Professor Richard Dawkins was at Politics and Prose bookstore in Washington, D.C. tonight, giving a reading/discussion of his new book, “The God Delusion“. Notice the imposing bodyguard in the background. Another was stationed on his left. When asked, he said he had not received threats; they were just hired by his publisher.

I’d estimate that there were about 200 people (or more – standing room only going way back into the store) at the reading/signing. I managed to get there early enough to get a seat in front, and a place at the front of the line for the signing.

When Prof. Dawson came on, he noticed the size of the crowd and decided to “skip the reading of Chapter One, which has a conciliatory tone – and start with Chapter Two, which is decidedly not conciliatory”. There’s a reason Prof. Dawson has been labelled “Darwin’s Rottweiler“. His basic premise is that God does not exist (yes, he is an atheist), and religion in general has not done us much good – on balance. One of the questions posed to him after the reading had to do with the “faith-based” recovery methods of groups such as Alcoholics Anonymous. He admitted that he was not aware that Alcoholics Anonymous had a religious undertone – “that’s just terrible” (or some such comment – my memory isn’t as good as it could be due to Preston being up most nights lately).

I recorded the reading and the discussion after.