Supposedly, we British lack “Nativity knowledge”, according to the BBC report of a survey by religious think tank (Yuk. Sorry about the word). Only 1 in 8 British people know the Nativity story well, according to Theos. Really? As many as that?

What answers did they expect to these questions? 73% “knew” Jesus was born in Bethlehem and that an “angel” appeared to Mary to tell her she was pregnant.

Are they using a wholly novel sense of the word “know”? 73% must be a lot more than the percentage of British people who believe that angelic visitations are even possible.

However, that number falls considerably when people are asked slightly more difficult questions. 48% of people know that John the Baptist was Jesus’ cousin but only 22% that Jesus, Mary and Joseph fled to Egypt to escape Herod’s massacre of the innocents.

The evidence for Herod’s massacre and a flight to Egypt is well nigh non-existent, whatever sources you choose. So John the Baptist was Jesus’s cousin, then? Some sort of ongoing family business, this prophesying lark?

The “knowledge” Theos are looking for could most charitably be defined as “familiarity with one particular version of a myth.” All the same, Theos do a full scale attempt at treating this survey as serious. They weight the results, ffs. They analyse the meaningless results by age and geography… and belief….

Unsurprisingly, Christian churchgoers know the story best with 36% answering all questions correctly, compared with only 5% of atheists.

😀

I like this bit at the bottom of the page, which shows that even Theos have to acknowledge there is dispute over the actual content of the answers:

Although some claim that James could also have been Jesus’ cousin, James does not feature in the Christmas story, according to the Christian Bible, on which this research is based, and so was not deemed to be a correct answer.