?"

Around and around we go.

Personally I do not believe it cheapens the value of the human soul to attribute some kind of spirit to animals. I consider the "moral actor" argument meaningless. One can easily imagine a continuum of soulfulness, from creatures that are essentially soulless (bacteria, etc.) to creatures like ourselves. The Creation is a big place, with room for lots of souls.

Okay, now I'm going to get booted out of Mass for sure, since it's one thing to support gay marriage and birth control, but it's quite another thing to argue that animals have souls...

Christianity has always been at war with spiritual traditions that include animals as part of the spiritual continuum. This is partly good, in that we are commanded to treat all humans as our brothers and sisters and not as "lesser" beings like animals, but it is also bad in that it often allows us to dismiss the suffering of animals.

So yeah, I think a goldfish has a soul, or at least some kind of spirit. It's is nowhere near the complexity of a human soul (or a gorilla, or a dolphin, etc.) but there is still something there within that being worthy of our respect.

[Zebedeo]

36. IMHO you are conflating two distinct issues

Issue one is whether animals are moral actors, i.e., can an animal be considered to be "evil" or to have engaged in "evil" behavior. In my view, animals are not capable of such, because my definition of evil is rebellion against God's will. Animals just can't do that. Only humans have the capability to make the moral decision to rebel against God's will, or to abide by it. If a great white shark bites a surfer in half, we don't attribute evil to the shark. If a cat plays a deadly game with a mouse before devouring it (despite the fact that the cat has a full food dish), we don't attribute evil to the cat. Good and evil just isn't part of the picture with animal behavior. With humans, I submit, it is.

Issue two is whether animals should be respected and whether steps should be taken to minimize unnecessary suffering of animals. I answer these questions in the affirmative. We are stewards of God's creatures, and though they are fundamentally different from us, they are not in the class of inanimate objects. They are in many cases thinking, feeling creatures that deserve our respect, concern, and sometimes protection.

[hunter]

39. Using God in a definition of evil seems a bit of blasphemy...

Even when evil is defined as "rebellion against God's will."

Arguments such as these always boil down to God creating evil, or God willing evil to exist, or some other profanity.

And then you've always got those people who don't know God, the figurative Eskimo asking "Why did you tell me this?" who previously had nothing to rebel against before the Christian missionaries arrived. Can people who don't know God be moral? Because they don't know God, can they be evil?

I define evil as a violation of faith or trust. You don't need to insert God into the equations of evil. To murder, rape, or deliberately injure someone is to violate their faith in other people, and if they are religious, perhaps their faith in God. That is evil. We see certain crimes as especially heinous because they violate the faith and trust of very innocent people, especially in the case of children. A church leader or sports coach who molests children violates not only the faith of that child, but the faith of the child's parents and guardians who left the child in that person's care. We see such violations as especially evil acts.

God's will is certainly not a part of that definition of evil. If it was an all-powerful God might prevent such evil from happening. He doesn't, which means that there is no God, or that God is not all-powerful. A third option would be that such evil is not particularly important in some greater scheme of things. None of these explanations is particularly comforting. Sure, you were raped and tortured and murdered on Earth, but you get extra-credit in Heaven, hoo-yah! Or else you become nothing and can't be hurt anymore.

Does a dog know evil? I've always lived with dogs, and they certainly recognize various violations of trust. They are not robots. If you adopt a dog that was abused, it may take a very long time to restore that dog's faith in humans, and sadly it might be impossible. Dogs are intensely aware of the social rules of a household, and they immediately recognize violations of these rules. There are behaviors dogs know are evil, heinous violations of trust. They are not all that different than people.

The amazing thing about dogs is that they are astonishingly happy in a wide variety of circumstances provided they have food, shelter, and exercise -- both physical and intellectual. Is that because they know God?

People are the same way. If they are nurtured in an environment of trust, they will generally be happy, and they will be able to recognize evil, and treat other people in an ethical fashion. If they are not nurtured in such an environment, it is much more likely that they will be unable to foster such an environment for themselves, and they may turn out to be unethical, if not evil.

One of the greatest failure of Christianity has been it's failure to recognize the ethical systems of other cultures. In many cases Christianity was an actual conduit of great evil. This failure has also extended into our treatment of animals. We are not quick to see the culture and ethical systems of other species, and we often deny that they are similar to our own.

