Bible ignorance proves a real Revelation.

Byline: Barry Gibson

I WAS interested to see this week that most people in this country don't know their Bible.

A new study by the National Biblical Literacy Survey revealed a shocking level of ignorance about the Good Book, with only 15% of people having a proper grasp of the Advent story.

Some 60% of Brits don't know who the Good Samaritan was, while a mere 7% could tell you what Whitsun is all about.

And all this in what, the Church of England assures us, is a Christian country.

Here at Examiner HQ, knowledge of the Bible does not run deep either. For some reason we got talking last week in the office about the ten commandments.

It turned out none of us could name them all, so I decided to look them up.

Having done so, I can't see why anyone would want to learn them off-by-heart.

Six of the commandments are just common sense. They ban things that people of all religions and none could agree are bad - killing, stealing, adultery, being lippy to your mum and dad, lying and coveting next door's ox. No arguments there.

The other four commandments are about God protecting his market share. So it's a big thumbs down to other gods, craven images, blaspheming and working on the Sabbath.

Are these really the ten golden rules by which I should live my life? They hardly seem worth learning.

And it appears that most people in Britain agree with me.

CAPTION(S):

* GOOD BOOK: The Bible but are the 10 commandments still relevant?