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.”

The trouble with that whole “anti-Christian” or devil theory is that its ceases to exist when you don’t believe it. If you don’t accept the story where one’s supposed to worship the protagonist, the opposing version that worships the antagonist isn’t going to be anymore believable. To be a devil-worshipper, you have to believe god exists. The idea that anything that leaves Christianity out of the picture momentarily is automatically anti- is taking it a bit overboard.

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