Reuters"/>For all of his disdain for the Christian religion and God, renowned atheist Richard Dawkins has actually been willing to admit that he sees Islam as a far bigger threat to world peace than Christianity. He has also willingly admitted that, "Christianity may actually be our best defense against aberrant forms of religion that threaten the world."
Dawkins' abridged argument on the matter is that, "There are no Christians, as far as I know, blowing up buildings. I am not aware of any Christian suicide bombers. I am not aware of any major Christian denomination that believes the penalty for apostasy is death."
Dawkins is even willing to entertain the notion that Christianity may well be mankind's best protection against the radical Muslim focus of global jihad: "I have mixed feelings about the decline of Christianity, in so far as Christianity might be a bulwark against something worse."
Dawkins has tended to focus more on debating Christianity in the past because it is the religion he knows the most about. He claims to have attended Christian schools growing up. While he was born in Africa, he moved to England when he was nine. One might wonder if it was there that his disdain for Christianity began seeing as there were apparently issues with some boys at the school who were homosexuals who apparently tended to attempt to force themselves upon him.
One might also wonder if this is the root of his famous quote from years ago in which he said, "Horrible as sexual abuse no doubt was, the damage was arguably less than the long-term psychological damage inflicted by bringing the child up Catholic in the first place."
When questioned about this point of view, Dawkins detailed that, " There are shades of being abused by a priest, and I quoted an example of a woman in America who wrote to me saying that when she was seven years old, she was sexually abused by a priest in his car. At the same time a friend of hers, also seven, who was of a Protestant family, died, and she was told that because her friend was Protestant she had gone to Hell and will be roasting in Hell forever."
Both of his parents loved science, and obviously, that rubbed off on him. He went into the field of biology. Interestingly, in spite of his attempts to appear logical and scientifically minded, he admits to feeling misunderstood by both the media and the general public.
"I seem to be perceived as aggressive and strident and I don't actually think I am strident and aggressive. What I think is that we have all become so accustomed to seeing religion ring-fenced by a wall of special protection that when someone delivers even a mild criticism of religion, it's heard as aggressive when it isn't. I like to think I'm more thoughtful and reflective."
