"The two children chosen to front Richard Dawkins’s latest assault on God could not look more free of the misery he associates with religious baggage. With the slogan “Please don’t label me. Let me grow up and choose for myself”, the youngsters with broad grins seem to be the perfect advertisement for the new atheism being promoted by Professor Dawkins and the British Humanist Association.
Except that they are about as far from atheism as it is possible to be. The Times can reveal that Charlotte, 8, and Ollie, 7, are from one of the country’s most devout Christian families."
You don’t need me to tell you that when it comes to religion and philosophy Richard Dawkins is a complete doughnut of the first order. Now the dozy plum has come up with a poster advertising his ill-tempered dog-in-the-manger form of atheism featuring two happy, bouncing Christian children. I knew he was after our kids but I didn’t know he would go to these lengths.
The British Humanist Association, a church of the disillusioned who gather regularly around their grievances to blame a God who according to their own creed isn’t there, explained the campaign:
“The message is that the labelling of children by their parents’ religion fails to respect the rights of the child and their autonomy. We are saying that religions and philosophies — and ‘humanist’ is one of the labels we use on our poster — should not be foisted on or assumed of young children.”
So unconvinced are they of their worldview that they claim they won’t share it with their own children. It is so vacuous and meaningless that they have no intention of passing it on. Now that puts a different spin on the idea of ‘convictions’ doesn’t it? Put a gun to their head and surely they will cry, “Of course there’s a God! Always knew it.”
They betray the empty-headed nature of their arguments by apparently insisting that it is right for others to have a greater influence on our children than we do. Personally, I believe in the indoctrination of children and any parent with a firm view and an ounce of common sense will believe the same. We inculcate them with ideas of right and wrong, infuse them with ambition and drive and inspire them as best we can to live full and meaningful lives and these ideas are informed by what we believe.
If I believed there wasn’t a God I would press that view on my children to save them the heartache and disappointment of finding out for themselves after perhaps half a life of pointless devotion to a deity that doesn’t exist. By the same token, since I believe in God, I have done all I can to tell my children about him, to let them know he loves them and that the life of man is not solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short but sociable, rich, charitable, elevating, purposeful and eternal.
There is an irony in Philip Pullman’s support for the campaign and his statement that, “It is absolutely right that we shouldn’t label children until they are old enough to decide for themselves.” He is a very successful children’s author who influences the minds of children around the world and takes every opportunity to promote his jaded atheism, surely in the knowledge that they are listening. It is an atheism that has little to do with Christianity but is informed by a gothic/medieval view of the church instilled in him by his peculiar catholic upbringing.
As to the support of Derren Brown for this campaign, here is a man who would rather go to enormous lengths to prove 2.6 billion Christians wrong than simply admit that the Christianity he grew up with doesn’t suit his homosexual lifestyle. It is truly tragic that men with such great skills and intelligence should prove such total numpties when it comes to even the most basic philosophical and religious principles. Dawkins for science by all means, Pullman for good fiction and Brown for great magic and entertainment but as to religion and philosophy I wouldn’t cross the street to hear what they have to say.
