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FFS, most U.S. Xtians DO NOT believe the Bible is infallible. Even the "born again" don't. [1]
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Date: 2025-06-09
Here we go again….
The Bible teaches that the God of the Bible, as depicted by what most Christians declare is His infallible word...[emphasis added] Link
1. Bullshit. Most Christians in the US do not believe the Bible is infallible. Here are the data from Gallup:
25% of Christian Adults believe Bible is the actual word of God.
The majority of Christians (58%) say the Bible is the inspired word of God but not everything in it is to be taken literally, while 25% say it should be interpreted literally and 16% say it is an ancient book of fables. Link
2. Yes, Americans who identify as evangelical or born again are much more likely than others to view the Bible as literally true. But, and this is a Big But, even among this group, the percentage believing in a literal Bible is well less than 50%.
In short, not only do most U.S. Christians NOT believe the Bible is ‘His infallible word’, evangelicals and born again don’t either.
3. It took me literally 15 seconds to find that Gallup poll on CoPilot, and then a whole minute to read the poll. Lazy, smug arguments are not the antidote to religion. They just aren’t.
4. This is not a trivial matter. It is not a quibble. It goes to the very heart of the argument being made. In fancy talk, the predicate of the argument here is unsound, and so the argument itself, while perhaps valid in structure, fails. Miserably.
5. Why? Because this is the kind of ignorant, smart ass straw manning that hurts, not helps. It hurts because a) it’s not true, so it makes you look like a dumbass, and b) it turns your actual allies against you.
The problem is not Christianity. The problem is right wing Christianity and Christian Nationalism.
6. “Maybe a few of you can use some of this in your various discussions and debates with them.”
Yeah, maybe not. On second thought, hard pass. You see, I am an atheist and discuss religion with theists all the time. And here’s what I’ve learned the hard way:
Don’t presume anything. You first gotta find out what kind of theist/Christian someone is. Hell, there are over 200 denominations of Christianity in the U.S., not counting all the non-denominational Churches, and also not considering that nearly each and every person sitting in any particular pew has their own take on things. Most simply put, with “Christianity” there is no there there.
Case in point: last month or so, I watched my daughter spend over an hour arguing with a friend’s boyfriend before finding out that he self-identified as a liberal evangelical who neither believed in hell nor a literal interpretation of the Bible. All she heard him say at first was that he was an evangelical, not knowing that’s what mainline Lutherans (ELCA) call themselves.
7. And the most important thing: don’t go stampeding towards an argument. Try talking with them. I know! What a strange idea. Try dealing with people, not ideology.
Because 99 times out of 100 you can never win an argument about religion. You just can’t. Even if you beat them on every point, destroyed them at every turn, annihilated all their arguments. They were not reasoned into their faith, and will not browbeaten out of it. In fact, the more ideologically committed will only double and then triple down on their faith because "...faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen [Hebews 11;1]”. In case you don’t know what that means here, it means: Your belief in the belief despite having no good reason to believe is the best justification for your belief. That you still believe it, even after being totally crushed dude, is all the proof you need to happily and confidently continue to believe.
So, yeah. That’s all I’ve got to say about that. Other than, do better my fellow atheists. Do better.
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[1] Url:
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/6/9/2326881/-FFS-most-U-S-Xtians-in-DO-NOT-believe-the-Bible-is-infallible-Even-the-born-again-don-t?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=more_community&pm_medium=web
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