New York Times Article

[leinad]

I just read an interesting article on cnn.com from the New York Times.  It claims that 83 percent of Americans believe in the virgin birth of Christ, and that that number has actually been on the rise in recent years (it gave a link to details of the polls, but you have to be a NYTimes.com insider to access it.)  There's an obvious liberal bias here, and the author pretty much says that American Christians are stupid for believing things like that, saying they have abandoned "intellectualism".  But I found the statistics cited interesting, and wonder if they're accurate.

One quote that stood out in particular:

My grandfather was fairly typical of his generation: A devout and active Presbyterian elder, he nonetheless believed firmly in evolution and regarded the Virgin Birth as a pious legend. Those kinds of mainline Christians are vanishing, replaced by evangelicals.

I hadn't thought that this kind of thinking was mainstream within the church a few generations ago, or at least not moreso than now.  I always thought the trend was going the other way.

[Josh]

I hadn't thought that this kind of thinking was mainstream within the church a few generations ago, or at least not moreso than now. I always thought the trend was going the other way.

Yeah, I'm just as surprised as you are. I, too, wonder how accurate that is...

[standman87]

(The majority of) Americans believe ... that it is necessary to believe in God to be moral. ... In France, only 13 percent agree with the U.S. view.

I knew it - I knew it - I knew it. - lol

I do think that we're in the middle of another religious Great Awakening

I hope so. Has this man not read his US History book? After a small sect of anti-intellectualism had their book burning party, the majority of the 'Awakees' helped build colleges, where this idiotic liberal minded writer probably graduated from! This collection of prestiges schools included Princeton, and yet these schools (for the most part), originally based on Christian principle, have thrown out the window their foundations of proper learning. Maybe there is reason why most students don't say that they even desire to go to an Ivy-League school? and just maybe it has something to do with their religious beliefs and how they effect their education?

I agree with this man: America is separated from the rest of the world's nations by its Christian beliefs and practices. But I disagree with this man, because I think this is good news, not bad! As Christians, we are asked to individually stand out - how about doing so as a nation?

[Vlad!]

I hadn't thought that this kind of thinking was mainstream within the church a few generations ago, or at least not moreso than now.  I always thought the trend was going the other way.

Yeah, I hear you. I consider such Christians to be more 'anti-intellectual' than those who believe in Creation--claiming to believe two fairly irreconcilible beliefs is foolishness in my eyes. But who knows...

I think those statistics are wrong. Not to say that they were collected badly, or that they were skewed in any way, but I don't think Americans really believe what they say they believe. With our postmodern mindset, we have 'Christians' who attend church but completely segregate their religion from their 'real' life...and we have 'believers' who will gleefully claim allegiance with Christ while denying the fundamentals of what He taught.