The God Delusion Debate

 The God Delusion Debate pits world-renowned atheist and scientist Professor Richard Dawkins against his Oxford University colleague Professor John Lennox, who is both a scientist and a Christian theologian. In this, his first visit to the so-called Bible Belt, Dawkins debates his views as expressed in "The God Delusion" and their validity over and against the Christian faith. The event garnered national and international attention from The Times of London, NPR, BBC, Christian Post, and Fox News Network. Spectator Magazine called the debate remarkable, and still others have called it historic.

The God Delusion Debate was filmed on October 3, 2007 before a sold-out crowd at the University of Alabama-Birmingham's Alys Stephens Center and broadcast to a global audience of over one million.

( YouTube video here ) 

Read on . 

Larry Taunton. Fixed Point Foundation : 

Good evening. I'm Larry Taton, executive director of Fixedpoint Foundation, the director of Fixedpoint Foundation, the sponsor of this event. We welcome you to the University of Alabama at Birmingham Alice Stevens Center. And we also welcome those who are listening around the world. 

 Tonight's debate features two of the great minds currently writing and speaking on this issue, Professor Richard Dawkins and Dr. John Lennox. 

I will not waste time now um um giving you their biographies as you will find them in your program, but it has been my pleasure to get to know both of these men. Um we have brought you here this evening under rather false pretenses. Uh there's actually not a debate this evening. Uh Richard Dawkins wanted to come to the Bible belt to announce his conversion um to the Christian faith. 

I mistaken. 

Incidentally, Richard is representing the atheistic position in this debate if you didn't know that. 

And uh Dr. John Lennox, the uh the Christian one. 

There's something that I would like to say about the debate itself.  Um we have thought that much of the discussion on this issue hasn't been particularly helpful as it's frequently framed as science verse religion. Um what we are seeking to do this evening is to narrow the discussion just a bit. Um and hence the name of this debate, the God Delusion debate. 

Um so this debate will feature and will focus on um the  book ( titled) the God delusion and Richard's assertions therein, over and against the Christian faith. 

A word about Fix Point Foundation. We are a Christian organization and unashshamedly so. But we also seek thoughtful civil discussion on meaningful issues and uh questions regarding eternity we think are meaningful indeed. 

We ask that you extend every courtesy to these men whether you agree with them or not. Undoubtedly there will be much said this evening that you will take issue with. Nonetheless, we uh hope you will extend to them um a southern welcome. ( Audience clapping)

We're also pleased to have with us tonight serving as our moderator um Judge Bill Pryor. (William Holcombe Pryor Jr. (born April 26, 1962) is an American lawyer who has served as the chief judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit since 2020. He was appointed as a United States circuit judge of the court by President George W. Bush in 2004. He is a former commissioner of the United States Sentencing Commission. Previously, he was the attorney general of Alabama, from 1997 to 2004.)

Many of you will recall that he was the attorney general for the state of Alabama and is now a federal judge. Bill, thank you very much.

We ask also that you turn off your cell phones and join me in greeting these men and turning it over to Bill Pryor. 

 Judge William Pryor :  Thank you, Larry. Uh, good evening. Welcome to the debate. You all know the theme and, uh, Larry has introduced it, the God delusion versus Christianity.

There will be a structure uh, to our debate this evening. We will begin with opening autobiographical statements from each of our debaters beginning with professor Dawkins and then turning to Dr. Lennox. When l ask that each of them provide those statements  I will ask them to tell tell us something about themselves, each of them and uh something about the book, The God Delusion. We will then turn to the six major thesis of professor Dawkins' book , The God Delusion. Now obviously it's a long book. (Print length , 464 pages)  We can't cover everything in it,  but we have selected what we think are the six major themes  and to introduce each of those themes. I will read   some excerpts uh from Professor Dawkins' book, and then give him an opportunity to elaborate and then uh( give) Dr. Lennox an opportunity  to respond. 

Each of those uh exchanges should be about five minutes uh per side. 

 And then what is not reflected in your program is that each of our debaters will finish the program with final statements with concluding remarks. Uh we will start that with Dr. Lennox and t hen we will turn to Professor Dawkins. 

(Judge Bill turned his head and looking at Professor Dawkins) : So Professor Dawkins uh tonight you will  have both the first and the last word .  I suppose in the interest of uh Christian charity. (Audience laughing)

Judge Bill Pryor: Professor Dawkins, could you begin our discussion with an autobiographical statement? Tell us something about yourself and about the book. 

Prof. Richard Dawkins : I was uh born in Africa. Uh I'm a child of what was in those days the British  Empire descended from a long line of khaki shorts wearing hairy knees, brown shoed colonial officers. 

Uh I had every opportunity to become a naturalist uh because Africa as you know is a wonderful place to be a naturalist. Unfortunately, that's not the way it was. I never was much of a naturalist much to my father's disappointment. I suspect he was a very good, is a very good naturalist. Um, I suppose that's a preamble to saying that my interest in the science of biology, which is what I specialize in, came more  from an interest in fundamental questions than from a love of watching birds or insects or pressing   flowers. I wanted to know why we're all here. What   is the meaning life? Why does the universe exist? Why does life exist? That's what drew me to science.

My parents left Africa when I was about eight and I came with them. I was sent to a boarding school in England. Uh l suppose part of the point of this  autobiographical note is to give a kind of religious  background since we are talking about religion  tonight. 

I had a harmless Anglican upbringing. I could never claim that I had religion thrust down my throat in  the way it might have been had I been brought up in a more militant faith. Uh, Anglicanism, as you know, is a very civilized version of Christianity.  No bells and smells and no creationist lunacy. 

I was confirmed into the Church  of England and at the time I sincerely believed it. I had a brief period of doubt at the age of about nine before about 3 years before my confırmation. Uh this doubt was caused  by the realization that there are lots of different religions in the world and I recognized that it was an accident of my birth that I happened to have been born into the Christian faith and I recognized instantly that had I been born into born   in say Afghanistan or born in India, l would have believed very different things and that quite rightly shook my faith in the particular religion that I'd been brought up in, would have believed very different things  I'd been brought up in. Weirdly, and I now  don't understand why, I seem to have lost those doubts when I was about 13. Uh, and I was confırmed into the Church of England. 

I went to Oxford after having lost my faith for good