Britain 'knows little about Bible'
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Independent Minds
The public is widely ignorant of the stories and people who provide the basis of Christianity, a survey has found, despite 75 per cent of respondents owning a copy of the Bible.
The National Biblical Literacy Survey found that as few as 10 per cent of people understood the main characters in the Bible and their relevance.
Figures such as Abraham and Joseph were a source of puzzlement and it was rare to find anyone who could name the Ten Commandments.
Many stories considered to be central to the Christian message were a mystery to most. As few as 7 per cent of respondents knew the story of Whitsun and only 15 per cent were familiar with the stories associated with Advent.
St John's College Durham in Durham carried out the survey and released preliminary findings yesterday. The full report is expected to be published in July.
Researchers found that 57 per cent of people knew nothing about Joseph or his brothers despite the hit musical Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat and 60 per cent were ignorant of the story of the Good Samaritan.
The Reverend David Wilkinson, from St John's, said the consequences of ignorance went far beyond being unclear about what church leaders might preach. He said a good grounding in the stories and characters of the Bible was essential to understanding history and culture because so much of art, music and literature was bound up with religious themes.
"There are depths to many pieces of music, many of Shakespeare's plays, particular pieces of art that draw from the imagery, the stories, the language of the Bible," Dr Wilkinson told the BBC.
The Reverend Brian Brown, a Methodist preacher and visiting lecturer at St John's, said he was startled by the lack of knowledge and understanding among people questioned, despite a third of them saying that the Bible was important to them.
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Comments
Stuff the "bible" and its promoters.
It's lucky that there are scholars around willing to trawl through this to add footnotes to books.
The Bible has no relevance to a society that has grown up beyond medieval superstition.
So many of our (Britain, Europe) greatest achievements in music, art, architecture, and literature were grounded in Christian symbolism. To completely reject that heritage out of hand, and to allow ourselves to forget those roots (even if we do not believe in the wider message in the same way) - is to be culturally bereft.
It is difficult to even comprehend art or cultural history pre-1850 without an understanding of the classics and basic theology. Shame if that were to become the exclusive preserve of a few stuffy academics...
You seem to be referring to one story, that of the Rich Young Man who was told to give all his money away. He was being asked which he valued more when the chips were down: being rich, or following God. For everyone else, the message throughout was 'if you have two shirts, give one to your brother who has none.' In other words, if you have more than enough, share.
Yes, it's good to know that this message can now be put aside.
In the case of the New Testament, this wass written down within a short time after he death iof Jesus Christ(the human form of GOD)/ As Christ himself said: "..those are not with me are against me..! meaning that you either believe in Christ or you don't, there is no "compulsion" element however as there is in some other "later" religions. He also said "no man cometh to the Father but by Me" "By me" ie. by Christianity, showing that all other religions are false. We live in a country whose whole culture, art, history etc. is founded on Christianity. If other countries want to follow the left-hand path of false beliefs then let them, that matters not one jot to me.
http://ancientegyptweblog.blogspot.c
People in the USA, that allegedly most Christian of nations, also know little about the bible.
If they'd take the time to read whole books of the bible, or even just whole chapters, they'd likely convert to atheism.
As it is, they read verses and take them in isolation.
The bible is largely self-contradictory, meaning you can pick and choose verses to make it say anything.
I say, read Leviticus. It hasn't been stricken from the Christian bible, in fact it is "The Law", the old Jewish law, Jesus implores his followers to follow. Leviticus is short, maybe taking 2 or 3 hours to read.
If it doesn't put you off, you're living in the dark ages.
Atheist bus ? Canadian Atheist bus ? Atheist buses in Barcelona, Madrid & Malaga ? Bus Kampagne, Germany ? Bus humaniste (français), Québec, Canada ? Campagna Bus, Italy ? Dutch Atheist billboard campaign ? Finland Atheist bus ? Seattle atheist bus, USA ? Washington DC atheist bus, USA ? Atheist trains Ireland ? Atheist trams in Zagreb, Croatia banned ? Atheist Bus Madison, Wisconsin, USA ? Indiana Atheist Bus, USA ? Chicago Atheist Bus, USA</small> ? Atheist Bus Austria stopped ? New York City Atheist bus</small>
Given that Christianity is based on the life and teachings of a Jewish rabbi, its no wonder that so many nominal Christians are confused by what Christianity is all about.
Perhaps it is time to either reafirm the Church of England as the state religion - or abolish it altogether?
I wasn't aware that Jesus was a rabbi. Where does that come from?
Nearly everyone regularly goes to the Church of consumerism, the big shopping centre and becomes ecstatic with Gods of celebrity.
To imply we live in a spirituality empty age is a nonsense and just not true :-)
I hate the Argos and Littlewoods bibles - they don't sell slaves.
