How's this for starters?
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Two thirds of Britons who have read Dan Brown's thriller believe that Jesus fathered a child with Mary Magdalene, a claim rejected as baseless by historians and Bible scholars. Those who have read it are also four times as likely to think that the conservative Roman Catholic organisation Opus Dei, whose members include the Cabinet minister Ruth Kelly, is a murderous sect. Seventeen per cent of readers are convinced that the lay group, whose founder was canonised by the late Pope John Paul II, has ordered or carried out a murder, compared with four per cent of those who have not read the book. |
Yes, some people are in serious need of education, but it really isn't enough to say "tut-tut" and that's their problem. If you see someone walking around with her shoulder bag unzipped, contents showing, you don't just say "she's asking for it" do you?
(Stumbled into this via Cafeteria is Closed, who found this through Open Book.)
2 comments:
The thing is, people LOVE conspiracy theories! They just eat that stuff up! I'm surprised at the large number of otherwise-intelligent people I've met who believe that JFK was assassinated by a cabal of CIA and Cuban operatives... or who believe that the government is hiding alien spacecraft in the desert... or who believe that FDR allowed Pearl Harbor to happen... etc, etc, etc. For whatever reason, people love the idea that any large organization is corrupt and involved in a cover-up conspiracy of some kind... including the church. It never ceases to amaze me that so many smart people can't believe in the obvious and undeniable existence of God and yet can believe in the wackiest conspiracy theories imaginable!
People instinctively know that there's more out there than what they deal with everyday. But they're looking in the wrong places.
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