On March 31 this year, Richard Dawkins appeared in an interview with Rachel Johnson on LBC, where he made headlines after identifying himself as a cultural Christian. After stating he was “slightly horrified” to hear about when Oxford Street in London began promoting Ramadan instead of Easter, he explained his belief that England is a culturally Christian country. “I’m not a believer, but there is a distinction between being a believing Christian and a cultural Christian. I love hymns and Christmas carols and I sort of feel at home in the Christian ethos, and I feel that we are a Christian country in that sense.”
On the topic of Christian belief declining, he said was happy with that, but he wouldn’t be happy if, “for example, we lost all our cathedrals and our beautiful parish churches. So, I count myself a cultural Christian. I think it would matter if we substituted any alternative religion. That would be truly dreadful.” When asked if he saw a problem with the 6,000 Mosques constructed and the many more planned to be built, he stated, “Yes, I do really. I have to choose my words carefully: If I had to choose between Christianity and Islam, I’d choose Christianity every single time.” A lot of news sites covered this part of the interview, such as The American Conservative and Fox News.
I don’t have anything against these comments. Whatever culture or traditions that we still practice today, whether originating from Paganism or Christianity, it would be a shame if a nation loses a large chunk of it. I like traditions. I’m fairly conservative in that regard. In fact, I’m actually in agreement with him on a lot of this.
In my opinion, there is nothing more vulgar, more dangerous, more irrational, than Islam. It has a worse track record than any religion, and if I had to pick between the two religions, I would also reluctantly go for Christianity. However, as usual, people seem to be taking this as a huge winning moment against New Atheism, similar to when Ayaan Hirsi Ali announced she converted to Christianity. But regardless of how many people talk about it, this is barely news.
People have claimed before that Dawkins has changed his tune on the necessity of religion, specifically Christianity, but he has been quick to specify his beliefs. When the Editor-in-Chief of UnHerd, Freddie Sayers, wrote an article titled “Was New Atheism a mistake?”, one of the claims he made via twitter about Richard Dawkins was he “acknowledges that being religious is better for human flourishing.” Dawkins replied that the tweet was misleading, then clarified, “I said even IF religious belief is good for human flourishing, that doesn’t make it true. And TRUTH is what matters.”
Besides, this is hardly the first time Dawkins showed any soft spots for Christian culture. Ten years ago at the 2014 Hay Festival, Dawkins called himself a “secular Christian” because he favors the nostalgia and ceremonies of the church. Hell, if we go back even further, when he appeared on the BBC show “Have Your Say” to discuss religion in September 2007, a caller brought up Christianphobia and the attack on Christian traditions of England, his interviewer said “There is a problem there if– I mean you might not believe in the traditions we’re talking about here– but if they are done away with, if they are very severely challenged, it can be destabilizing for society.”
Dawkins’s response: “I agree. I mean, I’m not one of those who wants to stop Christian traditions. This is historically a Christian country. I’m a cultural Christian, same way many of my friends call themselves cultural Jews or cultural Muslims. So yes, I love singing carols along with everybody else, I’m not one of those who want to purge our society of our Christian history. If there is any threat to those sorts of things, I think you’ll find it comes from rival religions and not from atheists.”
Does this sound familiar? They’re the exact same comments he’s made on the LBC interview that everyone keeps talking about. So no, please stop acting like Dawkins has changed his views on Christianity. He’s not about to join Jordan Peterson and preach the need for Christianity or say he made a massive mistake being a part of New Atheism and he won’t tell everyone to ignore the God Delusion. This is not a win for the religious right. This is not news. This is just Richard Dawkins being consistent over the decades, and I respect him for it.
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