Dawkins : "I'm a cultural Christian".

[mintogrubb.livejournal.com]

Professor Richard Dawkins has said the he is ' A Cultural Christian'.
In a news story on the BBC website, he declared that he has no wish to see Christmas cancelled, or see Britain lose any part of it's Christian heritage. This may come as a surprise to some, but his website tends to direct its venom towards the more negative aspects of religious belief.

These include the Catholic Church's stance on child molesting priests, it's opposition to contraception, and its condemnation of gay people. Yet Protestant believers come in for criticism too. It isn't simply a belief in Adam and Eve that Dawkins criticises, it's the Old Testament's account of Joshua's conquests, the concept of Hell and the moral standards taught in the O.T. that also provoke his ire.

Well, my take on it is as follows -
the Jews didn't really do the conquest of Canaan like the Bible says,in fact they didn't conquer Canaan at all - Joshua's campaign was largely a propaganda exercise done in a later period;
the concept of Hell as a place of eternal torment rests upon misinterpretation and misunderstanding of certain Biblical passages, as well as a certain amount of Hellenistic influence;
the sexism, racism and homophobia are all there in the Torah, but the Jews themselves got over a lot of it before Jesus came along and finished the job.

If we were to teach History in school and pay more attention to events in the Levant around the Bronze Age, it would do a lot to dispel the negative influence that religious mythology still has on society. We can dump all that stuff and still have a version of Christianity that is different from Atheism. And, yes, I would be happy to explain the specifics in the comments - if I get any:)

Comments

Re: 'Crap' theology?

[pastorlenny.livejournal.com]

You raised the issue of Christianity in the OP. if all you wanted to talk about was the Hebrew scriptures, why cap it off with an assertion about "a version of Christianity that is different from Atheism?"

Re: 'Crap' theology?

[mintogrubb.livejournal.com]

Simply because a lot of Christians on both sides of the Atlantic go cherry picking the OT for support for their prejudices.

Want to cite Deuteronomy to back up your homophobia, guys ? Well stop wearing poly cotton shirts and eating prawn cocktails. these are equally abominable in God's sight, the Torah tells us. Quote one, quote 'em all, I reckon.

Better still, try seeing thee verses in the historical and cultural context that they were written in and stop projecting your own prejudices onto God.

Re: 'Crap' theology?

[midsummerskies.livejournal.com]

Simply because a lot of Christians on both sides of the Atlantic go cherry picking the OT for support for their prejudices.

in the same way you are cherry picking the OT to prove that God is "The most unpleasant character in fiction"

You might want to start here (http://www.rationalchristianity.net/ot_love.html)

Re: 'Crap' theology?

[mintogrubb.livejournal.com]

That was not my quote, but something that appears on Dawkin's website.

And to be fair, it would be quite easy to get that impression about God, from the way the Torah especially describes Him.

you have a single quote from Exodus that describes God in glowing terms, and yet He ( according to the Hebrew scribes) wants to institute the death penalty for many things - including working on the Sabbath. He gets two bear to tear 42 youngsters to pieces simply because they bad mouth a prophet - not exactly ' minimum use of force', is it? Nor is killing a guy who simply touches the Ark of the Covenant.

I think we have to acknowledge that this is how God is presented, and somehow move beyond it.
Still, the quotes from later books do present God in a better light. I go with their assessment, not the Deuteronomist's, thanks.