I found this report on Dawkins, one of the world's most famous and antagonistic atheists, claiming to be a cultural Christian to be absolutely fascinating. I hope it will open up a discussion about what a cultural Christian is as opposed to a true believer, and why (perhaps) such a person would identify with Christianity as opposed to, say, Islam. Here are various quotes from two of many articles on it.
Atheist Richard Dawkins said of Christianity: “It seems to me to be a fundamentally decent religion, in a way that I think Islam is not.”
www.catholicnewsagency.com
Atheist
Richard Dawkins said of
Christianity: “It seems to me to be a
fundamentally decent religion, in a way that I think Islam is not.”....
After expressing his satisfaction at what he perceives as a decline in the number of Christians, the famous atheist noted that he “would not be happy if, for example, we lost all our cathedrals and our beautiful parish churches. So I call myself a cultural Christian and I think it would be truly dreadful if we substituted any alternative religion.”
“When you give up Christian faith, you pull the rug out from under your right to Christian morality as well. This is anything but obvious: you have to keep driving this point home, English idiots to the contrary.” (Nietzsche) Richard Dawkins is now a self professing, “cultural Christian”...
anglican.ink
“You know I love hymns and Christmas Carols. I feel at home in the Christian ethos. I feel that we are a Christian country in that sense”....
Dawkins’ version of atheism seems to have changed tack, and in a positive way, or at least in this interview. He has left behind the stinging attacks and is gently embracing the world that Christianity has provided....
...because secularism & Dawkins’ own brand of evangelical atheism are both expressions of a specifically Christian culture – as Dawkins himself, sitting on the branch he’s been sawing through and gazing nervously at the ground far below, seems to have begun to realise....
Richard Dawkins wants to keep the fruit of Christianity while rejecting the beliefs of Christianity....
Dawkins admits that the social good has an origins story and it is integrally tied to the Christian faith, although he is still unwilling to believe in the Divine. “There is a difference between being a believing Christian and a cultural Christian”.