Is a nominal Christian a real Christian? Richard Dawkins doesn't think so
When is a Christian not a Christian? The answer may be: “when Richard Dawkins says so.”
That is unfair, but only slightly. The main thrust of the extensive research study he has just published exploring the size and nature of the UK Christian community is that many of those people who ticked the Christian box in the 2001 (and 2011) census are not really Christian.
The charitable interpretation of this is that it states the bleeding obvious. There are a lot of nominal Christians in Britain. Who would have thought it? The uncharitable one is that the eminent atheist is deflating the number of Christians in Britain for his own narrow, partisan reasons.
That there is widespread Christian nominalism in the UK has rarely been in doubt (just read what Robert Tressell has to say about popular Christianity
JD
“The charitable interpretation of this is that it states the bleeding obvious. There are a lot of nominal Christians in Britain. Who would have thought it? The uncharitable one is that the eminent atheist is deflating the number of Christians in Britain for his own narrow, partisan reasons.”
Or of course you could look at the reason given when the results were released. I quote:
“Why did we commission this research?
The number of people selecting ‘Christian’ on Census forms has traditionally been rather high (in 2001 it was 72%), and this percentage has regularly been seized on by those trying to justify or increase religious influence in public life. Clergy, politicians and Christian lobbyists love to use such results to declare that the UK is a Christian nation and imply that there is therefore popular support for Christian influence in public life and hostility to secularism. Whether the topic is the automatic places for Church of England Bishops in the House of Lords, or the provision of hospital chaplains from NHS budgets, or the continued legal requirement for all pupils in state schools in England and Wales to take part in a daily act of ‘broadly Christian worship’, the invariable refrain is, ‘But these things are appropriate because Britain is a Christian country!’”
(from http://richarddawkins.net/articles/644941-rdfrs-uk-ipsos-mori-poll-1-how-religious-are-uk-christians)
Alyson
Christian morality is in the warp and weft of Britain’s legal system, its rights and respect for the freedoms of others, its turn the other cheek, forgive and forget mentality and its honesty and determination to bring individual wrong-doers to justice and not tarnish the reputations of a group because of the actions of individuals who would harm the group.
This is Christianity today. The repetition of church services is a relic from the past, in this hgh tech information overload age of digital technology. Christian values are however central to our value base of fairness and freedoms for all.
Gerald Barnes
Many citizens in England would consider themselves to be cultural Christians, even if outwardly they rarely attend church (except for christenings, weddings and funerals) and seldom look at the Bible. Think of Israel. In that Jewish state about ten percent of citizens practise judaic customs and rituals and read the scriptures; yet the other ninety percent nonbelievers consider themselves to be cultural Jews.
In English society there remain questions about the official status of the Church of England; the right of nonchristian pupils to absent themselves from school assemblies that take a Christian form; and equal broadcasting access for religious services from nonchristian traditions.
England, and the United Kingdom, have been shaped culturally by christianity, for good and ill. No country can erase its traditions from its collective memory without facing into an abyss.
John
Please find an essay which gives a comprehensive criticism of what is usually promoted, and perhaps practiced as religion in the whats-in-it-for-me market place of religious consumerism.
http://www.beezone.com/up/criticismcuresheart.html