Welcome back to the home of the oxymoron. Evil genius. He asked the newspaper to print his obituary early so he'd enjoy it. That's like hiding at your own funeral. Yeah, it's a big, great gig. I'm Russell Kane. Join me to weigh in on whether the biggest players in history are more evil or genius. Becoming that rich, I'd say that at some level of genius. It also helps that it's a long time ago, right?

It's like the podcast version of telling your kids the ice cream van plays music

when it's out of ice cream.

Listen to Evil Genius on BBC Sounds. Hello and welcome to the 2014 Radio 3 Free Thinking Lecture here at Sage Gateshead.

Our theme for this year's festival is the limits of knowledge, and I'll speak today, pushing

those limits, is Karin Armstrong,

one of the world's best-known thinkers on religion and its role in society. At a time when we all seem

obsessed with religion and its tensions, from Iraq and Syria to the deep south of America, to the

election of a Hindu nationalist prime minister in India, who better to explore the

complex ways that faith, freedom and fundamentalism are shaping our world today?

Karin Armstrong became an international bestseller with her book A History of God, and she's

listened to and read everywhere from the World Economic Forum at Davos to the United Nations,

where she was appointed by Kofi Annan to the initiative, The Alliance of Civilizations.

In 2009, in Washington, D.C., she unveiled her own Charter for Compassion.

And she's also a winner of that Oscar of the virtual world, the TED Prize.

Her most recent book, Fields of Blood, took on these so-called new atheists, arguing against the idea that religion is the primary cause of war and violence.

It's all a very long way from her upbringing in the West Midlands, where she became a Catholic nun at the age of 17.

Today, her topic is the importance of being uncertain.

At a festival where the theme is the limits of knowledge, we need to admit how little we know.

So would you please welcome the 2014 BBC Radio 3 Freethinking Lecturer, Karen Armstrong.

Thank you.

On the last day of his life,

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