Interesting statistics.

I live in the UK where I doubt the figures are so high - but nonetheless the number of people that believe in key parts of Jesus' life yet live their lives ignoring Him is high too.

There is certainly a place for showing the proofs of resurrection but I think you make a valid point. Also, it is unlikely any new facts are going to crop up to add much more weight to either side of the argument now.

"The resurrection, so what?" It's a pretty good question for practicing Christians too! Sometimes we get so caught up in our day to day lives we miss the impact it should have.

Fantastic insights! Too much evangelical evangelism and apologetics is wasting its strength in the wrong fight. It brings to mind that whole debacle with Kirk Cameron vs. the atheist website-- the Christian argument was more coherent and slickly presented, but there was no demonstration of genuine love, concern, or compassion towards the atheist. In the context of the United States, our efforts should be placed more on inviting the "religious" to become truly devoted disciples than beating the atheist bogeymen with our arguments.

I've been seeing these statistics and others like them for a while, but never really put it together like this. Great thoughts, but what are we to do then? How do we get the Word and Spirit of God into people's lives and motivate them to action?

I am unsure how reliable the findings are since I'm detecting a subtle distinction between the nature of the two requested responses. The first seems a straightforward "what do you believe" while the second response is a bit more ambiguous in that it could possibly be understood as "how do you believe the text is intended to be interpreted", which is rather different. A minor distinction perhaps but enough to possibly skew the results some.

I would feel happier if it were the exact opposite: that many or most Christians are willing to have some flexibility in things like the Virgin Birth, the creation story, and the resurrection--seeing those events as metaphorical rather than literal, for example-- but understand the relevance and meaning of these concepts and how they apply to Christian life.

The Holy Spirit living in us, Christians, is the one who will tell us when a passage or historical event in the Bible should be taken literally or not...it's an alarming thing that many Christians now are reading the Bible not by heart but by intellect...as if they feel like they're more intelligent than God. Instead of reading the Bible and be enlightened by the Word, they just criticize without getting the real meaning. It's sad how they're missing every part, all the revelations they can get from God. Satan is using our brains as tool for unbelief, but only our hearts and faith can know the truth, and that truth can only set us free.