Trent Horn on his video* presented statistics basically saying:
| 1984 | 2004 | 2014 | 2022 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 37 | 34 | 28 | 20 | Actual and literal word of God |
| 46 | 48 | 47 | 49 | Inspired, not literal |
| 12 | 15 | 21 | 29 | Fables |
| 95 | 97 | 96 | 98 |
So, he made it a question about "Fundamentalists have changed sides."
Now, what exactly has he missed?
Two things:
- the ones alive 1984 and the ones alive in 2022 overlap (I was alive in both years), but are not identic;
- most people have been exposed to public school, which has become more Marxist in the USA.
Yes, he has a point that the idea "you don't need to take the Bible literally to take it as God's word" has a power to resist Marxists who consider it as not literally true. The idea "the Bible is the literal word of God" does not resist as well, unless supported by evidence, which is not provided everyone. But there is a reason it is not provided everyone, the Marxist schools cry out about "fake science", plus Church authorities tending in many denominations to side with "inspired, not literal" ... sth which the Marxists running the schools have not been really attacking.
Now, how about taking this in another way. It has not been Fundamentalists changing sides. It has been sons of Fundies raised as Infidels by Schools. And instead of vaunting "inspired but not literal" as miraculously resistant to Marxism, one could take the non-decline of it as a sign Marxists had protected it. And the prevalence of "fables" compared to earlier as a failure to sell this idea to Fundies. Or rather to their sons and daughters, pushed into schools with non-Christians, at an age at which they were undecided.
If so, it might even happen the guys who took "inspired, not literal" were helping the Marxists to push away Fundies from Actual and literal word of God to Fables — because "inspired but not literal" is too mushy for them.
It's illusory to imagine the 50 % or so Fundie material are going sufficiently mushy to accept "inspired but not literal" ... on the other hand, before 19th C. Liberalism and then Marxism took hold of schools, and by the way increased the compulsion to attend them, I would say all of that 50 % had a pretty good chance of believing the Bible to be the actual and (usually) literal word of God. And the mushy half really didn't have too much of a problem living under that régime.
Meanwhile, it is annoying that Trent Horn totally misses the enforced attendance at "Biblical scholarship" in at least some High School classes, even for those who didn't continue to College.
24:56 — 25:05
...so what seems to be happening is that Christians would have very rigid Fundamentalist view of Scripture that couldn't withstand the facts of Biblical Scholarship ended up just abandoning the Faith altogether
In Sweden, such facts are even more striking. The reason is simple. Home schooling is basically totally outlawed, and Private schools that are religious have had a tough time**. Parents who are "too Christian" risk losing custody. The public school system has long been infiltrated by Stasi, by Swedish teachers studying in East Germany, under de facto control of not just East German academia, but actually Stasi. Meanwhile, the Novus Ordo Catholics are partly doing a similar thing.
Hans Georg Lundahl
Paris
St. Galmier of Lyons
27.II.2024
* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Se2yEZigXA
** Exceptions were early on granted to 7DA and to Steinerians. This has been somewhat released since joining the EU.
