Rebecca Watson: Richard Dawkins recently made headlines by claiming to be a “cultural Christian.” What he actually meant, in my opinion as a fellow cultural Christian, was that he’s a bigot skepchick.org/2024/04/rich...

Richard Dawkins recently made headlines by claiming to be a “cultural Christian.” What he actually meant, in my opinion as a fellow cultural Christian, was that he’s a bigot skepchick.org/2024/04/rich...

Richard Dawkins: “Cultural Christian” or Supremacist Bigot?skepchick.org Well, Richard Dawkins is in the news once again, and not for one of the normal fun reasons, like when he tweeted about dogs 69ing. No, he’s in the news because he went on tv and announced that he’s…

"When I first became an atheist, I absolutely bought into the idea that religion was responsible for societal ills like misogyny, racism, and homophobia. Luckily I had Richard Dawkins to look up to, and he quickly disabused me of that notion" So relatable xD

I could also relate to that, not with Dawkins but decades before with a stepfather that was so similar that Dawkins never passed my smell test, I was already vaccinated.

Kills me how much I used to respect that man. My perception started plummeting fast after the weird open letter after the elevator stuff.

The elevator BS was what started my glide path out of organized skepticism. Clearly they didn't want a space that was free of predators.

For me it was "Draw Muhammad Day" and atheists posting videos of themselves desecrating the Quran

Dawkins is a great illustration of how the shock of the September 11 attacks funnelled his atheism into reactionary hatred of Islam, and how post-9/11 Islamophobia feeds so smoothly into bigoted fascism.

Dawkins’ movement atheism has always struck me as basically just an extreme form of Protestant anticlericalism with a side of Islamophobia, so this tracks

Well the big hint was all the bigoted things he says. Yeah I'm from a family of atheists, but my parents weren't 'out' in our small Southern town, so they took us to church and we celebrated Christmas and Easter etc. So I'm a 'cultural Christian' and could pass as the real thing if I needed to.

Sliding back in to clarify - Dawkins' objection to non-Christian symbols is creepy to me. I love my old church building, designed by Robert Mills. But our historic synagogue is beautiful, too. I've lived near and visited mosques that were wonderful. It doesn't harm me to see other culture.

I'm not sure whether the 'real things' could pass as the real thing.

I do the "cultural Catholic" schtick with my friends (cultural Protestants) as a gag these days because we're watching Shōgun and there's a lot of post-Reformation Catholic-Protestant bickering on that show. I couldn't imagine being serious about it. Dawkins is a loser.

I still do the “recovering Catholic” as a bit.

Many years ago, a woman who was active in local skeptic/atheist meetup groups pointed out to me that those groups were predominantly white men, and that Dawkins & his worshippers were largely the reason for that (I was not involved in these groups, but was considering it at the time).

He was already on my "avoid" list b/c of his associations with Hutchins (an unbelievably pretentious, self-important man who was so proud of his intelligence despite being so thick-headed he literally had to be tortured to think torture was bad) and Harris (like Hutchins, but with extra bigotry!)

Hitchens

FFS. Yeah, Hitchens. At least you knew who I meant!

That man is so lack-of-goddamn tiresome. Exactly the sort of self-important, politely crooked Big Brain that gives educated people a bad name.

And now I have “White Wine in the Sun” in my head. That’s cultural Christianity.

And now I remember that song has a shout-out to Dawkins, and… C’mon Tim, time for a small rewrite.

Great biologist, absolutely ignorant on everything else. He doesn't even know what an atheist is. He is one of those who taught me a PhD is a red flag.

When I took a course in evolutionary biology in college (1977), our instructor, David Wake, suggested The Selfish Gene. But he said, "Take it with a grain of salt." I read it through, holding the thought that it was only true if you accepted D's assumptions. I didn't. He's an okay biologist.

"Cultural Christian or Supremacist Bigot" Yes

I always understood non-believing Jew and recovering Catholic as ways to self-identity, but the first time I heard the term "cultural Christian" was from that Swedish mass murderer a dozen years ago (bonus racist). So yeah, not the best connection, but the first thing he made me think of.

Ethnoreligions and orthopraxy of all types are irrelevant because they align with and stem from mythology. All versions can be dismissed. No matter which false celebration you really really like.

cool

Yes

It's well past time for Dawkins to leave the stage

He hates the god stuff but loves the bigotry

Post