Maybe you are right but they have made slaves of us all and we do it voluntarily
'nuff said?
Excellent - this is encouraging news! Hopefully, it is a sign that the proselytizers and brainwashers of the Christian faith, who for centuries have been allowed - and, indeed, encouraged and supported by a Christianized Establishment - to infect each new generation of British citizens with the mind-virus of their silly, dangerous Bronze Age superstitions, are finally conceding ground to the forces of modern scientific rationalism, skeptical atheism and critical free-thinking.
Of course, realistically, I suspect that the widespread ignorance of the Christian scriptures is less the result of a conscious intellectual opposition to religion on most people's part, and more a consequence of a general disinterest in ancient mythologies, due to their - correctly - perceived irrelevance to modern life. Indeed, why should people think that knowledge of the stories and characters of the Bible is any more important and useful to them than knowledge of the stories and characters of Greek, Roman or Norse mythology?
And as for 'Reverend' David Wilkinson lame justification that "a good grounding in the stories and characters of the Bible was essential to understanding history and culture because so much of art, music and literature was bound up with religious themes", this is just another of the - pathetically transparent - excuses that people like him have always used in order to insinuate Christian propaganda into the nation's consciousness. It might ring true if religion were taught in our schools as subject in art, music or literature, or even in cultural studies or ancient history (though many - in fact, most - of the events of the Bible are of highly dubious historicity, of course), but we all know that this is not what its proselytizers have in mind; their real intention is always to brainwash and convert people, by infecting them with, and then subjugating them to, the mind-virus of their faith - because that is what it has programmed them to do.
So let us congratulate the British people on their common sense in rejecting - or simply not caring about - this dangerous, superstitious nonsense. Long may their disinterest and skepticism continue!
Ignorance is not a cause for celebration, but rather a cause for mourning. The Bible is one of the greatest literary works in existence and lays the basis of behaviour in society and relationships between people and others, people and God and the individual and themself.
"sick of stupidity" exemplefies the disease in society that is rotting away at moral codes and instead leaving us with alcoholics, drug addicts, promiscuity and increasing criminal behaviour.
Christianity is by no means a perfect religion (which religion is) but it does offer moral guidance in an increasingly perplexing world.
Perhaps "sickofstupidity" has something to offer in place of the moral and spiritual guidance of religion? If so, I would like to hear it.
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Ignorance is not a cause for celebration, but rather a cause for mourning. The Bible is one of the greatest literary works in existence"
Bollocks! The Bible is a hotpotch of mythical fables, folk stories and morality tales, cobbled together from numerous different authors, written,and amended over many years, in different narrative styles, in ludicrously archaic language, and much of it is self-contradictory and inconsistent. Tolkein wrote better mythical fables and folk stories, de Montaigne wrote better philosophy, and Douglas Adams wrote better jokes! In short, the Bible, as a work of 'literature', is, in terms of both content and style, a complete *mess*, and there isn't a single publisher who would touch it with a bargepole today if it landed on their desk as a new manuscript - of fiction, of course!
" and lays the basis of behaviour in society and relationships between people and others, people and God and the individual and themself."
You are speaking as someone who obviously believes in an Invisible Magic Friend called 'God', of course. As someone who does *not* share your delusion, I can dimiss those assertions as the meaningless, delusional nonsense they are.
""sick of stupidity" exemplefies the disease in society that is rotting away at moral codes and instead leaving us with alcoholics, drug addicts, promiscuity and increasing criminal behaviour."
Really? Those are rather sweeping accusations to make about someone's personal morality purely on the basis of their lack of belief in YOUR god! I might say that *you* exemplify the disease of *religious delusion* that is rotting away *people's minds* and *hearts* and leaving us with a bunch of arrogant, self-righteous, preachy, pious, sanctimonious, narrow-minded, ignorant, intolerant, bigoted *idiots* who have been fooled by the mental condition that afflicts them into thinking that they are better than the rest of us, and actually have the right to tell us all how wicked and sinful we are and how we should live more moral lives, when many of these people are some of the most cruel, mean-spirited and frankly *nasty* human beings one can ever be unlucky to meet!
"Christianity is by no means a perfect religion (which religion is) but it does offer moral guidance in an increasingly perplexing world."
Self-righteous, delusional nonsense. Look to your own nature for moral guidance (if you still know where your religious self ends and your own nature begins...), not to the deranged blatherings and ignorant superstitions of desert-dwelling tribesmen from the Bronze Age!
"Perhaps "sickofstupidity" has something to offer in place of the moral and spiritual guidance of religion? If so, I would like to hear it."
I doubt that you would have the patience to listen to it, the intellect to understand it or the humanity to embrace it. I despair of people like you, mazaluk, I really do. By trying to infect the rest of the human race with the same stupidity and ignorance that afflicts them, the religious pose a serious threat to our long-term survival, let alone to our collective sanity! Thankfully, increasing numbers of us are finally waking up to the threat, and taking the battle to them...
