Venue: Logan Hall, Institute of Education
Date: 9th October, 2006
Summary: A great man reading from his great book with his wife... then answering a few questions.
I have never been to see Dawkins speak. I am familiar with his work. As a fellow atheist I find his work fascinating. I've been reading Dawkins 'The God Delusion' for the last few weeks so I was quite keen to hear him speak.
The hall, with an approximate capacity of 900 people, was packed. They had under estimated the crowd that would turn up for the gig and it took AGES to get in. Once we were all seated it took a further age for Dawkin to appear on stage. He appeared with his wife Lalla and a member of the Foyles family. Foyle apologised to the audience and took a poll of religious, agnostic and atheist people. As you might expect most people were atheist but I was pleased to see perhaps 100 religious and agnostic people.
As humble and unassuming as ever Dawkins proceeded to read from various chapters of his book for an hour or so. I was a bit disappointed that he spent a lot of time attacking the old testament of the Bible. I wasn't offended but I would expect a man of his stature to pick a slightly more difficult target. He made some good points about the morality of scripture and the absurdity of literalism where any religious text is concerned.
At the end Dawkins took questions from the audience. All the questions were of a good standard. Again I was disappointed that all the questions came from atheists. I was more interested in what non-atheists would ask Dawkins. Alas they didn't seem to get the microphone and we ran out of time (maybe a case of natural selection in action?)
All in all, if you've read the book and agree with it I see no reason to go to this show. Otherwise I would recommend everyone go. Dawkins is a charismatic speaker with great depth and warmth. He is also funny and knows how to lighten the mood creating a welcoming atmosphere. If I could change one thing it would be that I would have liked to hear from religious people. Dawkins goes to great lengths in The God Delusion to show that their beliefs while sometimes admirable are not true. Their response to this would be interesting to say the least.