Prof Dawkins, who has frequently spoken out against creationism and religious fundamentalism, replied: "I'm not one of those who wants to stop Christian traditions.
"This is historically a Christian country. I'm a cultural Christian in the same way many of my friends call themselves cultural Jews or cultural Muslims.
"So, yes, I like singing carols along with everybody else. I'm not one of those who wants to purge our society of our Christian history.
"If there's any threat these sorts of things, I think you will find it comes from rival religions and not from atheists."
Dawkin's personal view is mine exactly. But I think the very last line couldn't be more wrong: Many challenges to public religious displays come from atheists. American Atheists publicly takes a hard line on church-state separation, and a state director of theirs sued over a Christian display. A similar thing happened in my hometown. The opposition to "Under God" in the pledge came from an atheist.
It's true that rival religions and liberal bureaucrats (some of the latter even Christians themselves) join in, but to claim there's no organized atheist attempt to undermine Christian culture is absurd.
0 comments:
Post a Comment