Britons vote Bible and Darwin’s Origin of Species as most influential books

The British public has voted the Bible as the most significant book in today’s world in a survey for the Folio Society.

The YouGov poll asked 2,044 British adults to rank 30 tomes selected by the Folio Society in order of their influence on humanity and the Bible came top with 37% of the vote, closely followed by Charles Darwin’s The Origin of Species with 35%.

However, there was some variation between the sexes with men putting The Origin of Species in first place as it answers “the fundamental questions of human existence”, while women put the Bible first as they feel it offers “guidelines to be a good person”.

Top ten most valuable books to humanity

1. The Bible (37%)
2. On the Origin of Species, Charles Darwin (35%)
3. A Brief History of Time, Stephen Hawking (17%)
4. Relativity, Albert Einstein (15%)
5. Nineteen-Eighty-Four, George Orwell (14%)
6. Principia Mathematica, Alfred North Whitehead & Bertrand Russell (12%)
7. To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee (10%)
8. The Quran (9%)
9. The Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith (7%)
10. The Double Helix, James Watson (6%)