Religion is a virus. It will rot your brain and poison your heart. Seek treatment!
He came from nowhere and will go to nowhere and noone will remember him..........his footprint will disappear. Who was he? What was his life? What was his reason for being born? A mere collection of bones and organs................no soul, so no reason to tread on the earth......................his existance was merely a waste of time............but then, perhaps not?
No wonder "society is a mess" when the "bible lays the basis of behaviour in society".
Quoting Mazaluk: "...the disease in society that is rotting away at moral codes and instead leaving us with alcoholics, drug addicts, promiscuity and increasing criminal behaviour."
Do you seriously think society was morally better before Christianity lost its grip on society? What nonsense! Alcoholics, drug addicts, promiscuity and criminal behavior have always existed - regardless the culture and its state endorsed cult(religion). In medieval Christian Europe, entire families lived on alcohol - even the children. Throughout the middle ages, Monks were noted to be the BEST brewers. Nuns were even permitted 6 pints of ale per day; Priests were allowed more - including stronger drinks. Later, there was the 30 year gin problem - during the gin epidemic, the English population of almost 7 million was consuming 18 million gallons of gin per year. All of this when the Churches were full and non-believers were sentenced to hard labor and executed - when non-believers weren't permitted in government.
Of course, some bible verses are against drinking alcohol, some also praise it. Jesus even liked to party - on one occasion, "he even turned water into wine" (because the Off License was shut). The bible even recommends giving alcohol to the depressed - something modern scientific finds wouldn't recommend.
Strangely enough, alcohol and drug abuse in recent years has increased - but let's not forget, drug use and alcohol abuse seem to have increased while our government headed by Christian Tony Blair (who mixed god with politics) was in power - perhaps there is a correlation somewhere?
Did violent crime leading to death exist when Christianity really ruled the roost? Of course it did. Here's what one Parish document from the 17 th century reveals:
# Two Duels, first fot [fought] with frying pan and pitchforks: 1
# Second between a 3 footed stool and a brown jug: 1
# Knocked on the head at Cockfight: 2
# Knocked on ye head with a quart bottle: 1
The reason crime and the other behaviors you mentioned seem more apparent today, is because news is instant and often repeated in the press; long after the event - making it appear that crime is rampant and widespread. Of course, thats not to say that crime hasn't increased - because it has. However, that has more to do with an increase in population, need, overcrowding and immigration [not that all immigrants bring crime with them]. More people=more potential crime - it's that simple.
On the other hand, it could be because our country has had a God fearing government other the last few decades - headed by God fearing Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. Hmmm... maybe there is a correlation between Christian led governments and increase of crime and alcohol/substance abuse?
Still, it's only a minority of people who commit crime [mostly those who believe in some sort of supernatural deity - according to prison stats]. Considering the UK has a population of over 60 million, most of us are good decent people - regardless our beliefs or lack of.
On a personal note: this atheist doesn't drink alcohol or take drugs [unless prescribed by a doctor]. I've also never been in trouble with the law. So mazaluk, I'd be grateful if people like yourself would stop spouting BS and ignorant propaganda. Thank you.
"Prisons are dangerous places - they are brimming with "sinners". Churches are brimming with "sinners" - they must also be dangerous places. I prefer to stay away from both. Don't you?" - Skeptici
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We have to go beyond calling one another delusional or assertions that our religion (Christianity or Secularism/Humanism/Atheism) is the bees-knees. There is no proof either way and all the anecdotal evidence I can give can then be rejected by the anecdotes you bring. What's the point of trading insults rather than accepting that both sides are speaking from conviction and understanding and seeking to persuade one another on a more rational basis?
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Atheism is a ?belief? like ?not collecting stamps? is a hobby.
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It is a belief system, and does bring significant implications for how you view the world- actually almost everything. It not just like not collecting stamps. Whether or not I collect stamps has no effect or contingency on any part of my life of worldview. This is why Humanism is now included in RMPS (Philosophical, Moral and Religious Studies) in schools, and why atheists and Humanists pushed for it to be recognized as such. One group of atheists in America is trying to set up an online correspondance course on atheist thought and how it relates to philosophy, art, literature (etc).
But disbelief, however, is quite simple. As is ?belief?. Disbelief is not any kind of a belief. It never has been and it never will be.
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You know, as contributors to this blog have shown, it's easy to deride the Bible and those of us who spend our lives studying it and its influence and coming to quite different conclusions to the Dan Brownesque stuff peddled on this blog commentary.. But in the end such derision takes us nowhere. Nihilism in the end leads to nothing, to obliteration, to dis-everything. I think humanity deserves better.