{"id":30362,"date":"2024-04-07T03:00:45","date_gmt":"2024-04-07T09:00:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/?p=30362"},"modified":"2024-04-05T18:55:53","modified_gmt":"2024-04-06T00:55:53","slug":"richard-dawkins-calls-himself-a-cultural-christian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2024\/04\/richard-dawkins-calls-himself-a-cultural-christian.html","title":{"rendered":"Richard Dawkins Calls Himself a Cultural Christian"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

What must it be like to embrace people who think you\u2019re a fool, just because they hate the same people you hate?<\/p>\n

No, I\u2019m not talking about Evangelical Trump voters. I\u2019m talking about legendary New Atheist Richard Dawkins, who\u2019s calling himself a \u201ccultural Christian.\u201d Here\u2019s a quote from a recent interview<\/a>:<\/p>\n

I love hymns and Christmas carols and I sort of feel at home in the Christian ethos, and I feel that we [Britain] are a Christian country in that sense \u2026 I call myself a cultural Christian and I think it would be truly dreadful if we substituted any alternative religion.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

What\u2019s behind this sudden love for Christianity?<\/p>\n

If I had to choose between Christianity and Islam, I\u2019d choose Christianity every single time. It seems to me to be a fundamentally decent religion, in a way that I think Islam is not.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Dawkins is also anti-trans. In 2021 the American Humanist Association<\/a> withdrew their Humanist of the Year award for \u201cmaking statements that use the guise of scientific discourse to demean marginalized groups \u2026 His latest statement implies that the identities of transgender individuals are fraudulent, while also simultaneously attacking Black identity as one that can be assumed when convenient.\u201d<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve read two of Dawkins\u2019 books. His 2009 The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution<\/em><\/a> is excellent. His 2006 The God Delusion<\/em><\/a> is not. Dawkins defines \u201cGod\u201d and \u201creligion\u201d very narrowly, using definitions taken straight from conservative monotheists. I don\u2019t like fundamentalism<\/a> either, but religion \u2013 whether Christian or Pagan or anything else \u2013 is a lot more than which set of supernatural propositions you affirm and which ones you reject.<\/p>\n

But Richard Dawkins seems to have finally found a use for Christianity: attacking Muslims and trans people.<\/p>\n

