By - - CHORTLE.CO.UK
Added: Sat, 17 Sep 2011 17:56:54 UTC

Frank Skinner has claimed that atheists are as big a threat to humanity as climate change deniers.

In a conversation with the Archbishop of Canterbury last night, the Catholic comedian said: ‘Atheists we might see as people like those who deny global warming. You might defend their choice to believe that as freedom of speech – but if they are wrong and people are taken in, it could be disastrous for millions of people.’

Later in the event at Canterbury Cathedral, Skinner added that the world’s religions should unite to combat the threat, saying the beliefs they have in common are far greater than their differences.

‘At a time when secularism is a threat to the salvation of millions, believers should get together, find what we have in common, and sell that,’ he said. Skinner said that it was no longer fashionable to have faith. ‘On the comedy circuit, it’s incredibly cool to be an atheist.

‘I’ve just been to the Edinburgh Fringe and even if it was nothing to do with anything else they were saying, most comics would take three or four minutes to explain they were atheists, just to tick the box of “cool comic”. What you need for that is skinny jeans, hair like a chrysanthemum and to be an atheist.’ Turning to Dr Rowan Williams, he added: ‘You need to sort that out. It’s bad that atheism has got to be a cool position.’

Skinner added that atheists took an aloof intellectual standpoint and ‘looked down at’ the wisdom of believers.

‘It really gets on my nerves that atheists is all about sitting on leather chairs in gentlemen’s clubs with Dawkins and Bertrand Russell while I sit reading novels with Cliff Richard. I think we’re stuck with that.’

He added that his friend and former flatmate David Baddiel could never understand his faith, and would ask: ‘Doesn’t it ever worry you that everyone else who believes in what you believe is an idiot.’

Skinner said his response was to ask: ‘Doesn’t that bother you at Chelsea games?’

The comedian said he had doubts about his own belief, but said that was the definition of faith.

‘I have lots of arguments about religion,’ he said. ‘Most of my conversations are with atheists who want to know how can anyone with any kind of brain believe in a God in the 21st Century.

‘The thing is, I’m not sure. I see myself as a man of doubt. Doubt is at the centre of being human. I wonder about fundamentalists who don’t have doubt – or atheists who don’t have doubt… There are days when I think I’m wrong. I think it’s OK to think that.’

Dr Williams agreed, saying: ‘The opposite of faith is not doubt but certitude.’ Skinner said he read the God Delusion as it was important to hear all the arguments. ‘When I held it in my hands I worried that once I read it I might not believe in God any more,’ he said, before admitting: ‘There were a couple of moments when I thought, “that’s a good point”.’ But his faith remained intact.

He told the Archbishop religious people had given up too much ground to the rationalists. He said: ‘There’s too much apologising – and I’m afraid the English Anglicans are bad at this – for the magic in religion, making concessions on the virgin birth or the resurrection. Don’t give in to them! To applause from the audience, he said: ‘If you believe in God all bets are off. The Red Sea can part. There’s a temptation to give a bit of ground to rationality. But if you believe in God, why shouldn’t there be angels?’

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TAGGED: ATHEISM, RELIGION