This week in studies: a new survey from the American Bible Society has found that San Francisco is not, in fact, the godless hellhole it is made out to be. Instead, the titles of modern day Sodom and Gomorrah go, respectively, to those East Coast portals to hell known as Providence, Rhode Island and Boston, Massachusetts. San Francisco did come in third fourth though, so we've got that going for us.
The ABS study set out to find the most "Bible-mind" cities in the United States. According to the study's methodology, which we don't really have a lot of faith in, "Bible Minded" people are those who have read the bible (outside of church, that is) in the past week and believe it to be an accurate account of ancient human history. By those measures, Providence (a town founded as a refuge for persecuted religious dissenters) and Boston (a town full of Catholics who prefer to take their Eucharists at sports bars) are the least bible-minded folks in the country.
Interestingly, the study found that as population density goes up, "Bible friendliness" declines. Or, if you prefer to look at it another way: the Bible is big with rural types. New York City was actually only 89th most godless city, just two notches above Salt Lake City, where the local addendum to the bible was apparently not recognized.
