That’s a bold claim. The Old Testament historical narrative post-Genesis is still controversial-to-accepted; anthropology hasn’t for example turned up any evidence that I know of for Hebrew slavery under Pharaonic Egypt, but it’s still presented as fact in many Christian circles that are not Biblical literalists. Deuteronomy and Leviticus have largely been rejected, but for cultural rather than scientific reasons. Psalms still seems to be taken in the spirit it was intended.
On the New Testament side of things, the Gospels still generally seem to be taken as, well, gospel, miracles and all. Acts is mostly accepted. The epistles are very short on supernaturalist claims, concerning themselves mostly with organization and ethics. Revelation’s supernaturalist as hell but it’s in prophecy form, and interpretations of it vary widely anyway.
Really, aside from scattered references like that odd pi == 3 thing, about the only parts of the Christian Bible that mainstream churches have widely dropped on scientific grounds are in Genesis—and these days it’s got to be pretty hard for any religion to maintain a literalist interpretation of its creation myth, if it has any regard for science whatsoever.
I underestimated how bad survey questions can be. ”Do you completely agree / mostly agree / mostly disagree / completely disagree with: Miracles still occur as in ancient times” (I shortened the first part a bit, without changing the context) Seriously, wtf? The question assumes that miracles occured in ancient times. It does not define what “miracle” means at all, and it does not ask if miracles occur at all, it asks for a trend. 79% of the answers were counted as “belief in”, I think that those were the first two groups only (but I do not see that in the study).
However, the questions about heaven and hell are fine, and the large amount of “yes” answers (heaven 74%, hell 59%) makes me sad.
Funny numbers: At least 15% believe that “good” people come to heaven, but “bad” do not come to hell. So where do “bad” people go? To heaven, too? In the group of age 65+, 74% believe in heaven, but only 71% believe in a life after death. So at least 3% believe that “good” people will live in heaven after death, without living at all.
The mormons would tell you, for the most part, yes. And they generally believe in heaven and not hell.
The question assumes that miracles occured in ancient times.
Indeed, I might have given a “completely agree” there given that miracles occurred none of the time in ancient times, and are still going strong at that rate. But maybe other respondents have less trouble with loaded questions.
In the group of age 65+, 74% believe in heaven, but only 71% believe in a life after death. So at least 3% believe that “good” people will live in heaven after death, without living at all.
Or those 3% believe in heaven but don’t believe that dead people get to go there. It might just mean “God’s house”, or be reserved for those who are raptured.
That’s a bold claim. The Old Testament historical narrative post-Genesis is still controversial-to-accepted; anthropology hasn’t for example turned up any evidence that I know of for Hebrew slavery under Pharaonic Egypt, but it’s still presented as fact in many Christian circles that are not Biblical literalists. Deuteronomy and Leviticus have largely been rejected, but for cultural rather than scientific reasons. Psalms still seems to be taken in the spirit it was intended.
On the New Testament side of things, the Gospels still generally seem to be taken as, well, gospel, miracles and all. Acts is mostly accepted. The epistles are very short on supernaturalist claims, concerning themselves mostly with organization and ethics. Revelation’s supernaturalist as hell but it’s in prophecy form, and interpretations of it vary widely anyway.
Really, aside from scattered references like that odd pi == 3 thing, about the only parts of the Christian Bible that mainstream churches have widely dropped on scientific grounds are in Genesis—and these days it’s got to be pretty hard for any religion to maintain a literalist interpretation of its creation myth, if it has any regard for science whatsoever.
Ok, I guess I underestimated how many people believe in miracles.
I underestimated how bad survey questions can be.
”Do you completely agree / mostly agree / mostly disagree / completely disagree with: Miracles still occur as in ancient times” (I shortened the first part a bit, without changing the context)
Seriously, wtf? The question assumes that miracles occured in ancient times. It does not define what “miracle” means at all, and it does not ask if miracles occur at all, it asks for a trend. 79% of the answers were counted as “belief in”, I think that those were the first two groups only (but I do not see that in the study).
However, the questions about heaven and hell are fine, and the large amount of “yes” answers (heaven 74%, hell 59%) makes me sad.
Funny numbers:
At least 15% believe that “good” people come to heaven, but “bad” do not come to hell. So where do “bad” people go? To heaven, too?
In the group of age 65+, 74% believe in heaven, but only 71% believe in a life after death. So at least 3% believe that “good” people will live in heaven after death, without living at all.
That’s one option. Another option would be that bad people just cease to exist. Or they get reincarnated until they become non-bad enough for heaven.
The mormons would tell you, for the most part, yes. And they generally believe in heaven and not hell.
Indeed, I might have given a “completely agree” there given that miracles occurred none of the time in ancient times, and are still going strong at that rate. But maybe other respondents have less trouble with loaded questions.
Or those 3% believe in heaven but don’t believe that dead people get to go there. It might just mean “God’s house”, or be reserved for those who are raptured.