Surveys, everything is surveys today! People have lost the will to think for themselves, instead its cool to just go along with the crowd. Our society has become a nation of strangers; we (in America) just don't want to get too close to others. With good reason too; everyone has an agenda, everyone is selling something. Its no wonder we are defensive about who or what we will listen to. Here is what the writer to the Hebrews (perhaps the Apostle Paul) has to say about listening.Heb 4:1-13 (WEB)
Heb 4
1) Let us fear therefore, lest perhaps anyone of you should seem to have come short of a promise of entering into his rest.
2) For indeed we have had good news preached to us, even as they also did, but the word they heard didn’t profit them, because it wasn’t mixed with faith by those who heard.
3) For we who have believed do enter into that rest, even as he has said, “As I swore in my wrath, they will not enter into my rest;” although the works were finished from the foundation of the world.
4) For he has said this somewhere about the seventh day, “God rested on the seventh day from all his works;”
5) and in this place again, “They will not enter into my rest.”
6) Seeing therefore it remains that some should enter therein, and they to whom the good news was before preached failed to enter in because of disobedience,
7) he again defines a certain day, today, saying through David so long a time afterward (just as has been said), “Today if you will hear his voice, don’t harden your hearts.”
8) For if Joshua had given them rest, he would not have spoken afterward of another day.
9) There remains therefore a Sabbath rest for the people of God.
10) For he who has entered into his rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from his.
11) Let us therefore give diligence to enter into that rest, lest anyone fall after the same example of disobedience.
12) For the word of God is living, and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing even to the dividing of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and is able to discern the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
13) There is no creature that is hidden from his sight, but all things are naked and laid open before the eyes of him with whom we have to do.
Human nature resists being told what to do; that is a fact. Especially, when it comes to matters of religion. How many cults have you heard about during the last 20 or so years? For me, the answer is lots and lots. The media doesn't help much either; when you see a religious person portrayed on TV, I bet you it isn't in a positive light. So, the graph probably is accurate and with good reason. Face it, there are a lots of nuts out there. But what about the truth? How do we REALLY KNOW TRUTH FROM ERROR? The short answer is the Bible, but which one? Over the past 40 years there has been an explosion of translations, paraphrases, study Bibles and the like. My answer has been the Composite Bible, which seeks understanding by progressive comparison: from the less literal to the most literal. If you want to find out more, you can go to the compositebible.com/ and see what I mean. But, even the greatest understanding can be easily quenched by a stubborn, hard heart. So, ask God for help and pray when you read; he will listen. Search, and you WILL FIND THE TRUTH. When you do, you won't have to be afraid of that person who is carrying a Bible on the bus... who knows, that person may be you.