England’s Education Secretary, Michael Grove, recently proposed a program to provide the King James Bibles to every state school in the country at a cost to taxpayers of £370,000 ($585,273). This program, which was in danger of legislative defeat, was approved with the backing of someone most unexpected. Shockingly, the program has been backed by Richard Dawkins, one of the world’s most outspoken atheists and a major pillar within the “New Atheists” movement.

Without preparation, I believe that the students will most certainly be bored and confused when trying to read such an archaic language without proper help, let alone make sense of the book as a whole, which I think may just be the goal of Mr. Dawkins. While Mr. Dawkins may not say it, I believe that he sees the program as a way to push people further away from Christianity during their early years so as to reinforce Humanism, his religion of choice, which is already embraced by nearly every public university.

Since Richard Dawkins doesn’t get out much to defend the “common sense” of Humanism, here is a link to a debate between another of The New Atheists, Christopher Hitchens, and outspoken Christian Dinesh D’Souza. As much as I as I often disagreed with the late Mr. Hitchens; I very much respected him.

From the BBC you will find out that Mr. Dawkins is supporting this government issued program on the basis of the Bible’s impact on history and language.

The proposal aims to help pupils learn about the Bible‘s impact “on our history, language, literature and democracy” and will celebrate the 400th anniversary of the authorised version’s publication, Gove said earlier this year. Church leaders have approved, but the plan has fallen foul of most non-believers. An online Guardian poll showed an 82% opposition, while the National Secular Society said the £375,000 proposal wasted money and favoured Christianity in multi-faith state schools. Nevertheless, several rich Tory party donors agreed to back the plan and the first Bibles were sent out last week, to the derision of secularists – with the exception of their most prominent and pugnacious recruit: Richard Dawkins, author of The God Delusion and critic of all things clerical.

As Dawkins reveals in today’s Observer, support for the Bible plan is justified on the grounds of literary merit and he lists a range of biblical phrases which any cultivated English speaker will instantly recognise. These include “salt of the Earth”, “through a glass darkly”, and “no peace for the wicked”. Dawkins states: “A native speaker of English who has not read a word of the King James Bible is verging on the barbarian.”

So, will this plan backfire on him? Does Mr. Dawkins have a secret agenda to push forward his world and life view that is based on science to show the delusion of God?

Or is this program a real gesture on the part of Mr. Dawkins to acknowledge the great influence of Judeo-Christian values and its impact not only on Europe; but in the shaping of the US as well?

Or could it be that our education level is at an all time low and understanding the original King James version of the Bible will bore and confuse students without proper preparation?

Is this a perfect plan of getting young students while they are malleable to influence children away from Christianity during there their early years, so that the real true “religion” of science can be replace all others within the echo chambers of the overtaken university?

I think that Dawkins’s plan is to have science replace Christianity in the university, due to his statements in interviews about the delusions of believing in God.

It sounds like a great idea to give out Bibles, what Christian would disagree. We just need to be aware of the future implications that this program could cause without the proper foundation, instruction, or care for theology as an academic field.

Your thoughts?

 James Allen Show Online