To Durham

This evening, I will be speaking at the Catholic Society of the University of Durham. Originally, I was going to speak about hell (well, the four last things, anyway) but then they heard that I had spoken about Richard Dawkins at St Andrews and asked me to change the subject.

I am beginning to feel about Richard Dawkins rather as I began to feel about the Da Vinci Code after a while. I wonder if Richard Dawkins will soon become as passé. I very much hope so because "The God Delusion" was not at all as interesting as books like "The Selfish Gene" or "River Out of Eden". I now begin my talks by saying that I used to begin my talks by saying that I had a great respect for the writing of Richard Dawkins. After reading "The God Delusion" in which he majors in subject areas where he is very weak and prejudiced, that respect has diminished quite a bit.

This version of the talk will benefit from my having now read Fr Tom Crean OP's book "A Catholic Replies to Professor Dawkins" which I thought was excellent and much better than Alistair McGrath who has written some good replies to Dawkins.

Not having been to Durham before, I am looking forward to meeting the students. It is already dark so I will not see much of Durham until tomorrow morning.

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