bible
General Social Survey https://gss.norc.org
Question 120a. Which of these statements comes closest to describing your feelings about teh Bible? 1. The Bible is the actual word of God and is to be taken literally, word for word. 2. The Bible is the inspired word of God but not everything in it should be taken literally, word for word. 3. The Bible is an ancient book of fables, legends, history, and moral precepts recorded by men.
For further details see the official GSS documentation.
Counts by year:
| year | iap | ancient book | don't know | inspired word | no answer | other (vol) | word of god | not available in this year | Total |
| 1972 | 1613 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 1613 |
| 1973 | 1504 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 1504 |
| 1974 | 1484 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 1484 |
| 1975 | 1490 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 1490 |
| 1976 | 1499 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 1499 |
| 1977 | 1530 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 1530 |
| 1978 | 1532 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 1532 |
| 1980 | 1468 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 1468 |
| 1982 | 1860 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 1860 |
| 1983 | 1599 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 1599 |
| 1984 | 484 | 134 | 13 | 455 | 13 | 7 | 367 | - | 1473 |
| 1985 | 783 | 94 | 13 | 365 | 5 | 2 | 272 | - | 1534 |
| 1986 | 1470 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 1470 |
| 1987 | 621 | 180 | 18 | 498 | 14 | 6 | 482 | - | 1819 |
| 1988 | - | 239 | 28 | 696 | 3 | 10 | 505 | - | 1481 |
| 1989 | 531 | 160 | 27 | 494 | 9 | 4 | 312 | - | 1537 |
| 1990 | 444 | 140 | 19 | 455 | 8 | 7 | 299 | - | 1372 |
| 1991 | 493 | 151 | 18 | 488 | 4 | 8 | 355 | - | 1517 |
| 1993 | 526 | 163 | 22 | 524 | 6 | 9 | 356 | - | 1606 |
| 1994 | 1015 | 292 | 34 | 1002 | 15 | 18 | 616 | - | 2992 |
| 1996 | 944 | 334 | 40 | 970 | 12 | 12 | 592 | - | 2904 |
| 1998 | 463 | 383 | 59 | 1164 | 14 | 25 | 724 | - | 2832 |
| 2000 | 486 | 361 | 71 | 1084 | 9 | 23 | 783 | - | 2817 |
| 2002 | 1393 | 192 | 24 | 727 | 3 | 36 | 390 | - | 2765 |
| 2004 | 1472 | 219 | 14 | 627 | 7 | 23 | 450 | - | 2812 |
| 2006 | 1518 | 497 | 37 | 1363 | 12 | 73 | 1010 | - | 4510 |
| 2008 | - | 392 | 23 | 924 | 13 | 32 | 639 | - | 2023 |
| 2010 | - | 414 | 27 | 878 | 11 | 40 | 674 | - | 2044 |
| 2012 | - | 404 | 26 | 865 | 15 | 30 | 634 | - | 1974 |
| 2014 | - | 555 | 29 | 1095 | 20 | 25 | 814 | - | 2538 |
| 2016 | - | 625 | 21 | 1252 | 16 | 42 | 911 | - | 2867 |
| 2018 | - | 494 | 18 | 1079 | 16 | 35 | 706 | - | 2348 |
| 2021 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 4032 | 4032 |
| 2022 | 1705 | 441 | 37 | 787 | 18 | 28 | 528 | - | 3544 |
| Total | 29927 | 6864 | 618 | 17792 | 243 | 495 | 12419 | 4032 | 72390 |
1 word of god
2 inspired word
3 ancient book
4 other (vol)
NA(d) don't know
NA(i) iap
NA(j) I don't have a job
NA(m) dk, na, iap
NA(n) no answer
NA(p) not imputable
NA(q) not imputable
NA(r) refused
NA(s) skipped on web
NA(u) uncodeable
NA(x) not available in this release
NA(y) not available in this year
NA(z) see codebook