Metro Voice News Celebrating Faith, Family & Community
Although author Richard Dawkins is a strident atheist, he regrets the waning influence of faith in Europe. You can watch the video below.
“I call myself a cultural Christian,” the evolutionary biologist said on Easter Sunday. “I’m not a believer, but there’s a distinction between being a believing Christian and being a cultural Christian. And so, 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.”
Although saying he is happy that the number of practicing Christians in the United Kingdom is plummeting, Dawkins also acknowledged that Islam appears to be gathering strength in Europe as Christianity recedes. He noted he was “slightly horrified” that Ramadan lights adorned London’s Oxford Street during Easter.
“If I had to choose between Christianity and Islam, I choose Christianity every single time,” he said. “I mean, it seems to me to be a fundamentally decent religion in a way that, I think, Islam is not.”
Regarding the slaughter of Christians by Muslims across Africa, Hawkins said “I’m on team Christian.”
Dawkins argued that Islam is less compatible with British values than Christianity, particularly regarding the treatment of women and homosexuals.
READ: Former atheist then Muslim finds Christ
“I’m not talking about individual Muslims, who, of course, are quite different,” he said. “But the doctrines of Islam — the Hadith and the Koran — are 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 dismissed the fundamental claims of Christianity such as the virgin birth and the resurrection, emphasizing his belief that such supernatural assertions are “nonsense,” although he acknowledged their importance “from a cultural point of view.”
A survey of more than 3,000 U.K. adults commissioned by five Christian organizations in 2022 found that only 6 percent identify as “practicing Christians,” with 42 percent identifying as “non-practicing Christians.” Islam, by contrast, has surged in the U.K., swelling from 2.7 million in 2011 to 3.9 million in 2021.
–Dwight Widaman Metro Voice
