Richard Dawkins Declares Himself a Christian. Sorta
Evolutionary biologist and outspoken atheist Richard Dawkins has consistently mocked creationists. Dawkins’ book, The God Delusion, advanced the popular notion amongst scientists that Christians are fools for believing that an all-knowing, all-powerful creator purposefully spoke the universe into existence in a way that demonstrates his existence. Dawkins reigns as a self-made god of atheism, praised at the altar of evolutionary biology studies, alongside fellow New Atheism movement leaders, Sam Harris, Daniel Dennett, and Christopher Hitchens (who met his maker in 2011). Adherents of atheism worship these men as “the four horsemen of the non-apocalypse”, a reference that mocks the judgment and wrath brought by the four horsemen in Revelation 6.
Hawkins rarely debates creationists, arguing that debate would lend academic credibility to his opponents. However, in a recent LBC News interview, when pressed with the issue of the exploding Islamic population in the UK, and the celebration with Ramadan lights rather than Easter lights on Oxford Street in London, Dawkins conceded that life in a Christian nation is much more desirable than life in an Islamic nation. Dawkins wants all of the blessings of a Christian culture, what Christians would refer to as Common Grace, while rejecting every single tenant of the Christian faith.
“Well, I must say I was slightly horrified to hear that Ramadan is being promoted instead. I do think that we are culturally a Christian country. I call myself a cultural Christian. I’m not a believer, but there’s a distinction between being a believing Christian and being a cultural Christian, and so…You Know, I love hymns and Christmas Carols, and I sort of feel at home in the Christian ethos. I feel that we are a Christian country in that sense. It’s true that statistically the number of people who actually believe in Christianity is going down, and I’m happy with that. But I would not 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, certainly if we substituted any alternative religion, that would be truly dreadful….
If I had to chose between Christianity and Islam, I’d chose Christianity every single time. I mean to me it seems to be a fundamentally decent religion, in a way that I think Islam is not…..There’s an active hostility to women which is promoted, I think by the Holy books of Islam. I’m not talking about individual Muslims, who of course are quite different, but the doctrines of Islam, the Hadith and the Quran is fundamentally hostile to women, hostile to gays, and I find that I like to live in a culturally Christian country. Although, I do not believe a single word of the Christian faith.”
Dawkins, who grew up in the Anglican church before casting off the Christian label for atheism, desires the benefits of the culture that Christianity creates, while despising and denying the entirety of the Christian faith. He is willing to admit that the Christian faith has positively influenced cultures in such a great way, that no other religion could possibly be a proper substitute for Christianity. After battling Christianity for decades and gaining a reputation as a man who won tens of thousands of souls to the anti-Gospel of godless evolution, Dawkins doesn’t even bother to propose an atheistic secular state as a solution, because he knows that atheism as a religion could never replace the extraordinary blessings of common grace, as seen in countries where the presence of churches and Christians who submit themselves to fully to the word of God.
Dawkins’ flavor of cultural Christianity merely caricatures the true Christian faith. He laments what he describes as the failure of Christians to embrace “female vicars and female bishops”. His faithless version of Christianity denies the inerrancy of scripture, the miracles of scripture, the deity of Christ. This hollowed-out corpse of Christianity, devoid of faith, religious dogma, and objective truth provides Dawkins with comfort. He wants the blessings of God without the covenant, Christmas-Carol Karaoke without the death, burial, and resurrection, and awe-inspiring Christian cathedrals without an awe-inspiring God.
Truly, the greatest fool is a man like Dawkins who denies the existence of God, and then seeks the common grace blessings of the one he denies, taking on the label of “cultural Christian”. The apostle Paul described the depravity of such men, who in their unbelief are under God’s wrath:
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. Romans 1:18-23
Western Civilization flourished under the influence of Christianity, with even non-believers benefiting from the blessings of God that flowed out to the people of God, but now that influence and those blessings are quickly fading in a post-Christian society. Many weak and foolish men believe that they can take Christ out of Christianity and still maintain the faith. These men seek to ally themselves with Christians in cultural conflicts with the world, but make no mistake they are not truly allies, but rather co-belligerents of convenience. They seek a godless neutral societal order that rejects the scriptural commands of God and faith itself. They name and claim the blessings of God while denying God himself, borrowing his blessings without giving due credit. Those who follow an atheistic word of faith movement that lacks both the word of God and faith will in the end be laid bare. The only hope for the atheist, like Richard Dawkins is the power of God to give him a new believing heart of flesh, that the scales of spiritual blindness might fall from his eyes.
The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds; there is none who does good. Romans 14:1
About Author
Atheist activist have turned on Dawkins for his anti-trans views. Perhaps being rejected by his philosophical tribe and seeing some good in Christianity is what the Holy Spirit will use to bring him to repentance. We can pray.