Judgment: an early-14th-century carved stone medallion from the centre of a Calvary cross, sold at auction in Paris a fortnight ago for €30,000
Judgment: an early-14th-century carved stone medallion from the centre of a Calvary cross, sold at auction in Paris a fortnight ago for €30,000
TWO-FIFTHS (43 per cent) of 2010 people surveyed by ComRes for BBC Religion and Ethics said that they believed in the resurrection.
Among the 50 per cent who said that they did not believe in the resurrection were 23 per cent of people who described themselves as Christians. Christians made up 51 per cent of the total sample, of which 32 per cent were defined as “active” (attending church at least once a month), and 37 per cent never went to church.
Of the total sample, there were equal numbers (46 per cent) who professed belief, or non-belief, in life after death (46 per cent). Asked to select which form of life after death they believed in, the former group were most likely to select “another life where your soul lives on” (65 per cent), followed by reincarnation (32 per cent). A quarter (23 per cent) of Christians selected this second option. One third (31 per cent) of those who described themselves as Christians said that they did not believe in life after death.
The Bishop of Manchester, Dr David Walker, said that it “proves that many British people, despite not being regular churchgoers, hold core Christian beliefs”.
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