The religious nutjobs in America now have yet another reason to hate Harry Potter: the actor who incarnates our beloved wizard in the film series has openly revealed himself as a proud, relaxed atheist. Attaboy, Daniel!
In an interview with Esquire magazine, Radcliffe risked the US box office prospects of the new Harry Potter film by declaring himself to be an atheist.In a pronouncement that will dismay America's religious Right, which has long voiced suspicions about Potter's "anti-Christian" message, the 19-year-old actor said he did not believe in God.
He also expressed his admiration for Professor Richard Dawkins, the prominent atheist and bete noir of Evangelical Christians.
Radcliffe has been reticent on the subject of religion in the past, but in an interview to promote the latest instalment in the film franchise, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, released on July 15, he said: "I'm an atheist, but I'm very relaxed about it. I don't preach my atheism, but I have a huge amount of respect for people like Richard Dawkins who do. Anything he does on television, I will watch."
He joked: "There we go, Dan, that's half of America that's not going to see the next Harry Potter film on the back of that comment."
I don't see why anyone would worry about a drop in the box office – anyone who's offended by witchcraft and fantastical hocus-pocus will already have been boycotting the films and burning Harry Potter effigies and books for a decade now, so seriously, anyone who's still watching the films or reading the books will likely have no problem with a young atheist in lead role. (Not to mention that anyone who stops watching a series they previously enjoyed just because an actor happens not to believe in their branch of faith is a total ass, but that's a given.)
I'm surprised I haven't heard of this before – apparently he said this at the release of Half-Blood Prince, now almost four years ago.
I was sorry to read this next little bit, though:
Prof Dawkins, author of best-selling book The God Delusion, is no fan of Harry Potter, once remarking that tales of witchcraft are "anti-scientific".
Oh come on now. That's just silly. It's a fantasy novel. What the heck does he want, science-based magic? Frankly, hating on Harry Potter just because it's supposedly "anti-scientific" (which is really a stupid claim in itself) is just as pathetic as anyone who hates, say, House for being "anti-woo". Kinda disappointing coming from someone as obviously intelligent and usually dead-on accurate as Professor Dawkins, but no-one's always 100% rational, I guess.
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<span style=" line-height: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Wow! I just read the greatest atheist manifesto ever written. Seriously. It's called the Real Messiah: http://www.amazon.com/Real-Messiah-Throne-Origins-Christianity/dp/1906787123/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1246864135&sr=8-1 It's written by a Jewish writer who found proof in a number of ancient sources that Jesus never claimed to be the messiah. It was all made up by later Christians in Rome to distract from the truth that threatened to overtake the whole Empire. You see there was this Jewish king named Marcus Julius Agrippa. He was the St. Mark who wrote the gospel. He wrote the gospel secretly to have Jesus announce HIM as the messiah. Then the Roman authorities caught wind of what was going on and then cut Agrippa out of the gospel. Don't you see!!! It's all a big lie - even the biggest lie in history. Jesus never claimed to be what all these people now say he was. They have been fooled by a second century editorial effort that still goes undetected. How is Huller so sure of this conspiracy? He found an ancient throne in Venice which Italian sailors stole from the most ancient Church of St. Mark in Alexandria in the ninth century. The author proves that the throne goes back much further than that - i.e. all the way to the beginning of Christianity in Egypt. In any event the throne has Hebrew letters and symbols which prove the real story of Christianity and how the modern Church is one big fake. The throne is real. Here are pictures of the throne: http://www.therealmessiahbook.blogspot.com You can look it up with Google. It's a real object. But now the game is up. Christianity is proved to be a big lie and the world will never be the same again. It's so great to be on the winning side at last! I've got to tell everyone. All I got to say is that you got to read this book. This is the straw that breaks the back of the Church. </span>