Asked by a British member of Parliament if he is one of those atheists who wants to get rid of Christian symbols especially during the Christmas season, atheist Richard Dawkins replied that he is not. Dawkins said that he himself sings Christmas carols and that he considers himself a "cultural Christian." Just as many Jews regard themselves as Jewish, defend Jewish interests and cherish Jewish culture while not participating in Jewish religious rituals, Dawkins says that he respects the fact that the history and traditions of the West are shaped by Christianity. Dawkins says he's not one of those who wants to purge the West of its Christian traditions. The main threat to Christian symbols, Dawkins argues, does not come from atheists like him but rather from Muslims and members of other faiths.
Now this is quite remarkable. In The God Delusion, Dawkins portrayed the Christian God as a wicked, avaricious, capricious, genocidal maniac. Dawkins even blasted Jesus for such offenses as speaking harshly to his mother. Yet if the Jewish and Christian God was such a monster, what sense does it make for Dawkins to embrace the cultural influence of that deity? It would be like someone saying, "Hitler was a murderous maniac, but I am a cultural Nazi. No, I don't embrace the specifics of Nazi doctrine, but I appreciate what fascism has done to shape German culture. Let's give up the specifics of the Hitler program, but let's also keep Nazi culture along with the fuhrer's imagery on our coins and monuments."
Dawkins is not an unintelligent man, so what's going on here? One possibility is that Dawkins now recognizes that today's atheists who want to get rid of Christian symbols are just as intolerant as Christians who in the pst sought to deny atheists a voice in the public arena. So Dawkins' statement can be read as a critique of intolerance and political correctness.
A second possibility is that Dawkins now sees the Muslim threat to the West--and especially European culture--as more serious than the prospect of a second Christian Inquisition, so he has decided to ally with the Christians against the Islamic radicals. Other atheists like Sam Harris and Christopher Hitchens are now admitting that atheist attempts to equate Islamic extremism with Christianity are bogus. The real threat doesn't come from Presbyterianism or Anglicanism but from a radical Islam that wants to obliterate Western civilization.
I suspect that these two factors may have played a role, but the main reason for Dawkins' remarkable self-identification as a cultural Christian is that he has slowly come to realize that even the values that he cherishes--values such as individual dignity, science as an autonomous enterprise, the equal dignity of women, the abolition of slavery, and compassion as a social virtue--came into the West because of Christianity. I have been hammering this point in my debates with leading atheists, and it's possible that one of the Oxford historians came up to Dawkins and said, to his horror, "You know, Richard, that D'Souza chap has a point."
Okay, so let's give this biologist credit for learning a little history. Still, the deeper question remains. If the God of the Old and New Testaments is such a bad character, how come his cultural influence is so positive? Absent a good answer to this question, we must reconsider the premise: perhaps the God of the Old and New Testaments is not the evil figure portrayed in atheist propaganda. On the contrary, perhaps all our Western notions of good and bad derive from no source other than this Christian God. This certainly was Nietzsche's view, and he knew a lot more about the subject than Richard Dawkins. Wouldn't it be interesting if Dawkins continues his intellectual growth and reverses his old misunderstandings? Then he can reissue his book: Overcoming My Delusions: Confessions of a Cultural Christian.
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Richard Dawkins Calls Himself A "Cultural Christian"
Posted Dec 31st 2007 2:07PM by Dinesh D'Souza
Filed under: Christianity, History, Controversy, Atheism
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Reader Comments ( Page 1 of 57)
1. Being against slavery was a christian value? Then why did slaveholders use THE BIBLE to defend slavery, you idiot?
Look, I know that you think all values come from christianity, but that's just not the way reality records things. So do yourself a favor and get an education. Good values and christianity merely intersect in certain places; the latter is not the cause of the former.
One more thing: stop playing the apologist routine of "Person X was an atheist, therefore all atheists believe as Person X did". It makes you look like even more of an idiot than you already are.
Knight_of_BAAWA at 2:54PM on Dec 31st 2007
2. http://evolutionfacts.blogspot.com
Maurice at 3:05PM on Dec 31st 2007
3. WE ARE NOW WITNESSING THE EXTINCTION OF ATHEISM
http://atheistsareimaginary.blogspot.com
prffsrx at 3:09PM on Dec 31st 2007
4. "Now this is quite remarkable. In The God Delusion, Dawkins portrayed the Christian God as a wicked, avaricious, capricious, genocidal maniac."
For the record, the HOLY BIBLE portrays God as a wicked, avaricious, capricious, genocidal maniac.
Dennison at 3:11PM on Dec 31st 2007
5. Dinesh, or is it superman.
Able to leap through tall tales of evolution with the stroke of a key.
Able to see thru atheist views, with the thought of your superior mind.
Look ladys and gentelmen, It's not Dawkins, or Hitchens, IT'S super Dinesh. Good job once again Mr. D'Souza
Observant at 3:18PM on Dec 31st 2007
6. Another brillant piece by the biggest genius of our time. Not everyone knows that there weren't any Christian slave holders. I think what Dawkins is trying to say is at this point, where christanity dominates Western culture, it is useless to be anti-christmas. As someone who doesn't believe in any god, I wish my friends and family a merry christmas. It is not because I am celebrating a mythical birth of the son of god from a virgin (christanity lost me right there). It is because I believe christmas is a time of joy, happiness and family. So merry christmas everyone, even you knuckleheads who don't believe in Dinosaurs and that Noah really floated around with every animal in the world.
