Denison Forum
Dr. Jim Denison
Richard Dawkins is one of the most visible atheists in the world. He has not changed his mind in this regard, telling an interviewer recently, “I do not believe a single word of the Christian faith.”
Here’s the part of the story that is making headlines: he also says he identifies as a “cultural Christian.” He stated, “I would not be happy if, for example, we lost all our cathedrals and our beautiful parish churches.” In his view, the UK owes much of its history and heritage to the Christian faith, a fact that should still be valued in our post-Christian day.
However, as T. S. Eliot asked in his Choruses From The Rock, “Do you need to be told that even such modest attainments as you can boast in the way of polite society will hardly survive the Faith to which they owe their significance?” The writer Niall Gooch adds that the great cultural contributions Dawkins appreciates “were not, and could not have been, created by half-believers who found Christianity merely soothing and comforting.”
Esmé Partridge, an MPhil candidate at the University of Cambridge, is right: “Like any organism, Christianity must recover its roots, or it will die—a fact of life which, as an evolutionary biologist, Dawkins ought to appreciate.” More Here
