A recent Angus Reid Institute study conducted in partnership with Cardus, has determined that more than half of Canadians, at 54 per cent, have a Bible in their house.

There are more than a dozen days in December which are considered significant by various religions from Christians and Jews to Buddhists.

Meanwhile, 61 per cent of Christians and Jews and nine-in-ten Muslims agree that the scriptures of all major world religions teach essentially the same things.

The study finds that comfort and being close with God are some of the top reasons regular readers of sacred texts such as the Bible, Qu’ran or Torah return to those books.

Those who engaged with a sacred text in recent years are more likely to have donated money to charity at 68 per cent while 48 per cent would have volunteered their time.  For the Qu’ran and Torah those numbers are 53 and 33 per cent respectively.

More than half of Christian raised Canadians say that the Bible is dated when it comes to gender politics, with 29 per cent saying it is “quite a lot” or “very much” sexist. Twenty-one-per cent of former or current Christians would call it homophobic and 16 per cent call it racist.