|
 UNITED KINGDOM (ANS) -- A new survey in the United Kingdom suggest the majority of Britons do not believe in the Biblical story of the birth of Jesus. In total, 30 percent of respondents saod they believed the nativity story re-enacted in schools.
Of 1,000 people questioned, 70 percent doubted the account, according to the British Market Research Bureau, cited by a BBC report.
Almost a quarter of people who described themselves as Christians shared their skepticism, the BBC said.
More than a fifth of Christians who answered said they did not believe Jesus was both God and Man -- another central tenet of Christianity. And young people were particularly skeptical, the survey revealed.
BBC religious affairs correspondent Robert Piggott said the findings suggested a fading influence for the Church's teaching in a secular age.
"They also reinforce evidence that believers are increasingly willing to pick and choose which elements of the Bible's story they accept," he added.
St Helen's Church in Bishopsgate, London, which commissioned the survey, has produced a film of "sound evidence" supporting the Bible's account.
Simon Gathercole, a New Testament scholar at Cambridge University, said people were skeptical because they were not aware the origins of Christianity were anchored in real history.
"Jesus was born while Augustus was emperor of Rome just before Herod died...we're talking about events that are anchored in real history not in ancient Greek myths."
He also said some people think of Christmas as being religiously significant for purely nostalgic reasons.
"There's something in us that misses that connection with God that we sometimes feel our historical forebears had," he said.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
** Michael Ireland, Chief Correspondent of ANS, is an international British freelance journalist who was formerly a reporter with a London (United Kingdom) newspaper and has been a frequent contributor to UCB Europe, a British Christian radio station. Michael has traveled to Albania and the former Yugoslavia, Holland, Germany and the former Czechoslovakia, Israel,and Canada. He has reported for ANS from Jordan, China, Russia, Jamaica, Mexico, and Nicaragua.
Used by Permission www.assistnews.net
|
