According to this article posted by the good folks over at RichardDawkins.net 75% of all Americans “are in agreement on one of the fundamental elements of the [Christmas] holiday: that Jesus Christ was born to a virgin, Mary.”

At first glance this might seem a startling fact about American culture, especially to the more secular-minded among us (present company included). But should one simply acknowledge this sort of data as true without question? Of course not. But even some of the commentors – though not all – at RichardDawkins.net seem to accept the information presented. There’s no doubt there is a high degree of religiosity in the United States, particularly when compared to other rich industrial countries. Significant numbers of Americans believe in miracles, angels, and that sort of thing. Of this we can be certain.

But is it true a full 75% actually see the virgin birth of Jesus as an historical fact?

To anyone reading the article, some interesting questions pointing to an answer quickly arise. Namely, how could 15% of atheists and agnostics believe in the virgin birth story as literal fact? If this doesn’t raise some eyebrows relating to the accuracy of the information presented, I don’t know what would.

The principle place to investigate, of course, is those purveying the information: the Barna Group. The author of the article describes this organization as simply a “Ventura, Calif.-based polling firm.” Yet according to their own site the Barna Group has a far less conspicuous and mundane purpose:

The ultimate aim of the firm is to partner with Christian ministries
and individuals to be a catalyst in moral and spiritual transformation
in the United States. It accomplishes these outcomes by providing
vision, information, evaluation and resources through a network of
intimate partnerships.

While I can’t say in absolute terms the polling data are wrong, it doesn’t take much to see how a group with such explicit aims might benefit from presenting a highly religious US population, an overwhelmingly Christian population that accepts, by supermajority, a literalist interpretation of principle New Testament tenets.

We all know how polling is often prone to inaccuracy and manipulation. Accuracy is highly dependent upon the questions asked and how they are formulated. A more detailed report on the Barna poll is at their website. But, unsurprisingly, they fail to give the exact wording of the questions asked in the way most scientific polling institutions do.

Thus our investigation can only go so far and we are left only to wonder.