Famous Atheist Identifies as ‘Cultural Christian’

Recently, famous atheist Richard Dawkins surprised a lot of people when he said to a journalist, “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.”

Dawkins went on to explain, “I love hymns and Christmas carols, and I sort of feel at home in the Christian ethos.…We [in the U.K.] are a ‘Christian country’ in that sense.”  

Those are amazing statements, coming from the author of best-selling books such as “The God Delusion,” in which Dawkins insists anyone who believes in God is deluded; and “The Blind Watchmaker,” a tome claiming that incredibly complex biological life came into existence on this planet purely by accident, without any design or plan or supernatural guidance.

Dawkins is not wrong to recognize that Christianity is responsible for the freedoms, science, and belief in human rights that emerged from Western Civilization. Oh sure, the process was gruesome at times, with many powerful Christians displaying a startling aptitude for selfishness, greed, and hypocrisy. But the fact is, many of the great social advances of humankind — abolition of slavery, democracy, women’s suffrage, and the Civil Rights movement — were spearheaded by believing Christians.

Those advances in the rights and dignity of all people simply did not emerge in other cultures that were unfamiliar with the Judeo-Christian worldview.

It’s almost comical that Dawkins can say with a straight face that he’s glad the churches and cathedrals in England are mostly empty nowadays, while at the same time lamenting that these historic achievements in architecture are being torn down.

The thing is, Dawkins cannot have it both ways. If Christian doctrines are false — delusions, as he puts it — then Christian culture will not survive. This worries Dawkins, who expressed alarm that churches are closing all over the U.K, while 6,000 additional mosques are scheduled to be built in the coming years.

Writer Shane Morris summarized the situation quite well: “You can’t have Christianity’s fruit without its root.”

Another author, Tom Holland (who is not a Christian, by the way), had this to say: “Secularism and 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 realize.” 

I remember when I stopped being an atheist, almost four decades ago. Back in the mid-1980s, I heard a preacher on the radio say that America had become a “post-Christian nation.” The country was founded and built predominantly by believing Christians, he explained. However, by the late 20th century most people no longer believed the fundamental teachings of Christianity: the Ten Commandments, sacrificing for others, being humble and honest, etc. We were, as he put it, “a country running on Christian fumes, but it can’t last much longer.” 

Well, the changes that have occurred in our society in the past four decades make it pretty clear, to me at least, that the Christian fumes are just about used up. Our new national creed, “Do whatever you want!” is not really working out so well. When a culture rejects traditional morality as old-fashioned, it does not become amoral, it becomes immoral.

Another talented writer, Rod Dreher, observed that for Richard Dawkins to claim that he likes cathedrals and Christmas carols, but is glad church attendance is declining, is like saying he enjoys eating but is glad his country’s farms are closing. 

It’s tempting to read about Dawkins’ interview and laugh at how this otherwise brilliant man cannot see the forest because of the trees. The first impulse is to mock a person who has been such a relentless opponent of religious faith for so many years. (And I, unfortunately, was born with an abundant supply of mockiness.)

But I think the proper thing to do here is pray for Richard Dawkins. Just think how powerful a witness he could be if, as happened with philosopher Antony Flew in 2004, Dawkins comes to understand in the final years of his life that creation requires a Creator. 

We should do what Christians are always supposed to do: love God, and love our neighbor as ourselves.