[Goblinmonger]

34. Do YOU expect the same out of flys

that you do from dogs. Do you think you can train a worm to fetch? Different animals are different, but it doesn't stop them from being animals. I feel like I'm in the argument Huck Finn had with Jim about people speaking French.

Get over it. We are just animals. We have a little fancier brain cortex (or whatever--I'm an English teacher) but we are just animals. Dolphins have a very developed brain and there are many indicates of them exhibiting "moral" behavior. We had this discussion about penguins and I don't think you reasonably answered the claim.

[Zebedeo]

37. I think you travel a perilous road

if you attribute morality or immorality to animals (or, for your sake, "non-human animals). If we are going to say that some penguins are "evil" for trying to steal the eggs or kill the offspring of other penguins, and that other penguins are "good" for saving the youngsters, then mustn't we also condemn all of the penguins (even the "good" ones) for mercilessly devouring innocent fish? Doesn't this lead to an absurd condemnation of all predators?

In my view, it is not how fancy the cerebral cortex is that provides the important distinction between mankind and the beasts. It is the ability to obey or disobey God's will. Humans have this ability (no matter how intelligent or unintelligent) and animals don't (no matter how intelligent or unintelligent).

To answer your question, I do not expect the same from a fly as I do from a dog. Dogs are more intelligent than flies and more trainable. However, training is not the same as morality. When you say "bad dog" to a dog, it is not because you have made a moral evaluation of the dog and are condemning him as immoral. It is, rather, merely training the dog to engage in the behavior you desire. Depending on the trainer, the desired behavior could be coming when called, or it could be attacking someone. The person who trained the dog says "good boy" to the dog when it attacks. You can train a dog to attack or not to attack. It has nothing to do with morality on the dog's part, IMHO.

[hunter]

17. Well, except for sheep, of course...

Oh, hell, I won't say it. It probably best to keep peace in one's family.

I grew up in a household thick in a Cold War of Theology with occasional hot wars around Christmas, and I'm not a better man for it. (Christmas trees are pagan, don't you know...)

[azurnoir]

24. But thats the shock

she's one of the most life long, Bush hating, Democrats I have ever known. The church she attends is quite liberal Gay minister, they do sermons against Fundies and all that Christen Fundamentalism represents. That is why the huh? reaction.

[hunter]

25. One of my most beloved professors in college taught me Paleontology.

To some people I'd previously trusted, he may as well have been a Satanist.

I'll never understand that.

[LoZoccolo]

8. And yet 45% voted for Kerry in Arkansas...

...and 37% in Alabama.

[Dr.Phool]

11. Pretty good, considering most of them have never read it!

The bible is the most sold, least read book in history.

[OwnedByFerrets]

20. Why dont you know.....

(said in my best suthern drawl) that just owning the bible gits ya into heaven.

[zbdent]

12. Once Bill and Hillary left, the average went wayyyyy down

and, once the Lefties leave Arkansas, the average IQ will drop into the single digits ...

[4bucksagallon]

14. Onward christian soldier, such a great book is the bible.

The quotes are not mine they are from the author of this website.
http://spl.haxial.net/religion/violence/
There is plenty of others this just happens to be about the bible since that is what you posted about.

Morally Repugnant Christian Quotes Advocating Killing and Rape

" warred against the Midianites, as the LORD commanded Moses; and they slew all the males. <...> And the children of Israel took all the women of Midian captives, and their little ones, and took the spoil of all their cattle, and all their flocks, and all their goods. And they burnt all their cities wherein they dwelt, and all their goodly castles, with fire. And they took all the spoil, and all the prey, both of men and of beasts. <...> And Moses said unto them, Have ye saved all the women alive? <...> Now therefore kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman that hath known man by lying with him. But all the women children, that have not known a man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves."
(Numbers 31:7-18, KJV)
That's just beautiful, isn't it? Imagine telling that to your kids as a bedtime story: "And then the Lord commanded Moses to murder all the male babies and the women who have had sex. But they kept alive all the young nubile virgin girls so that they could have fun raping them, and so everyone lived happily ever after."


