Only half of young people in Britain believe that Jesus was a historical figure

A new survey has indicated that only half of young British people believe that Jesus Christ really existed, and less than half believe that he was real but not God.

The study, conducted by London-based market research company ComRes among 2,000 respondents, aged 11 to 18 years, in England, also revealed that a third of Christian teenagers do not know how to talk about Jesus with their peers.

On the other hand, 56 percent of non-Christian teenagers said they are open to having a friend talk to them about their faith.

Jimmy Dale, the Church of England's Youth Evangelism Officer, said that the findings present a big challenge to the Church.

"How do we help young people to see that actually firstly that they have something which is worth sharing but then secondly, what they are wanting to share, people are actually willing to listen to?" Dale told Premier's News Hour.

The report noted that more than half of young people in Britain said they knew someone who is a Christian. As many as 67 percent described their relationship with Christians as friendly, while 33 percent of the same group described the relationship as fun.

A quarter of young people admitted to being afraid of offending others when evangelizing. Dale said that the number could be reduced if the Church raises their confidence to share their faith with others.

Another recent survey conducted by ComRes indicated that only 25 percent of British people who describe themselves as Christians believe in the resurrection of Jesus. However, the figure rose to 57 percent among Christians who attend religious service at least once a month.

As many as 37 percent said they never attend religious service, while only 20 percent said they attend once a week.

Overall, half of British people do not believe in the resurrection, and only 17 percent believe the Biblical account of the event word-for-word. Surprisingly, nine percent of non-religious people believe in the Resurrection, one percent of whom say they believe it literally.

The survey respondents are evenly split at 46 percent between those who believe in life after death and those who do not. Twenty percent of non-religious people said they believe in some form of the afterlife.

The Bishop of Manchester, the Right Reverend David Walker, said that the findings indicate that many British people still hold core Christian beliefs, despite not attending church regularly.

"This demonstrates how important beliefs remain across our society and hence the importance both of religious literacy and of religion having a prominent place in public discourse," said the bishop.