Little wonder, as it explains much about the sad predicament in which England finds itself today:

Britons are losing their grip on reality, according to a poll out Monday which showed that nearly a quarter think Winston Churchill was a myth while the majority reckon Sherlock Holmes was real.

The survey found that 47 percent thought the 12th century English king Richard the Lionheart was a myth.

And 23 percent thought World War II prime minister Churchill was made up. The same percentage thought Crimean War nurse Florence Nightingale did not actually exist.

Three percent thought Charles Dickens, one of Britain’s most famous writers, is a work of fiction himself.

Indian political leader Mahatma Gandhi and Battle of Waterloo victor the Duke of Wellington also appeared in the top 10 of people thought to be myths.

“UKTV Gold television surveyed 3,000 people”

Um - well!!!

Given today’s zeitgeist, these stout-hearted titans might as well be fictional creations.  Their bravery, tenacity and dauntless nature is as alien today as the one-time notion that people could fly.  Ugliness, cravenness, capitulation are the order of the day.  As Rand said, the age of the skyscraper is over, today is the day of the housing development.

This is either a severe indictment of several generations of education policies,  UKTV Gold managed to select 3000 five year olds,  a large number of respondents put down joke answers, or something is seriously wrong in old Blighty. Or perhaps all of the above. I’m not sure. Just embarrassing.

Given the government policy of revising the very definition of what it means to be ‘British’ and the enormous influx of immigrants (legal and illegal) in the country, it is hardly surprising that increasingly few believe in anything British that is alien to the presence in the new Britain under New Labour.

Oh joy ... another surfs the “Odd News” section ...

This story does explain a lot about the some of why British politics has completely changed from twenty years ago to become almost surreal at times.

I fear that a similar survey in USA using George Washington and other American founders as test persons would produce even worse results.  I wonder too how many of today’s graduates have read the Constitution or have the least notion idea of what the Constitution says.  However, our grads could probably give you an earful about women’s lib , evolution theory and other such important parts of their curriculum..

Homeschooling is legal in the UK.  For the faint of heart, there are some wonderful, boxed programs that do a great job of teaching British history.

Just a thought.

grmoie:

I disagree.  I was just telling my son with the increase of relevativism the increase of a loss of ability logical reasoning.  The reality is when you cease to comprehend truth/non-truth you cease to be able to differentiate reality/fiction.

Europe’s loss of Christianity values is highly corrrelated with it’s loss of the ability to think.  The United States hasn’t gone as far around the bend - yet.

Intriguing, however, to ponder how much our base values determine our overall ability to correctly perceive reality.

Eclipse,

There are several good logic programs for middle to high school students.  My daughter likes the Fallacy Detector books.  (Bluedorn Press)  Memoria Press has traditional and material logic with video backup.  Logos School, Moscow, ID uses Douglas Wilson’s material.  Veritas Press carries several.  There are others as well—google classical education. 

With the rediscovery of classical education, logic and rhetoric have made a big comeback.  I am not endorsing any source, from my perspective most are pretty good.  As with any educational material, it is a matter of personal style.  If you can, go to any of the larger homeschool conferences, there are small companies and schools all over the place getting into it. 

What I do find funny is my daughter now critiques TEC and ELCA pronouncements using what she has learned.  TEC and ELCA are not holding up.

This is so funny, I can’t even believe it. Do you think the people answering were joking? Is this a British sense of humor thing?
Maybe they really don’t know what is real, or, maybe people have stopped answering these sorts of surveys honestly.

Well, I was about to make a snide remark about the British school system, but then remembered the day a college freshman (in the US) remarked that the US had suffered more casualties in Vietnam than in WWII.  When I corrected him on this, he accepted the correction, and asked if I had lived through all THREE world wars, and if I had served in the army during any of them (I am in my early 50s), and went on to ask if John Kennedy had been president during WWI or WWII.  I am not sure who he thought was president during WWIII.

Why should this be surprising when the ABC adds the Wise Men to the “myth” list?

Personally, I think Jimmy Carter was a myth.  [removed]void(0);
grin

hank,

Carter is not a myth, but his presidency is.

There is a little more about this UK TV Gold survey here - it apparently targeted the under 20’s, possibly drawn from its viewers.  UK TV Gold provides a benchmark for quality US educational programming including: Charlie’s angels, The Adventures of Robin Hood and the A-team.

This survey may tell us more about the viewers of UK Gold TV.

hanks,  I do not think that the Abp said that the Magi were a myth—rather, that a lot of traditions associated with them (that there were three, that they were kings, and that their names were Caspar, Melchior, and Balthazar) are myth.

AnglicanXn, what is noteworthy is that he used the term “legend” and that was the lead headline in at least the Times, the Telegraph and the Daily Mail and probably is dozens more press accounts around the world.  His not very helpful quote was:

“Matthew’s gospel says they are astrologers, wise men, priests from somewhere outside the Roman Empire, that’s all we’re really told. It works quite well as legend.”

Although he was rather dismissive of the “star” account and said that “stars don’t behave quite like that,” Matthew 2 is quite specific:

After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him.”  .  .  .  .  .  .
After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen in the east went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was.  When they saw the star, they were overjoyed.  On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold and of incense and of myrrh.

My point is that when a church leader talks of legend and speaks lightly of what Scripture says, it’s not surprise that “simple folks” begin to doubt even Winston Churchill (and Jimmy Carter).