At a Glance
Recently, the famed atheist intellectual Richard Dawkins showed his cards when he called himself a cultural Christian. It’s fascinating to see someone as anti-Christian as Dawkins appreciating the culture that was built on Christian values. But can the culture he enjoys in the West actually be sustained within a secular and atheistic worldview? Further, for Christians who see the value of biblical principles and want to have an influence in society, will we rightly be considered, “Christian Nationalists?”
Dig deeper in this article: “Dawkins the New Cultural Christian.”
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What You'll Hear
Using the link above, you can read the transcript or listen along while highlighted text follows the podcast audio.
Dawkins sees the ravages of the culture that atheism produced and he doesn't like it. (9:50)
Quotes
Culture is derived from worship. What is the nature of the God that you worship? And Christians worship the living God and he has a certain character; and from his character Christian culture is derived. You don’t get Christian culture when you say there’s no God.
So the fact that Richard Dawkins says he likes Christian culture but he’s an atheist, there is a profound disconnect at that point. If he likes Christian culture, he needs to go back to the root of where that culture has come from.
And if he’s not willing to do that, if he takes his own worship seriously that there is no God, it’s an atheistic universe. That is a faith statement and that produces a kind of culture that is what we see happening before our very eyes today. It’s a disintegration of the Western world.
And you can’t revive the Western world from an atheistic culture. The only way to revive the Western world is to worship the Creator, the living God. – Darrow Miller [4:42]
Richard Dawkins is talking about the surface level of Christian culture. He likes the fact that in Christian culture there’s some beauty. You know, he likes the music, he likes the holidays, the traditions, he probably likes the way people treat one another in a Christian culture with some respect, some degree of love or generosity. – Scott Allen [8:25]
The culture of England is shifting, the religion is shifting, the worship is shifting and, at a very practical level, they’re building a lot more mosques in England today than they are churches. So literally the worship is shifting, the culture’s shifting, and they’re taking over churches and making them mosques. Dawkins mentioned in the video, Ramadan is becoming a national holiday that’s eclipsing Easter. – Scott Allen [10:10]
Go Deeper
When the principles of the Bible are understood as a comprehensive worldview, it has tremendous power to work transformation in individuals, families, communities, and even nations. Too often, Christians are ineffective because they have absorbed cultural thinking that is not in alignment with truth.
Not all worldviews are equal. Some lead to brokenness and poverty, while the biblical worldview leads to God’s intended flourishing and the blessing of the nations. Our Kingdomizer Training Program can help you understand the biblical worldview and discover areas in your own thinking that need to be transformed by God’s Word.
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