In the introduction to the book he co-authored, McGrath admits that in the 1960s he was, as Dawkins is now, an atheist. Dawkins is an expert in evolutionary biology; similarly, McGrath started out in science, earning a doctorate in molecular biophysics.  But he then switched to theology and, as he explains: “I subsequently found myself persuaded that Christianity was a much more interesting and intellectually exciting world view than atheism.”

McGrath declares himself disappointed with the level of argument in Dawkins’ book, which he describes as “the atheist equivalent of slick hellfire preaching, substituting turbo-charged rhetoric and highly selective manipulation of facts for careful, evidence-based thinking.” He adds: “Dawkins preaches to his god-hating choirs,” relying on pseudoscientific speculation and aggregating convenient factoids.