Importance of religion in one's life among adults who say that government aid to the poor does more harm than good by interpretation of scripture (2014) Switch to: Interpreting scripture among adults who say that government aid to the poor does more harm than good by importance of religion

% of adults who say that government aid to the poor does more harm than good who say religion is…

Interpreting scriptureVery importantSomewhat importantNot too importantNot at all importantDon't knowSample size
Word of God; should be taken literally84%13%2%1%< 1%5,232
Word of God; not everything taken literally62%31%5%2%< 1%4,885
Word of God; other/don't know82%15%1%1%1%467
Not the word of God17%33%24%26%< 1%4,020
Other/don't know47%32%12%8%2%987
Sample sizes and margins of error vary from subgroup to subgroup, from year to year and from state to state. You can see the sample size for the estimates in this chart on rollover or in the last column of the table. And visit this table to see approximate margins of error for a group of a given size. Readers should always bear in mind the approximate margin of error for the group they are examining when making comparisons with other groups or assessing the significance of trends over time. For full question wording, see the survey questionnaire.

Learn More: Very important, Somewhat important, Not too important, Not at all important