Looks like we’re swapping profits for prophets; according to The Times, sales of the Bible soared in the UK by 25% last year, and apparently, it’s all down to the credit crunch (along with everything else newsworthy, of course). People are worried, and are increasingly looking to the good book for “reassurance amid the mayhem du jour“, says Bible Society director James Catford (although maybe that should be James Ford du Chat).

A Father Wansborough adds “Perhaps there is a feeling that human financial and political solutions can’t solve problems; that one has to turn elsewhere, to the Lord”. You reckon? Leaving aside the fact that organised religion has preyed gleefully on our fears and insecurities since the first caveman conman realised that styling himself as a “priest” was a FAR easier way to get the choicest cuts of sabre-toothed-tiger steak than bashing his rivals on the head with a stick, are we really so fickle that a mere 15% drop in house prices is enough to turn us from selfish, materialistic property-porn-obsessed bling-merchants who’d mortgage our own grandmothers for the latest flat-screen TV into timorous medieval-peasant-style worshipers seeking only spiritual wealth through the exploits of big G, JC and the holy spook? Well, no. To be realistic, our new-found “faith” is probably more along these lines… 

On a tangent - in America, they sell 27 million Bibles a year. The population of the USA is approx 300 million, which means that it would take about 12 years for everyone in the country to have a Bible of their own. The Bible, furthermore, has been in print for approximately twice as long as the USA has existed… from which we can conclude that the population is either ludicrously holy, very forgetful or surprisingly resourceful when it comes to finding cheap alternatives to toilet paper.

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