Greg at 3:22PM on Dec 31st 2007
7. http://Ilaughatidiotswholinkspam.blogspot.com
Knight_of_BAAWA at 3:22PM on Dec 31st 2007
8. Once again, UnObservant sees things which aren't there.
Knight_of_BAAWA at 3:23PM on Dec 31st 2007
9. First off, athiests do not want to do away with Christmas, because in its current commercial state, it is totally a benefit to the economy and of no danger to anyone. Indeed, it is more of danger of being wiped away by Christians themselves (!!!), who actually suceeded at one time in suspending the celebration of Christmas during the Puritan era of Cromwell in England.
Also, it appears to me that much of the history part Old Testament was not written by God, nor anyone inspired by God. It was obviously written by a warrior tribe trying to defend their actions to themselves and to others. What God would call for the destruction of an entire village, women, children, and even the livestock? And then show up to give warning dreams to Egyptian rulers? The writer(s)of the bible couldn't even be consistent with how they described God. As for slavery, yeah, and I remember as a child my white "christian friends" telling me during the civil rights demonstrations of the sixties that Blacks did not deserve civil rights because of the story of Noah and his sons, that one of his sons had been cursed, and turned into a Black man and so that Blacks deserved to be slaves. All I can say is, thank god that God created such a division between all of the religions...whacking them down into hundreds of splinter groups...He saw how destructive a monopoly could be.
The Goddess Athena at 3:24PM on Dec 31st 2007
10. http://godisamyth-onlyidiotsbelieveingod.blogspot.com
Knight_of_BAAWA at 3:23PM on Dec 31st 2007
11. I buy people presents, put up christmas trees, drink eggnog, cook a turkey, play christmas songs and hymns instrumentally on guitar and give the grandkids gifts from santa claus. I even sell fingerstyle arrangements of christmas songs for guitar online. Patriotic songs, too.
I hide eggs on easter and try to live by the golden rule, which christians cite, and christ's second commandment, which is just a restatement. And I've known for decades that this thinking didn't originate with christians or any abrahamic religion.
I'm an american and that's what americans do. It's a national holiday to me more than a religious one, but if during that time, people try to be more tolerant of their neighbors that's a good thing.
It does not in any way endorse any kind of fundamentalism or merger of church and state.
I believe fundamentalist religious denominations are indeed evil if left unchecked and are in fact out to get us, just like Denise the groinless, archenemy of pelvic atheism thinks fags and afeists are out to get him and all the god fearin evolution hatin' folks he represents. And, of course, I can prove it.
Not that the Pearl of Indyah and scourge of the unclean believes any of that shit. He's an agnostic who accepts evolution, but his followers do as he says not as he does.
Clif Kuplen at 3:32PM on Dec 31st 2007
12. "Christmas is...of no danger to anyone."
Not sure I agree there. I can only imagine how much pollution the manufacturing of Christmas decorations produces. I can only imagine how many additional trees we mow down each year just to produce silly Santa Claus wrapping paper that serves no other function. I can only imagine how long it will take for these giant snow globes to finally decompose in our world's garbage dumps. I can only imagine how many additional pieces of polymer end up in the North Pacific gyre after every Christmas.
To say that Christmas hurts nobody is a little short sighted. I honestly wish Christians would celebrate Christ's birthday rather than this environmental disaster we now call Christmas.
Paul at 3:38PM on Dec 31st 2007
13. In December of 2006, that is, one year ago, Richard Dawkins pubished an essay entitled "Atheists for Jesus". The gist of the essay is that the God preached by Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount, for example, is a vast improvement over the vindictive, blood-thirsty God depicted in the Old Testament. Dinesh's conflation of the Old Testament God with the God preached by Jesus is something that Dawkins would probably dispute. So, Dawkins wrote favorably about the founder of Christianity at least a year ago and I'm sure that his doing so had nothing to do with "Oxford historians" invoking the holy name of D'Souza, of whose existence, I would bet, these dons are cheerfully unaware.
It would be nice if Dinesh did a little research on a topic before blathering on about it, but I guess that is too much to ask.
emelpe at 3:40PM on Dec 31st 2007
14. Many people have misused (and still today, continue to misuse) the bible to defend their prejudices or justify their various evils. (Of course the bible warns us that this will happen, and the bible is right again!) ;) They use the bible as an excuse to commit their atrocities because they can pervert the words by taking a few verses out of context (then of course, ignoring the rest of it.)
Being against slavery IS a Christian value, this is obvious to anyone who reads and studies the bible. Of course as a typical atheist, Knight of Baawaa (nice name by the way), you have not read or studied the bible, and you blindly argue that which you do not know or understand.
Anyway, RE: Dawkins, maybe he is coming to his senses in his old age. As he approaches the end of his life maybe he is starting to wonder if it really all just ends one day, with your lifeless body being dumped and forgotten like raw sewage. OR maybe he has humbled himself enough to lend credence to other scientists who disagree with the theory of evolution, and is coming to realize that the theory of evolution, on which he has based his entire life and career, is potentially a bunch of bunk. Poor Dawkins, he is fighting so hard and running so fast from the sovereign LORD who created him and loves him. I sincerely hope he humbles himself enough to find Jesus before its too late for him.
You know, there is a great deal of science to disprove the theory of evolution (i.e., the human eye, flagellum) but many atheists don't want to acknowledge any of it, because it might prove the bible to be true, which would make the Christian God real. The fact is, there are no facts of evolution, only theories and suppositions from generations of very intelligent people who desperately did not want to believe that there is a place of eternal torment for those who did not accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.
Emily at 3:43PM on Dec 31st 2007
15. GEEBUS!!!!!!!!!!!
No one wants to ban the symbols. I could care less if a private residence or a church have religious symbols displayed. I just don't want them on city hall or a court house.
How hard is this to understand?
Ryan Anderson at 3:46PM on Dec 31st 2007