As I looked at various charts and relationships between each questionnaire, this week, regarding how many individuals believed in the Bible, affiliated or nonaffiliated with a religion, whom has left a previous religion etc. All the results of the survey have various factors affecting each person which isn’t taken into question when an individual only has three answers to pick from during these types of surveys. Chaves brings this into discussion when a poll was taken about the belief of the Bible. The results from this survey shows a decline in the belief of the Bible. The question that was asked was “Which of these statements comes closest to describing your feelings about the bible?”, the options of answering the question are “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, word for word” or “The Bible is an ancient book of fables, legends, history, and moral precepts recorded by men” (Chaves 32). If this survey were to be taken more recently most individuals would not know which option to pick; nor would be satisfied with these answers. It makes me come to the realization that religion and belief in bible is one the most difficult topics to get a correct grasp at through a survey, unless all questions can be free answered. 

Knowing that there is a decline in belief in the Bible doesn’t mean that less people believe in the Bible, it could be that less people believe in what they use to know about the Bible not that there is necessarily a greater number of non-believers in the world than there have been before. People may be coming more aware of the “truth” of the Bible for themselves than what they had believed as a child.