A quarter of British children can’t name even one of the Ten Commandments, according to a new poll.
Just six per cent of the population can name all ten, found a survey by computer game manufacturers Electronic Arts (EA).
The survey of 1,000 people in Britain was part of a publicity campaign to promote EA’s new game, The Sims 3, in which the company says players can ‘play God’.
When it asked respondents to produce a new set of commandments, the results included new prohibitions on harming the environment, committing acts of terrorism, being motivated by greed and failing to respect all people regardless of race, religion or sexuality.
Six of the biblical commandments survived, but none of those which mention God were chosen.
The survey found that 28 per cent of eleven to 16-year-olds could not recite any of the Bible’s commandments.
EA will offer the new rules engraved on limestone tablets at the Houses of Parliament as a further publicity stunt.
The company said: “The Sims 3 is all about messing with life and making decisions that will affect the lives of each of the characters in the game. Whilst it is ultimately a game, a person’s moral standards will quickly start to show through revealing what sort of ‘God’ they will play over their creations.”
The Ten Commandments
I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me.
You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.
You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.
Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labour and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates. For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
Honour your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you.
You shall not murder.
You shall not commit adultery.
You shall not steal.
You shall not give false testimony against your neighbour.
You shall not covet your neighbour’s house. You shall not covet your neighbour’s wife, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbour.