Generally speaking, his grasp on evolutionary biology is pretty much up there with the best of them. His grasp of theology and contemporary religions is, on the whole, better and broader than most of the creationists who debate against him.

…but from your comment I suspect you’ve read neither Natural Theology nor the God Delusion. You may also wish to read the manual which came with your petard.

(I haven’t had a chance to watch the recordings yet, so I’ll be a bit embarassed if it turns out Dawkins makes the point that Paley was not an idiot)

I agree that deciding which creationist was the most annoying is a difficult task and also bow to national pride issues. The man was a combination of stupid and dishonest.

The teachers were scary. The weasel wording they were using to justify not challenging the children’s mad upbringing was mind boggling. Why are they teachers? What about all the teacher recruitment adverts…(which imply children havent already “made up their minds” and say the teacher is there to develop their understanding of the world – some one call the Advertising Standards Agency!)

Overall, like all these things, it wont de-convert the faithful and I doubt it will sway any wavering fools. But for the rational, it is interesting and educational – even if it makes you worry as to how our society has managed to turn the clock back to the 18th century…