Richard Dawkins - new poster boy for Christian Atheism.

Richard Dawkins is a Secular Christian. In that tie. [Telegraph]

When I describe my Christian Atheism project to some people, they often glaze over a bit. Why on earth would you want to keep any of Christianity? Surely that's the whole point of atheism - moving beyond the primitive superstitions of an earlier time? Out with the old! Don't give succour to those who would drag us back into the Dark Ages!

Yet I think such views miss out some very important aspects of our history and culture in the West. David Cameron got into a lot of trouble for saying Britain is a "Christian country", but the problem with what he said wasn't that it was wrong, but that it had the wrong emphasis. I have argued that Atheism is one (not necessarily the only) logical outcome of Christianity properly applied. For many people, being an Atheist is like a Level 2 Christian, where theists are still stuck at Level 1. They haven't solved the puzzle sufficiently to move beyond the simplistic notion of God and Salvation and all that jazz.

But Richard Dawkins accepts that Britain is steeped in Christian heritage, and this in turn has shaped his thinking, as well as that of everyone "British". We should no more ditch the Bible than we would ditch Shakespeare or Dickens. The hymns of Cowper have a resonance that owes everything to Christianity, and that resonance rings as loudly in the heart of an atheist as it does in a theist. It's not the first time Prof Dawkins has said this. He has previously suggested that "Atheists for Jesus" could be an appropriate slogan (I concur).

Now, not everyone is going to be happy with this - that much is clear. Some people did not arrive at atheism as a journey out of Christianity - or, if they did, it was a hair-raising escape, and they're just glad to be free. For me, I enjoyed Christianity, I got a lot from it, most of my friends are still believers, and I don't even mind religious ceremony. I just don't believe it's true any more. As such, I still feel like a Christian (or what I think a Christian should feel like), and I can rebuild my notion of "Christ" around ideals that the historical Jesus may or may not have embodied, however imperfectly. Because it's a story - a parable. We all have our foundational myths - recognising that they are myths doesn't make them less powerful - on the contrary, it makes them more useful and adaptable. We can do more with them, rather than being doxastically constrained by them.

Maybe this Secular Christianity will catch on. But remember - you heard it here first!