Bits & Bobs

RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS VIEWS ON VALUES

Around two in every three adults think religious and spiritual values are important in a child’s development, according to a Children’s Society poll. But in the survey of more than 1,000 people, one in ten said that the values were not important at all. The findings were part of a summary of evidence on values submitted to the Society’s Good Childhood Inquiry whose final report is due to be published early next year. Other research flagged increasing worries about children’s morality – with 66 per cent saying that children’s morality today was ‘not as strong’ as when they were young. Bob Reitemeier, Children’s Society Chief Executive, said, ‘We reap what we sow when it comes to teaching children values. Every adult plays a vital role, which we should nurture as much as we can’.

Sources: BBC News (29/6), Baptist Times (3/7)

OLDEST NEW TESTAMENT REUNITED BY THE WEB

The world’s oldest complete New Testament is to be made available in one place at the click of a button thanks to cooperation between the four libraries where it is held. The fourth century Codex Sinaiticus was removed from St Catherine’s monastery in Egypt in 1844. It found its way to the British Museum, although sections came to be held in Leipzig, St. Petersburg and St. Catherine’s, its original home. From yesterday (24/7) a quarter of the manuscript’s 800 pages and other fragments were opened to all on a British Library website. The library plans to mount the whole Bible by next July. Until now the library’s visitors have only been able to see two pages displayed at a time. Now, ‘this absolutely unique treasure’ will be available to all in its entirety.

Sources: The Times (24/7); 24 Hour Museum (21/7)

FORMER ATHEIST TAKES DAWKINS TO TASK

A renowned atheistic philosopher, who stunned his peers four years ago by abandoning atheism, has accused the atheist scientist Richard Dawkins of becoming ‘a secularist bigot’. Prof. Anthony Flew, emeritus professor at Reading University, chides Dawkins in a review of The God Delusion. Dawkins’ omission of Albert Einstein’s belief that a divine intelligence must lie behind the complexity of physics leads Flew to accuse Prof. Dawkins of ‘insincerity of purpose’. He says Dawkins’ examination of Albert Einstein’s views on religion is selective and designed to support his own position.

Source: Baptist Times (7/8); www.bethinking.org