Atheists And Agnostics Who Believe In The Virgin Birth

The Toledo Blade recently ran a story on a Barna survey regarding the religious beliefs of Americans. Here are some of the results:

"Three out of four people polled said they believe Jesus was born to a virgin as described in the Gospel narratives"

"There was little difference between Protestants and Catholics on this point, he said, but among evangelicals, the percentage who said they believe that the virgin birth was literally true was in 'the upper 90s,' Mr. Barna said. Except for atheists and agnostics, of whom just 15 percent took the virgin birth story as historically true, a majority of all other subgroups believed it to be factual."

"In addition, some subgroups in which a majority rejected the literal interpretation of other Bible stories broke the pattern in regard to the virgin birth, he said. For example, 60 percent of people who categorized themselves as 'mostly liberal on political and social issues' expressed a literal belief in the virgin birth."

"56 percent expressed literal belief in the Bible account of the devil, disguised a serpent, tempting Eve to eat forbidden fruit....49 percent accepted as accurate the Bible story of Samson losing his legendary strength when Delilah had his hair cut. Mr. Barna said more people are prone to believe New Testament stories as literally true than Old Testament writings, a result that was especially notable among Catholics."