Americans attend church more regularly and interpret the Bible more literally than Canadians, according to a recent Gallup Poll, reinforcing earlier surveys that consistently showed higher levels of religious observance in the United States than in Canada.
In surveys of more than 1,000 adults conducted last month in both countries, Gallup gave respondents a choice of three options to describe their beliefs: the Bible is the actual word of God and is to be taken literally, word for word; the Bible is the inspired word of God but not everything in it should be taken literally; or the Bible is an ancient book of fables, legends, history and moral precepts recorded by humans.
Twice as many Americans as Canadians believe that the Bible is the actual word of God and is to be taken literally-34 percent versus 17 percent respectively.
About half of both Americans (48 percent) and Canadians (51 percent) agree the Bible is the inspired word of God but that not everything in it should be taken literally.
Fifteen percent of Americans believe the Bible is a collection of fables, legends and writings of people, while 29 percent of Canadians agree.
Forty-six percent of Americans who go to church at least monthly think the Bible is the actual word of God, but just 32 percent of Canadian weekly and monthly church attendees feel the same way.
The poll noted that Americans are twice as likely as Canadians to attend church every week-35 percent compared to 18 percent.
The latter figure may be too low, according to Reginald Bibby, a University of Lethbridge sociologist and Canada's leading tracker of religious trends.
Bibby cites recent polls suggesting that weekly church attendance in Canada is about 25 percent, indicating a steady increase, especially among teenagers and young adults, since the early 1990s.
That's still a far cry from 1945, when a Gallup Poll pegged weekly church attendance in Canada at about 60 percent.
Another recent survey, cited by Canadian author and pollster Michael Adams, showed that 69 percent of Canadians believe in heaven but only about 43 percent believe in hell and the devil.
In the United States, 81 percent believe in heaven and 70 percent in hell and the devil.
An Ipsos-Reid poll last year showed that 19 percent of Canadians are evangelical. In the United States, estimates of evangelicals vary, depending on definitions, but most counts show evangelical Christians comprising about one-third or more of the population.
Religion News Service