richard_dawkins_-_the_god_delusion

W H Y T H H R B A L M O S T C E R T A I N L Y I S N O C O D 151
process ultimately capable of generating complexity out of
simplicity. The theory of natural selection is genuinely simple. So is
the origin from which it starts. That which it explains, on the other
hand, is complex almost beyond telling: more complex than anything
we can imagine, save a God capable of designing it.
AN INTERLUDE AT CAMBRIDGE
At a recent Cambridge conference on science and religion, where
I put forward the argument I am here calling the Ultimate
747 argument, I encountered what, to say the least, was a cordial
failure to achieve a meeting of minds on the question of God's
simplicity. The experience was a revealing one, and I'd like to
share it.
First I should confess (that is probably the right word) that the
conference was sponsored by the Templeton Foundation. The
audience was a small number of hand-picked science journalists
from Britain and America. I was the token atheist among the
eighteen invited speakers. One of the journalists, John Horgan,
reported that they had each been paid the handsome sum of
$15,000 to attend the conference, on top of all expenses. This
surprised me. My long experience of academic conferences included
no instances where the audience (as opposed to the speakers) was
paid to attend. If I had known, my suspicions would immediately
have been aroused. Was Templeton using his money to suborn
science journalists and subvert their scientific integrity? John
Horgan later wondered the same thing and wrote an article about
his whole experience. 72 In it he revealed, to my chagrin, that my
advertised involvement as a speaker had helped him and others to
overcome their doubts:
The British biologist Richard Dawkins, whose participation
in the meeting helped convince me and other
fellows of its legitimacy, was the only speaker who
denounced religious beliefs as incompatible with science,
irrational, and harmful. The other speakers - three