Young view Bible 'as old fashioned'*

 From correspondents in London

Reuters

July 12, 2009 09:31am

KNOWLEDGE of the Bible is in decline in Britain, with fewer than one in
20 people able to name all Ten Commandments and youngsters viewing the
Christian holy book as "old fashioned", a survey said today.

Forty per cent did not know that the tradition of exchanging Christmas
presents originated from the story of the Wise Men bringing gifts for
the infant Jesus, while 60 per cent could not name anything about the
Good Samaritan, the Durham University study found.

Youngsters were particularly disillusioned, telling researchers that the
Bible was "old fashioned", "irrelevant" and for "Dot Cottons" - a
reference to the church-going EastEnders' character, the National
Biblical Literacy Survey 2009 showed.

"It is the first recognition of something which we all knew in our gut.
We knew it was there but we weren't exactly willing to face up to it,"
said Rev Brian D. Brown, a visiting fellow at St.John's College in
Durham University.

One respondent to the survey said David and Goliath was the name of a
ship while another thought Daniel, who survived being thrown into the
lions' den, was "The Lion King".

Rev Brown said the survey showed the need to push for greater religious
education among young people as knowledge of the Bible among the
under-45 age group was in decline.

"We have got to recognise that it (the Bible) is the foundation of our
society, upon which our whole culture has been based," he said.

"To understand it and to live in it you do need an understanding of the
Bible."

Atheists, however, were not unduly worried about the decline in the
Bible's popularity.

"It shows really that religion is becoming less important to people,"
said Pepper Harow, campaigns officer at the British Humanist Association.

"The fact that people have little knowledge of the Bible perhaps
suggests that it's becoming less and less relevant to people in the 21st
century," she said.

Despite the lack of enthusiasm about the Bible among the 900
respondents, three-quarters said they owned one and almost a third said
it was significant in their lives.