Richard Dawkins is a very intelligent person. But intelligence doesn\u2019t always lead to wisdom.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Conservative Christians aren\u2019t buying it<\/h2>\n* ** *The kind of Christians who support Dawkins\u2019 preferred culture aren\u2019t exactly welcoming him.<\/p>\n Carmel Richardson, writing for The American Conservative<\/em>, says Richard Dawkins\u2019s \u2018Cultural Christianity\u2019 Is Thin Gruel<\/a>. She says \u201chaving actively persecuted the church, Dawkins finds he is sad to see it go. We cannot pretend this is anyone\u2019s fault but his own, and that of his compatriots who have crusaded against religion as the root of all social ills.\u201d<\/p>\n Russell Moore is the editor of Christianity Today<\/em> and was run out of the Southern Baptist Convention for opposing Donald Trump. He wrote New Atheism Finally Learns How to Destroy Christianity<\/a>, saying \u201cthe urge to make religion the way to prove one\u2019s cultural identity against \u2018outsiders\u2019 will always find an eager audience\u201d and \u201cif the gospel isn\u2019t real, the gospel doesn\u2019t work. Genuine paganism will win out over pretend Christianity every time.\u201d<\/p>\n A quick Google search turns up many such criticisms. I can\u2019t find a single Christian site welcoming Dawkins, or even reacting positively.<\/p>\n Culture is part of religion<\/h2>\n*** ** The concept that religion is all about what you believe is a modern, Western, Protestant idea. For most people in most places throughout most of history, religion was and is about what you do, who you are, and whose you are. Religion is about identity and relationships.<\/p>\n ** I grew up in a white Southern fundamentalist church. I know why they support Trump even though he\u2019s about as un-Christian as you can get. He\u2019s an authoritarian leader and they think the world should be run by strong men \u2013 and he promised to hurt the people they don\u2019t like. The elements of shared culture are more important to them than their very different theology and worship.<\/p>\n ** Richard Dawkins doesn\u2019t like seeing public celebrations of Ramadan. The mere existence of trans people offends his short-sighted ideas about biological determinism. He has some nostalgic memories of his Anglican childhood. He\u2019s never going to change his mind about the existence of the Christian God, but he\u2019s willing to identify as a Christian to try to turn the clock back to the 1950s.<\/p>\n ** ***It\u2019s not going to work.<\/p>\n Religion is driven by those who believe<\/h2>\n***** ** And by \u201cbelieve\u201d I don\u2019t mean those who affirm a religion\u2019s supernatural propositions. I mean those who \u201cbelieve in\u201d the religion in the sense that they believe its sacred stories and traditions are important enough to work to maintain.<\/p>\n ** These are the people who tell the stories and lead the rituals. Those who practice the traditions day in and day out. Those who tend the shrines, maintain the altars, and clean the meetinghouses. Those who do what they do not for fear of hell or hope of heaven, but because it\u2019s part of who they are and they can\u2019t not do it.<\/p>\n ** *****Culture is a big part of their religion, but they aren\u2019t cultural Christians (or Pagans or Buddhists or anything else). Religion isn\u2019t something they think about when they see it on public display \u2013 or when they get angry because a competing religion is on public display. It\u2019s something they think and live and breathe all the time.<\/p>\n Some of them are theistic and even mystical. Some are too busy here and now to worry about things nobody can prove or disprove. Either way, when they say they\u2019ll light a candle for you, it\u2019s not just \u201cthoughts and prayers<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n These people are a small part of any religion, Christian or otherwise. But they\u2019re the ones who keep the church going throughout the year so the cultural Christians have a place to go on Christmas and Easter \u2013 or just a place to have their wedding and their funeral.<\/p>\n Some believe harmful things<\/h2>\n***** ** *****Not everyone who keeps their religion moving means well.<\/p>\n Dawkins is not wrong to fear the kind of Islam we see in Iran and Afghanistan, though he fails to recognize that most Muslims don\u2019t want to live like that either. In this country, we have Christian Nationalists<\/a> trying to undo the social progress of the past century. These people are zealous about their religion and about using the power of government to force everyone to live by their rules.<\/p>\n They\u2019re determined and they\u2019re persistent. They worked for 50 years to overturn Roe v. Wade<\/em>, and now that they succeeded they\u2019re not stopping there. They want a nationwide abortion ban, and then they\u2019re coming after same sex marriage and birth control. Some would be content to force LGBTQ people back in the closet, while others want to undo Lawrence v. Texas<\/em> and criminalize same sex relations.<\/p>\n They can\u2019t be bargained with. They can only be defeated at the ballot box, election after election after election, until the mainstream culture changes for good.<\/p>\n What this means for Pagans<\/h2>\n***** ** So what does all this mean for us as Pagans\u2026 besides shaking our heads at the irony of Richard Dawkins calling himself a Christian? I see four things.<\/p>\n ** Don\u2019t try to ally yourself with people who think you\u2019re evil. You can work with anybody who isn\u2019t trying to harm you and yours if you need to, but don\u2019t invest yourself in those who don\u2019t accept you for who and what you are.<\/p>\n ** The pull of nostalgia is strong. It\u2019s OK to appreciate good things about your past, but make sure your life keeps moving forward, not backward.<\/p>\n ** Don\u2019t fear change. It\u2019s coming whether you like it or not.<\/p>\n ** The Pagan movement needs more believers. Again, that\u2019s not people who affirm supernatural propositions, it\u2019s people who believe in Pagan concepts and traditions and practices deeply enough to make them an essential part of their lives.<\/p>\n ** Richard Dawkins\u2019 book The Greatest Show on Earth<\/em> is my go-to recommendation for anyone who has serious doubts about the reality of evolution. But his writings on religion are shallow and weak, and his identification as a \u201ccultural Christian\u201d flows out of that weakness. If he\u2019s happy with that, I\u2019m happy for him \u2013 Paganism is not a proselytizing religion.<\/p>\n ** But the rest of us can do better.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" ** *****New Atheist Richard Dawkins\u2019 work on evolution is excellent. 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