Last month my posts Biblical literalism or low IQ: which came first? and Educational levels & denomination got a lot of play around the blogosphere. I used the US Religious Landscape Survey to get demographic data for denominations, but I had to cobble together numbers on Biblical literalism, etc. But with a further release of data I can now flesh out almost all the denominations plotting postgrad education % vs. belief that the Bible is the literal word of god.
Clarification: Y axis = % with postgrad education. X axis = % who believe the Bible is the literal word of god.
As you can see, the trend still holds with more denominations. I decided to do this since people were curious about denomination X, and I didn’t have that included. Click the image or here for a larger version so you can see the labels. And here is a chart with all religious affiliations included (e.g., includes non-orthodox Christians such as Mormons as well as non-Christians). Below the fold I’ve put the raw data I used, but if you want to snatch it for yourself, here it is as a CSV file (if you do some statistical analysis of the data post a link in the comments and I’ll link next week).
| Word of God to be taken literally | % Graduate Ed | |
| African Methodist Episcopal (Black) | 57 | 9 |
| American Baptist | 52 | 5 |
| Anglican | 13 | 24 |
| Assembles of God | 70 | 4 |
| Church of Christ | 50 | 6 |
| Church of God Cleveland | 75 | 4 |
| Church of God in Christ (Black) | 75 | 3 |
| Church of the Nazarene | 63 | 5 |
| Disciples of Christ | 35 | 17 |
| Episcopal Church | 9 | 27 |
| Evangelical Lutheran Church | 23 | 11 |
| Free Methodist Church | 50 | 7 |
| Independent Baptist | 61 | 5 |
| Independent Baptist (Black) | 68 | 3 |
| Lutheran Church, Missouri Synod | 42 | 9 |
| National Baptist Convention | 68 | 6 |
| Nondenom. Charismatic | 56 | 11 |
| Nondenom. Evangelical | 61 | 15 |
| Nondenom. Fund Church | 63 | 11 |
| Presbyterian Church in America | 35 | 13 |
| Presbyterian Church USA | 23 | 24 |
| Seventh Day Adventist | 48 | 5 |
| Southern Baptist | 63 | 7 |
| United Church of Christ | 15 | 21 |
| United Methodist | 25 | 14 |
| Mormon | 35 | 10 |
| Jehovah’s Witness | 48 | 3 |
| Orthodox | 26 | 18 |
| Jewish | 10 | 35 |
| Muslim | 50 | 10 |
| Buddhist | 8 | 26 |
| Hindu | 12 | 48 |
| Unitarian & Liberal | 5 | 29 |
| New Age | 4 | 11 |
| Atheist | 3 | 21 |
| Agnostic | 0 | 20 |
| Secular Unaffiliated | 4 | 13 |
| Religious Unaffiliated | 25 | 6 |


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