Who Says the Bible Is Literally True?

A majority of Americans believe the Holy Bible is literally true and not just a book of stories that are meant to be interpreted as symbolic lessons, reports The Washington Times of a recent ABC News poll of 1,011 adults.
--61 percent believe the story of the creation of the Earth in seven days as told in the book of Genesis is literally true.
--60 percent believe in the story of Noah's ark, the global flood, and God's covenant to never destroy the Earth again.
--64 percent believe that Moses really did part the Red Sea so the Jews could escape their Egyptian captors. "These are surprising and reassuring figures, a positive sign in a postmodern world that seemed bent on erasing faith from the public square in recent years," the Rev. Charles Nalls, a priest with the Catholic-Anglican church, told The Times. "This poll tells me that America is reading the Bible more than we thought. There had been a tendency to decry or discount Bible literacy among the faithful."

However, the levels of literal belief in these three Bible stories differ among various Christian groups:

--Mainline Protestants: 75 percent believe in the story of creation, 79 percent in the Red Sea account, and 73 percent in Noah and the Ark.
--Evangelical Protestants: 87 percent believe in the creation story, 91 percent in the Red Sea, and 87 percent in Noah.
--Roman Catholics: 51 percent think the story of the creation is literally true, while 50 percent believe in the Red Sea story and 44 percent in the flood.

This may be the most interesting finding of all: Among those who said they had "no religion," 25 percent still believe in the creation story, almost a third believe in Moses and the Red Sea, and 29 percent believe in Noah and the Ark.

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