Britain has become a nation of religious illiterates

[cronus]

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media ... 90338.html

It’s no laughing matter: Britain has become a nation of religious illiterates 'who are baffled by Biblical references in Monty Python film The Life of Brian'

The British public has such “poor religious literacy” that a modern audience would be baffled by the Monty Python film The Life of Brian – because it would not understand the Biblical references, a senior BBC figure has claimed.

Aaqil Ahmed, the BBC’s head of religion and ethics, told The Independent that failings in religious education over two generations were undermining public understanding of contemporary national and international issues. “You had generations that missed out. We have poor religious literacy in this country and we have to do something about it,” he said.

He was speaking at the launch of an ambitious three-part BBC2 series which will address the subject of pilgrimage from a broad perspective and is intended to attract the interest of Atheists as much as religious believers.

“If you tried to make The Life of Brian today it would fall flat on its face because the vast majority of the audience would not get most of the jokes. They don’t have the knowledge,” Ahmed said. He questioned whether modern audiences would appreciate that the “great joke about the Sermon on the Mount” in the 1979 Python film, where a woman asks “What’s so special about the cheesemakers?”, was a reference to Jesus’s words “Blessed are the peacemakers” from the Bible.

(continued)

[Xamonas Chegwé]

To be quite honest, the word "religious" is unnecessary in the headline.

[Hermit]

If you tried to make The Life of Brian today it would fall flat on its face because the vast majority of the audience would not get most of the jokes.

As if that is a bad thing. Hopefully, all references to religion - be they jokes or otherwise - will one day be met with puzzlement or better still, utter disinterest.

[cronus]

If you tried to make The Life of Brian today it would fall flat on its face because the vast majority of the audience would not get most of the jokes.

As if that is a bad thing. Hopefully, all references to religion - be they jokes or otherwise - will one day be met with puzzlement or better still, utter disinterest.

A small price to pay compared with religious fuckwits not getting the joke.

[JimC]

I give thanks daily for the class in bible studies I did in Form 4

It made me the man I am today; I drink gin in a vain attempt to forget...

[Horwood Beer-Master]

“...We have poor religious literacy in this country and we have to do something about it”...

Why?

[cronus]

I blame Richard Dawkins, although having Karl Max and Charles Darwin both being buried here doesn't help.

[Tero]

I have actually been looking for a book on bible stories that is not religious. Just a summary of the famous stories. I won't bother with the real bible. The only part of the bible that appeals to me is Ecclesiastes. I don't care for the Jesus myth as it is too full of them miracles.

[cronus]

I have actually been looking for a book on bible stories that is not religious. Just a summary of the famous stories. I won't bother with the real bible. The only part of the bible that appeals to me is Ecclesiastes. I don't care for the Jesus myth as it is too full of them miracles.

I like Jeremiah and the other bits showing a vengeful God....Ecclesiastes is a little bit too sweet for me. The God of the Old Testament appeals to me more than the New....seems more realistic, in the old days I'd have loved quoting bits at witch burnings or something - nothing to do with sadism simply the safest place for a atheist is behind a Bible in certain social settings...

[Azathoth]

[Audley Strange]

So the head of religion and ethics claims that the problem with lack of religious education is that kids don't get jokes from a 34 year old Monty Python movie? That's the best example he can give? We need religious eduction otherwise generations to come might not be able to laugh along with mocking it? Eh?

[cronus]

So the head of religion and ethics claims that the problem with lack of religious education is that kids don't get jokes from a 34 year old Monty Python movie? That's the best example he can give? We need religious eduction otherwise generations to come might not be able to laugh along with mocking it? Eh?

Without Monty Python the Bible would make no sense at all.

[Svartalf]

“...We have poor religious literacy in this country and we have to do something about it”...

Why?

Know the enemy and get religion jokes.

[JimC]

So the head of religion and ethics claims that the problem with lack of religious education is that kids don't get jokes from a 34 year old Monty Python movie? That's the best example he can give? We need religious eduction otherwise generations to come might not be able to laugh along with mocking it? Eh?

Without Monty Python the Bible would make no sense at all.

[Svartalf]

So the head of religion and ethics claims that the problem with lack of religious education is that kids don't get jokes from a 34 year old Monty Python movie? That's the best example he can give? We need religious eduction otherwise generations to come might not be able to laugh along with mocking it? Eh?

We need a modicum of education about that because it's a big foundation of our history of the last 2000 years, and much of it can't be understood without a soldi grounding in what chretinity is and how it evolved.