Philologos wrote:
Please read more carefully. Three out of ten - I will let you call that a third, my sister is the family mathematician, and we can offset it against the pi gibe a while back - OF THOSE POLLED - note that one might question the degree to which the sample is truly representative - SAY they take the Bible literally.
This was from a Gallup poll. They usually have just over 1000 respondents, and the surveys are usually intended to be representative of the nation as a whole. I'm sure that the figure 33.3333% would fall within the margin of error for the survey. Hence, "about one-third" would be a close-enough approximation (notice, however, that I used the qualifier "almost"). And, yes, the results are based on what people SAY.
Quote:
In fact, they do not even say that - when you go to the Gallup site following the link you provide, you see the statement three of ten assented to is that the Bible "is to be taken literally" - not that they DO take it literally.
I suspect that few people who think that the Bible "is to be taken literally" do not take it literally. But, okay. I obviously should have stated "around 30% of Americans assent that the Bible is to be taken literally, based upon a Gallup poll."
Quote:
But in any case, as I keep pointing out, whatever standard version of the Bible you use, nobody CAN consistently take it literally.
Of course not. But that doesn't stop people from thinking that they do consistently take the Bible literally.
11 Jul 2011, 4:27 pm
