A new poll suggests that 28 percent of Americans believe the Bible is literally "the word of God."
This number has dropped since the 40 percent seen in the 1970s, but has risen since the all-time-low of 21 percent reached in both 2001 and 2009, a Gallup Politics news release reported.
About half of Americans believe the Bible is at least inspired by the word of God, meaning 75 percent of the U.S. population believes the Bible to be connected to God in some way.
About one in five Americans view the Bible in purely "secular terms," the news release reported.
The findings match up with the 76 percent of Americans that identify themselves as Christian compared with the 21 percent of U.S. citizens identifying themselves with another religion or no religion at all.
"Gallup's long-standing trend question on biblical interpretation touches on two ongoing debates in Christian theology. One is about whether the words of the Bible came directly from God -- essentially using the writers as scribes -- or if they are the words of men, but guided by divine inspiration. The other debate involves the meaning of the words: whether they should be taken literally, or be viewed partly -- or merely -- as metaphors and allegories that allow for interpretation," the news release reported.
In the poll the participants were given an additional choice. They were asked if they believed the Bible was the word of God but had multiple potential interpretations.
Twenty-two percent of the Americans who thought the Bible was the word of God said they thought the word should be taken literally; 28 percent were open to the idea of the text having multiple interpretations.
Another 28 percent of the participants believed the Bible was inspired by God's word and should not be taken literally, 18 percent believe the religious text to be "an ancient book of fables, legends, history, and moral precepts written by man," the news release.
