Dr. Richard Dawkins, a British biologist who is famous for his leadership in the New Atheism movement, said in an interview on Easter Sunday (March 31) that he considers himself “a cultural Christian.”

Perhaps Dawkins’ most famous book is “The God Delusion,” which was published in 2006. In it, Dawkins argues that belief in a personal God is not merely untenable but actually delusional. 

Nevertheless, Dawkins seemed to defend Christianity’s cultural impact in Britain during an interview with talk radio station Leading Britain’s Conversation. When asked what his “Easter message” for the nation would be, Dawkins said, “Well, I was quite horrified that Ramadan was being promoted instead.”

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Ramadan is a month of fasting and prayer observed by Muslims around the world every year.

“I do think that we are culturally a Christian country, and I call myself a cultural Christian,” Dawkins added. “I’m not a believer, but there’s a distinction between being a believing Christian and being a cultural Christian.”

“I sort of feel at home in the Christian ethos,” Dawkins said, citing his affinity for Christian hymns and Christmas carols. “I feel that we are a Christian country in that sense.”

At the same time, Dawkins pointed out that “the number of people who actually believe in Christianity is going down” and that he’s “happy with that.”

“But I would not be happy if, for example, we lost all our cathedrals and our beautiful parish churches,” Dawkins said. “So I count myself a cultural Christian…If we substituted any alternative religion, that would be truly dreadful.”

RELATED: ‘God Delusion’ Author Richard Dawkins Signs Declaration Against Gender Transitions for Children

Dawkins went on to express concern about the number of mosques that are being constructed in Europe, saying, “If I had to choose between Christianity and Islam, I’d choose Christianity every single time. I mean, it seems to me to be a fundamentally decent religion in a way that I think Islam is not.”

(RNS) — Day in and day out, ministers to seafarers spend their times on the docks of Baltimore, delivering Bibles, magazines and a friendly face during a ship’s usually brief time in the busy port.

But, with the collapse Tuesday (March 26) of the Francis Scott Key Bridge, the mission of two ministries has shifted to longer-term aid for the crews of the Dali ship that struck the bridge and seven other large vessels stuck in the port for the foreseeable future.

The leader of one of the ministries, the Rev. Joshua Messick, said he will be advocating for the rights of those crew members, including that they have adequate provisions and that their shore leave is not restricted.

“My primary focus will be on caring for those seafarers who cannot continue their journeys,” said Messick, an Episcopal priest and executive director of Baltimore International Seafarers’ Center. “Just making sure they have everything that they are supposed to have and everything that they need to make their extended stay here as pleasant as possible.”

Andy Middleton, a lay Catholic ecumenical minister who directs the other ministry, the Archdiocese of Baltimore’s Apostleship of the Sea, has been communicating via WhatsApp with a couple of the crew members on the Dali, who remained on the ship, which is still entangled with bridge debris.

“I’ve been reaching out to them periodically since (Tuesday) morning, just to check in and make sure everybody’s still doing OK, reminding them that we’re here for them and that we’re praying for them,” he said, “and making sure that they know that when they eventually get clear of the incident and come back to a berth that we’ll still be here, waiting for them and wanting to help them.”

Their work with the crews comes as federal, state and local officials grapple with a complicated set of problems, including clearing bridge debris, getting ships back into the port and rejiggering a sprawling supply chain that ranges from cruises to coal to cars — and, eventually, rebuilding the bridge that spanned the Patapsco River.

Maryland Gov. Wes Moore spoke at a Wednesday news conference, where it was later announced that the bodies of two of the six people who had been missing were found. He acknowledged the words of kindness and the prayers from around the world.

“To everybody who is sending out those prayers I want to say that we have felt them and we’ve been comforted by them,” he said. “We’re also going to need your support. The collapse of the Key Bridge is not just a Maryland crisis. The collapse of the Key Bridge is a global crisis. The national economy and the world’s economy depends on the Port of Baltimore.”

As the officials work to help the wider population affected by the crisis, Messick and Middleton say their teams continue to focus on the particular needs of those who are at its ground zero. For example, providing familiar food to the stranded Indian crew.

“One of my first thoughts is once the crew gets back into a berth, maybe having a dinner of Indian food cooked and then delivering it to the vessel,” said Middleton, who works with six volunteers. “The cook doesn’t have to cook a meal for the entire vessel. He can take a break and everybody can sit down and eat together.”

Messick’s center, which includes a Lutheran and a Baptist chaplain and volunteers, is affiliated with the global Mission to Seafarers.

(RNS) — On Friday, Dimitris Alikakos, a Greek journalist, walked out of court in Athens without the shadow of prosecution for the first time in almost half a decade.

His alleged crime: debunking miracles.

Alikakos has been in a legal battle with the Jerusalem Patriarchate, the headquarters of the Greek Orthodox Church in the Holy Land, and several of its priests since 2019, when he published a book challenging the miracle of the Holy Fire, the flames that emerge on Great Saturday, the day before Easter, at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, where Jesus is said to have been resurrected.

The flames are blessed by the Patriarch of Jerusalem and from there transported to other centers in the Orthodox Christian world in time for celebrations of Christ’s resurrection on Easter. The fires taken to Greece arrive on a special flight organized by the Greek air force, received with full honors by the Greek government.

RELATED: Hundreds of Christian Worshippers Throng Jerusalem Church for Holy Fire

Though not a canonical belief of Orthodox Christianity, the Holy Fire is a widely and deeply held folk tradition among Greek laity that the fires ignite miraculously.

In 2018, Alikakos traveled to Jerusalem to investigate the ritual, which takes place every year.

“It was never mentioned by the early church, or by the apostolic or later fathers in the 3rd, 4th, 5th, or 6th century,” Alikakos’ lawyer, Athanasios Anagnostopoulos, said. “It was never sanctioned as an article of faith by the ecumenical councils. In fact, it was initially a Frankish belief that emerged in the Middle Ages.”

Alikakos told RNS that it was his own religious background that led him to the Investigation. “My father was an Orthodox priest, and he first talked to me about the fraud of the Holy Fire,” he said.

In Jerusalem, Alikakos interviewed several priests, including Archbishop Isodoros, who is responsible for the Church of the Holy Sepulchre’s ritual objects, such as the candles that carry the Holy Fire.

In both his book and in videos posted on YouTube, Alikakos recorded testimony that the priests themselves lit the flames.

The Jerusalem Patriarchate did not take Alikakos’ report lying down.

“What is written in the disputed book is the product of fictional stories invented by the author with the obvious aim of scandalizing the faithful and obtaining financial benefit from the sales of the book,” the Patriarchate announced in 2019. It said the timing of the book’s release, just before Easter, was proof of “the deeper motives of the author and the publishing house.”

The Patriarchate soon opened both criminal and civil cases against Alikakos and his publisher, charging them with defamation, confidentiality violations and personal data violations. They also brought a case against Google in an attempt to have Alikakos’ video removed from YouTube.

At the time, the church claimed that amongst their damages was that the Orthodox faithful would be led to doubt their priests.

The patriarchate as an organization soon backed off the case, but Archbishop Isodoros had kept up the criminal charges against Alikakos until the journalist was finally acquitted of all charges on Friday.

“It’s a slander case,” said Anagnostopoulos. “Isodoros claimed he was slandered by the fact that Alikakos wrote this book.”

Neither the Patriarchate nor Isodoros’ legal team responded to RNS’ request for comment.