by Emily Falshaw

Created on: March 12, 2009

Two thousand years ago, or thereabouts, one man created a cultural phenomenon that still affects the world today. He had long hair and sandals, and some crazy ideas about life. Forty-nine years ago, four men created a cultural phenomenon that still affects the world today. They had long-ish hair and sandals (or bare feet), and some crazy ideas about life. The question is: are the Beatles bigger than Jesus as John Lennon infamously claimed? Or is it the other way around?

Literally speaking, yes, the Beatles were quite a bit bigger than Jesus actually. Estimates taken from analysis of the Shroud of Turin suggest Jesus was anywhere from 5'8" to 6'1" tall. Not too shabby for the time. However, the Beatles were collectively over 23 feet tall. The same goes for weight. No one knows how much Jesus weighed, but if he walked on water, it couldn't have been too much. The Beatles weighed in excess of 600 pounds all together. So from round one, it is clear one man can't compete with four on issues of actual bigness.

Moving on to numbers that matter, the Bible is the best selling book of all time, with over one billion copies sold. True, the Bible isn't all about Jesus, but he does have an entire testament dedicated to him. That's no small feat, considering my thesaurus doesn't even have a synonym for "testament." The Beatles' best selling album was "Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band," which sold 32 million copies. But, before the zealots start proclaiming "Advantage Jesus!" the band has sold 1.1 billion albums in total. Round two is deadlocked.

Looking at popularity that doesn't involve an inventory of items sold, the carpenter from Bethlehem and the quarrymen from Liverpool are still on pretty equal terms. Christianity is the most popular religion in the world, with 2.1 billion members. It's nigh on impossible to find out how many "Beatlemaniacs" are around today, but the Beatles are the most popular and best selling rock group in history. Their popularity is at least as widely-reaching as Christianity, and they have even played concerts in predominantly non-Christian countries.

With the numbers crunched there still isn't a definitive answer to the Jesus-Beatles debate, so it's time to examine facts that matter. The greatest sign of popularity and greatness that our society has today is appearing on "The Simpsons." Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr have all lent their voices and likenesses to the show. Jesus has had a voiceless cameo, but his Dad has had a small part and is the only character in the history of the show to be drawn with five fingers. Now that's an achievement, but it still doesn't tip the scales in either direction.

Considering how the popularity of Jesus and the Beatles spread may prove to be more decisive. Marshall McLuhan famously said "The medium is the message," which, when I heard it, sounded to me like a load of bollocks. In this case though, it is spot on. Not even the printing press was around when Jesus' popularity spread. His message got out by one person telling another, and that says an awful lot about Him. Yeah, the Beatles gave a killer performance on "The Ed Sullivan Show," but it still wasn't as impressive as the Jesus' word-of-mouth campaign.

So it turns out Jesus may have been bigger than the Beatles - but only just. The Vatican has officially forgiven Lennon for his verbal faux pas, so I suppose the question now is: does it even matter? They both came from humble beginnings to spread principles like peace and love (with the possible exception of "Maxwell's Silver Hammer"), and in this case, it's definitely the message that's important.

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