Posted by Hemant Mehta in In a survey conducted by Britain’s Opinium Research, people were asked who their children should look up to. “A family member” topped the list.
Jesus came in third.
Richard Branson came in second:
More than one in 10 people (12 percent) chose the Virgin Group boss as the ideal role model for youngsters, and he was more popular with men than women.
Jesus lost out among younger people, with nearly double those over 55 years choosing him than those aged between 18-34.
Branson’s Virgin empire encompasses planes, trains, automobiles, space travel, mobile phones and personal finance.
The bearded hippie-made-good was knighted in 2000 for services to entrepreneurship.
Paul Sims advises Christians not to trade their crucifixes for Virgin products just yet:
… Branson himself must see Jesus as a role model. After all, he did name his company after his mum…
(via New Humanist)
[tags]atheist, atheism[/tags]
IIRC Branson has remarked that the virgin he named his company after was his own young self at the time.
I think that a good role model for young children is Winnie the Pooh. Not only because he’s nice, kind, soft-spoken, etc. But also because he’s always investigating the world around him, trying to understand things with a hands-(or paws-)on approach. He loves his friends, and he loves the good things in life, and that seems right to me.
Actually he’s a much better model than Jesus. Jesus is OK, but the end of his story is very depressing for kids. What’s the lesson in it? That if you express yourself too strongly, you can die a painful, gruesome and unfair death? OK, kids have to learn about injustice someday. But perhaps it’s better to explain it with less blood.
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