Alastair McGrath joins us today.

He is professor of science and religion at Oxford University and director of the Ian Ramsey Center for Science and Religion.

His many publications include the Dawkins

delusion, that got a lot of attention, and a new volume coming to faith through Dawkins,

12 essays on the pathway from New Atheism to Christianity. These are 12 essays by different

contributors co-edited by Professor McGrath and Dennis Alexander

with an introduction by Professor McGrath. Welcome, sir. I'm delighted to hear. Thank you for having me.

Okay, well, remind us yet again, bring us back to those, those heady days when the new atheism was hot. It was the thing.

Just what was this? Why did it come about?

Well, it was very hot back about the year 2006, 2007. And really what happened was that,

if I can put it like this, there was a sudden surge in credibility

for atheism, partly arising from 9-11. I think one of the issues really was that suddenly it

seems as if atheism had a definite role to play. There was a real need for this. And when you look at

people like Richard Dawkins or Daniel Dennett or Sam Harris or indeed Christopher Hitchens,

who are the key people in this movement, they were really presenting a very simple, a very straightforward message that really captured the public imagination because there was this widespread perception, religion is dangerous.

And so the new atheism came in heavy on slogans, lightweight on arguments, but it really

attracted a huge amount of attention and it looked for a while as if really this was a new dawn that in effect,

atheism was going to be the substitute for religion for the foreseeable future.

And so it was very exciting for atheism, at least for that time.

And then it all went wrong.

So really, we're looking back to a period which is long past.

Yes.

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