The Stupid! It Burns! (one swallow edition)

Atheist Finds God?

[Geoff] Crocker is as sick of virulent atheism as he once became of the evangelical brand of Christianity he used to preach at numerous Christian events worldwide and through the tracts he wrote for The Bible Society. He tells us leading atheists such as Richard Dawkins are dragging the ‘non-religion’ down. “Dawkins has stopped being a thinker and has become a campaigner, setting himself up as some kind of Messianic deliverance figure to ‘save’ people from religion,” Crocker argues [sic]. “The result is moral nihilism and a materialistic, self-centred society, which does atheism no favours.” ...

Crocker proposes an entirely new approach - a reinterpretation of religious texts as myth and a synthesis of sacred and secular – because he is also sick of ‘The God Debate’ and wants to defuse the barren confrontation between atheism and religion. Looking at Biblical stories in this light, he claims, can be uplifting. The Old Testament story of Cain and Abel, or the New Testament account of Jesus Clearing the Temple, for instance, mean nothing doctrinally at all, he suggests. But interpreted as meaningful myth, they open up debate on serious moral and cultural issues, tap into serious, current issues such as justice, love, consumer society, the role of the state, fear, etc., and give atheists something to believe. Because yes, even atheists need to believe something.