"O daughter of Babylon, who art to be destroyed; happy shall he be, that rewardeth thee as thou hast served us. Happy shall he be, that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones."
(Psalms 137:8-9, KJV)
O daughter of Babylon, doomed to destruction, happy is he who repays you for what you have done to us -- he who seizes your infants and dashes their brains against the rocks.


"And utterly destroyed all that was in the city, both man and woman, young and old, and ox, and sheep, and ass, with the edge of the sword. <...> left none remaining, but utterly destroyed all that breathed, as the LORD God of Israel commanded."
(Joshua 6:21 and 10:40)
Ahhh, another beautiful bedtime story. God commanded Joshua to murder a whole city, so he took his army into the city and they stabbed everyone in the belly with their swords, including the children and animals!


"I will sing praise to your name, O Most High.... The enemies have vanished in everlasting ruins; their cities you have rooted out; the very memory of them has perished.... The LORD will swallow in his wrath, and fire will consume them. will destroy their offspring from the earth ... their children from ... humankind."
(Psalms 9:2, 6, and 21:9-10)
Such a benevolent god.


" proclaimed with loud voices: 'Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth, wisdom and might, honor and glory and praise!'... I saw heaven wide open, and a white horse appeared; its rider's name was Faithful and True, for he is just in judgment and just in war.... e was robed in a garment dyed in blood, and he was called the Word of God. The armies of heaven followed him.... Out of his mouth came a sharp sword to smite the nations; for it is he who will rule them with a rod of iron, and tread the winepress of the fierce wrath of God the sovereign Lord."
(Revelation 5:11-12 and 19:11, 13-15)
Worthy is the person who has killed people in order to get power and wealth? What sort of morals are these to teach to your children?? If god were a person, we would have put him in jail with a life sentence by now.


"Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace but a sword."
(Jesus according to Matthew 10:34, KJV)
"Then said he unto them, But now, he that hath a purse, let him take it, and likewise his scrip; and he that hath no sword, let him sell his garment, and buy one."
(Jesus according to Luke 22:36, KJV)

Great, Jesus, that is just what we need -- more violence, more wars, no peace. I think Jesus (if he really existed at all) was a fugging ASSHOLE. The world needs PEACE, not violence, and yet here we have Jesus saying that he sends violence (a sword) not peace.


"But those mine enemies, which would not that I should reign over them, bring hither, and slay them before me."
(Jesus according to Luke 19:27, KJV)
Here we have another example of Jesus being a homicidal megalomaniac. Bring all the people that he does not reign over, and murder them in front of him? In the parable of the talents, Jesus says that God takes what is not rightly his, and reaps what he didn't sow. The parable ends with the words of Jesus as quoted above.


"And whosoever lieth carnally with a woman, that is a bondmaid, betrothed to an husband, and not at all redeemed, nor freedom given her; she shall be scourged; they shall not be put to death, because she was not free. And he shall bring his trespass offering unto the LORD, unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, even a ram for a trespass offering. And the priest shall make an atonement for him with the ram of the trespass offering before the LORD for his sin which he hath done: and the sin which he hath done shall be forgiven him."
(Leviticus 19:20 - 19:22)
If you read this carefully, you will see that it is saying that if a man has sex with a slave woman, then she must be scourged/punished, but the man's sins "shall be forgiven him". A man can rape a slave women and be forgiven!

"And the daughter of any priest, if she profane herself by playing the whore, she profaneth her father: she shall be burnt with fire."
(Leviticus 21:9)
In other words, if the daughter of a priest has sex, she must be burnt to death. Good ol' Christian morals.


"Every one that is found shall be thrust through; and every one that is joined unto them shall fall by the sword. Their children also shall be dashed to pieces before their eyes; their houses shall be spoiled, and their wives ravished. <...> Their bows also shall dash the young men to pieces; and they shall have no pity on the fruit of the womb; their eyes shall not spare children."
(Isaiah 13:15-18)
Kill the children in front of their parents, and rape the wives! _HOLY SHIT_! How much of a perverted psychopath do you have to be to write something like that?? I think the christian bible must have been written by serial killers!


