By: E&P Staff Better than one in four Americans believe that the Bible is "literally true and the actual word of God," the Gallup organization reported this afternoon.
A Gallup poll taken this month gave 1,002 respondents three choices: The Bible is the actual word of God and is to be taken literally, word for word; the Bible is the inspired word of God but not everything in it should be taken literally; or the Bible is an ancient book of fables, legends, history, and moral precepts recorded by man.
The number of those backing the "literal" view was 28%, with 49% selecting the "inspired word of God" option and 19% the "fables" view.
Not surprisingly, the number of literalists rose somewhat with age, and the highest number live in the South.
By party affiliation, backing the literal word of God view, it broke down as 33% of Republicans, 26% of Democrats and 24% of Independents.
There has been a gradual decline in recent decades of those who believe that the Bible is literally true, but only by a few percentage points.
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