On the cutting-room floor
In a ‘Richard Dawkins: you ask the questions special’ on The Independent website on December 4 2006, one of the questions was: ‘Why have you not engaged in public debate with Alister McGrath, Mary Midgley, Michael Ruse, Keith Ward, or indeed anyone else who would present you with a serious challenge?’
Richard Dawkins responded: ‘The producers of my Channel 4 documentary [‘Root of all Evil?’] invited the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster and the Chief Rabbi to be interviewed by me. All declined, doubtless for good reasons. I don't enjoy the debate format, but I once had a public debate with the then Archbishop of York, and The Observer quoted the verdict of one disconsolate clergyman as he left the hall: “That was easy to sum up - Lions 10, Christians nil”.’
By contrast, however, in an article on The Daily Mail website on February 3 2007, Alister McGrath wrote:
