From a Gallup poll, fewer Americans see the Bible as the literal word of God. It's at a record low of 20%.
I find this interesting because in the U.S., Christianity seems to have a stranglehold on politics, at least the evangelical variety. What do you think? Are our politics being infiltrated by a religious minority?
Link here:
Fewer in U.S. Now See Bible as Literal Word of God
If you were to give children a choice between being lectured on the days events, or have story time, children much prefer hearing stories.
The story can to be anything, including make believe, such as in fables with talking animals. These children's stories stick to the young brain, so well, that even as adults they can remember them. They will often be recalled, with the birth of their own children, and be told to them. Such stories appear to represent a unique style of memories, that stick to the natural brain of children, before indoctrinated into culture; start school.
The Bible is partially written in the context of natural stories that can appeal to youngest children and which can be remembered a lifetime. One can even ask an atheist, who has disavowed religion, to repeat the story of Adam and Eve. They can still recite it.
If you were to ask an atheist to recite a lecture from university or high school, they will draw a blank. The Bible and other religious works from around world, often use this natural style of the human brain, before the ego is too strong and overly conditioned by culture. Jesus said unless you become as children; natural brain of a child and its long term memories.
The purpose of this natural memory style; story telling, is similar to what are called compressed files in computer language. These compressed memories are deigned natural storage that can last a lifetime. Decompression of these files, as adults, to find deeper meaning, is possible for those who seek the natural truths of human nature. What starts as simple and small; mustard seed, and natural to the human brain, can be decompressed as natural trees; good for all time.
I use the bible as an example of such stories, but this applies to all other religions also who understood natural data compression, for long term memory storage. Even with book burning, much can still be derived from these simpler childhood stories that cannot be taken away. They are tucked away deep in the brain, for long term storage, and for decompression in the future, when the brain is mature enough to read the full files.
If you look at the two political parties in America, for example, the cartoon representations of the two parties; elephant and donkey is something even a child would like. These compressed files can be decompressed to describe the personality of each party. The elephant is very smart and strong, with shades of gray; free market. The donkey is not as smart, but he is very hard working and bears the burdens of its master; big government. He is brown. These compressed files were chosen to help define the identity of each chosen later in life.
