Virgin Birth and Believers ...
A new poll by Pew Research, just in time for Christmas, shows 73
percent of Americans believe in Jesus’ virgin birth by His mother Mary.
Even 32 percent of the self-professed religiously unaffiliated said they
believe. White evangelicals were the most believing (97%), followed by
black Protestants (94%), white Catholics (88%), Hispanic Catholics
(81%) and Mainline Protestants (70%). By comparison, other polls show
about one third of the British people profess belief in the Virgin
Birth.
Popular lore claims America is always growing more secular, like
Europe. But attachment to core Christian beliefs remains high and shows no major sign of falling.
"Belief" rather than "understanding" is probably the key to all of this. A person cannot possibly understand the mysteries of Christianity. A person instead can simply believe.
ReplyDeleteBTW . . . Merry Christmas!
Why is belief so commonly employed as an acceptable alternative to understanding, with the usual recourse to mysteries? Clearly, belief cannot provide insight into religious issues because it is a fixed point, resilient against argument. What exactly are the mysteries of Christianity? Didn't all adulterous wives at the time claim that they were impregnated by a god? Perhaps therefore all religious mysteries are merely ancient lies?
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