Dawkins: PM Wrong On Christian Values

Prime Minister David Cameron has been criticised by leading atheist author Richard Dawkins for suggesting that a revival of traditional Christian values could counteract Britain's "moral collapse".

Mr Cameron told senior Church of England clergy that a belief in "live and let live" had too often become "do what you please".

This "passive tolerance" of immoral behaviour had helped fuel the summer's riots, City excess, MPs' abuse of expenses and Islamic terrorism, he said at an event to mark the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible.

But the remarks were dismissed by Professor Dawkins, an evolutionary biologist and author of The God Delusion, who said the Bible was good literature but an "appalling moral compass".

Speaking to Sky News, Prof Dawkins said: "Of course you can cherry-pick the verses that you like - that means the verses that happen to coincide with our modern secular consensus.

"But then you've got to have a rationale for leaving out the ones that say stone people to death if they break the Sabbath or if they commit adultery...

"The very idea of the New Testament, of crucifixion, of redemption of a scapegoat who is put to death for the sins of all mankind - what a terrible moral compass that gives."

In the rare foray into religious issues, Mr Cameron also admitted he was a "vaguely practising" Christian but insisted: "We are a Christian country. And we should not be afraid to say so."

He added the Archbishop of Canterbury was welcome to express his views on politics, referring to recent attacks on coalition policy by Dr Rowan Williams, but said the head of the church should not be surprised when he responds to criticism.

Rev Sally Hitchiner, vicar at St John's Church in Ealing, told Sky News she was "surprised" by Mr Cameron's comments about "how much he does do God".

"I think he was saying - in much stronger terms than even I would put - that Christianity is fundamentally important and needs to stay fundamentally important," she said.

The British Humanist Association said the Prime Minister's remarks were factually incorrect and "bizarre" and expressed a hope they were meant as an insincere sop to Christian campaigners.

Its chief executive Andrew Copson said: "The most hopeful political reading of his speech is that Mr Cameron doesn't really mean it and that his statements are intended as a way to pacify the increasingly strident lobbying of a minority of Christians for more influence in our public life and greater privilege for those with Christian beliefs."