Dawkins interviews McGrath

This interview was filmed for the TV documentary "Root of All Evil?" but was left out of the final version. Time restrictions dictated that not all interviews filmed could be used. This was especially regrettable in the case of the McGrath interview, which is therefore offered here now, unedited.

I think Dawkins actually poses some good questions in this interview, and in many cases it seems McGrath paints himself into a corner at points by accepting Dawkin's terms of debate at many points. McGrath is at his best about 20 minutes through when his brings up the historicity of Jesus.

A debate rather than an interview would have been more interesting as it would have meant McGrath wasn't always on the defensive the whole time (to start with, Dawkin's inconsistency in admitting that McGrath is intelligent during the interview, yet happy to categorize him as ignorant or worse in writing.).

You do see Dawkin's tendency to make general claims about class without dealing with blatant exceptions. For instance, Dawkins makes the blanket claim that faith is anti-thetical to rational discussion "like we've be doing this morning" without even a nod that McGrath's participation rather defeats his point.