Is The Church of England Trolling Prof. Richard Dawkins?

Even though the Anglican Church says that its concerns over Prof. Dawkins’ stroke was genuine, does a prayer tweet by the Church proof of a thinly veiled trolling attempt? 

By; Ringo Bones 

The issue reached a critical mass to become newsworthy enough after thousands of Twitter users accuse the Anglican Church of trolling the famous atheist via a prayer tweet, but the Church insists it was wholly genuine in its concern for Prof. Dawkins’ health. The Church of England has said in a tweet it posted sending prayers for secularist Prof. Richard Dawkins after he had a stroke was genuine. On Friday – February 12, 2016 – the Anglican Church Tweeted: “prayers for Prof Dawkins and his family” in response to a post by The Independent newspaper reporting on his health. 

The Anglican Church’s Dawkins prayer tweet post was eventually retweeted more than 1,000 times that led to many people speculating that the concern was less than sincere. Some commenters on Twitter accused the Anglican Church of “trolling” Prof. Dawkins and suggested that praying for someone who was not religious was disrespectful. The Church of England’s communications director issued a statement following what it called the “Twitterstorm” surrounding the post. “Many recognized the tweet for what it was, a genuine tweet offering prayer for a public person who was unwell” Rev. Arun Arora wrote. But why did the prayer tweet by the Anglican Church with regards to Prof. Dawkins’ health become so controversial in the first place? 

The Kulturkampf between religion and science had widened over time given the advances in science has since provided a better explanation on how the natural world works – while the world’s various religious organizations seems to have trouble “praying the world’s troubles away”. I mean when was the last time that a religious cleric has stopped a high-speed projectile aimed at him or her or their charitable organization working in a conflict zone through sheer prayer alone? The Anglican Church’s “prayer tweet” for evolutionary biologist Prof. Richard Dawkins probably make about the same sense as the top brass of the Church of Satan tweeting Pope Francis praising his climate change advocacy or registered paedophiles tweeting that U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg be chosen as this year’s People magazine’s sexiest.