"And Moses said, Thus saith the LORD, About midnight will I go out into the midst of Egypt: And all the firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh that sitteth upon his throne, even unto the firstborn of the maidservant that is behind the mill; and all the firstborn of beasts."
(Exodus 11:4-5)
As you can see above, christianity promotes killing people who believe differently, and it promotes children being "dashed to pieces" before the eyes of their parents, and young virgin girls being raped after their parents are killed. Even Jesus himself speaks of "slaying" people. Anyone who promotes the christian bible, knowing that it contains these things, is a SICK and TWISTED person. And note that the above is only a PARTIAL list of the sections of the bible promoting killing, rape and other sick activities!

Furthermore, it is a fact that Catholic priests regularly sexually abuse children (Click for examples from the media). I think that every priest should be given a free surgical castration when he is ordained.

Above, I have only been dealing with violence, killing, and rape, but the christian bible is also packed full of other immoral and unethical orders. For example, women should be horrified when they read that the christian bible orders women to relinquish their rights and subject themselves to their husbands authority in every way:


"Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body. Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing."
(Ephesians 5:22-24, KJV)
And parents should be horrified when they read that jesus says you must hate your family if you want to be his disciple:

"If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple."
(Jesus according to Luke, 14:26, KJV)
For more information about the hundreds of immoral and unethical passages in the christian bible, I recommend that you visit the Skeptics Annotated Bible website.

The best proof that god does not exist is that if he did exist, he would have smote you damn christians by now. I mean, seriously, what god would endure the way these christians behave? Even if a christian god did exist, he would have died of embarrassment by now.

In all seriousness, it is less of an insult to be called a Devil-Worshiper than a Christian. Have Christian's conducted violent Crusades of mass-murder? Yes, read the history books. Have Devil-Worshipers? Not that I am aware of. Or even if they have, the number of murders conducted in the name of the Devil is surely 1% of the number of murders conducted in the name of Christianity. When one considers the violent and murderous history of Christianity, one has to conclude that Christianity's depiction of the Devil is -- at the very least -- a case of the pot calling the kettle black.

[TallahasseeGrannie]

35. But the devil made them do it?

Welcome to DU.

[fasttense]

15. They are such liars.

I live in the bible belt and I can guarantee they don't take the bible literally. When it says lamb of god, do they really believe a lamb was made by god. No they think it "represents Jesus". They don't know what literally means.

They pick and choose which parts to take literally. I have yet to see any mass giving up of wealth and helping the poor here in the bible belt. So where are all the literal interpretation of Jesus words? Where are all the people taking care of the poor? Where is the mass assistance to the strangers and widows? Why don't they start taking those parts literally?

Bunch of lying hypocrites is all they are.

[katinmn]

18. I agree the Bible is heavily cherry-picked

It seems the OT is taken literally but Christ's teachings are ignored as inconvenient.

[blueinchicago]

38. What about the striped sheep?

In Genesis, Jacob is supposed to be able to get ewes to have striped sheep by holding a striped painting in front of their eyes. No one believes that.

Not only haven't the bible belters read the bible, they haven't read the first chapter!

(Maybe they can't read?)

Blue

[cain_7777]

19. Less education = literal belief in bible

One Nation Under Educated:puke:

[Silent3]

21. Do that many people actually believe...

...that the Bible is literal truth, or are a lot of these people who answer "yes" in the grip of a superstitious fear of answering "no" to the question?

[katinmn]

22. I'm sure that accounts for part of it.

They may feel it's sacrilegious to speak against the Bible.

[muriel_volestrangler]

23. Or they may not be too clear on the meaning of 'literally'

They may just think it means 'some parts' are literally true - ie the parts they like. I think it would be better to pick the most unlikely, but well known, bits of the Bible and ask them if they believe they happened just as described in the Bible - eg creation in 6 days, a few thousand years ago, or a flood covering all of the land in the world, with an ark keeping all land animals and birds alive.

[Realityhack]

27. You would hope so but...

http://www.pollingreport.com/science.htm

Somewhere in the neiborhood of 50% nation wide beleive in strict biblical creationisim.

I don't know about the accuracy of this one but it breaks things down further into specific beleifs.

http://abcnews.go.com/sections/primetime/US/views_of_bible_poll_040216.html

Bible Stories Are "Literally True"
Red Sea 64%
Creation 61%
Noah 60%

[katinmn]

31. Thanks for these resources!

We have a problem when people are this indoctrinated. I didn't think it was so widespread.

[Realityhack]

26. I like MA.

Asside from our shithead govenor its quite nice here.