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Bible Surpasses Darwin as Most Valuable Book to Humanity

  • Russ Jones Religious persecution, missions, Christianity around the world
  • Updated Nov 14, 2014

By a slim margin The Bible beat out Charles Darwin as the ‘most valuable to humanity’ in a survey of influential books.

The Bible received 37 percent of those survived, while Darwin’s 1859 "On the Origin of Species" received 35 percent, according to The Guardian.

The YouGov poll of 30 books surveyed 2,044 British adults. The Folio Society selected the books that were included in the poll.

1) The Bible (37%)

2) The Origin of Species (35%) 

3) A Brief History of Time (17%)

4) Relativity (15%)

5) Nineteen Eighty-Four (14%)

6) Principia Mathematica (12%)

7) To Kill a Mockingbird (10%)

8 ) The Qur'an (9%)

9) The Wealth of Nations (7%)

10) The Double Helix (6%)

“The first question I had was whether the similar figure for Darwin and the Bible does show a continuing polarisation between the realms of science and religion, or whether in fact it reveals a more balanced approach to ideas for the modern reader,” Tom Walker, editorial director at The Folio Society, told The Guardian. “They are the two ideas which have clashed in the 20th century – this shows, I think, that we can take understanding from both of them.” The Qur’an, he added, is “probably relatively recent to many UK people’s top 10 because of the impact of global debates around Islam.”

Publication date: November 14, 2014