Nearly a third of Britons do not know that Jesus was born in Bethlehem, according to new research published yesterday.
A similar proportion is unaware that Jesus was Jewish or that the first man to make an appearance in the Bible is Adam.
Fewer than two thirds could identify the special table normally found at the east end of a church as the altar.
But a striking 85 per cent knew that the event Christians believe occurred on the first Easter Day was the Resurrection.
The findings emerged in a survey which showed that younger people are more ignorant of the basic facts of Christianity than older ones, with the over 50-year-old group scoring the most highly.
The findings of the survey conducted by YouGov will underline the fears of many Church leaders that Britain is increasingly secular and can no longer be confidently described as Christian.