RichardDawkins.net, so named after the famous new atheist Richard Dawkins, had an article posted, How religious are UK Christians? In it, a startling statistic:
“And when given 4 books of the Bible to select from and asked which was the first book of the New Testament, only 35% could identify Matthew as the correct answer.”
Richard Dawkins then concluded, “Despite the best efforts of church leaders and politicians to convince us that religion is still an important part of our national life, these results demonstrate that it is largely irrelevant, even to those who still label themselves Christian.”
Essentially, if you can’t name the first book of the New Testament, then clearly you’re not a Christian. Christian Giles Fraser of BBC Radio had Dawkins on the show and claimed that Christians have the right to self-identify. Here’s the transcript:
Dawkins said an “astonishing number couldn’t identify the first book in the New Testament.”But his claim that this indicated self-identified Christians were “not really Christian at all” was challenged by Fraser,who said the poll asked “silly little questions”to “trip”people up.
Giles Fraser: Richard,if I said to you what is the full title of ‘The Origin Of Species,’ I’m sure you could tell me that.
Richard Dawkins:Yes I could
Giles Fraser: Go on then.
Richard Dawkins: On The Origin Of Species.. Uh. With,Oh God. On The Origin Of Species. There is a sub title with respect to the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life.
Giles Fraser:You’re the high pope of Darwinism… If you asked people who believed in evolution that question and you came back and said 2% got it right,it would be terribly easy for me to go ‘they don’t believe it after all.’It’s just not fair to ask people these questions. They self-identify as Christians and I think you should respect that.
FWIW, the full title is, “On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life.”