Fascinating and endlessly compelling.

As a liberal Christian I am saddened by the science versus religion phony wars and the feeling that at the margins of debate we see greater and greater spite, mockery, scorn and sneering. When these margins become central I think we just all get worse, following nasty minded clickbait like "Christian demolished by Hitch!" or "Pastor crushes unbeliever". Just so silly and sad. Atheist, Humanist or Christian, the point of civilisation, technology, science and philosophy is that we get better, talk better, act better, treat each other better. If you say you have found the answer and the impact on your character is to make you sneer, deride, mock, insult and attack others I put it to you that you have not yet found the answer, whatever that is. These varied essays shine a light on how the scornful and derisive methods and rhetoric of the "Four Horsemen" (irrespective of whether they are right about the existence of God, which neither they nor their opponents can conclusively demonstrate) brought their message into disrepute and made many willing atheists and converts question the standpoint, ultimately and ironically leading them to faith. It convincingy demonstrates that truly exceptional scientists and first class journalists are not necessarily even competent philosophers, logicians or theologians and that evolutionary science, whilst fascinating, gripping and manifestly true account of the development of life on earth, is not a Theory of Everything. rather a theory of many things. It is neither atheism or science which is the problem. Both are rational and free to any human beings. It's the toneand MO of the pole mic and subsequent debate which has transformed many lives here in the opposite direction pouring petrol instead of water on a dwindling flame of faith.

The narration is good, with some weird anomalies. The male narrator does a couple of excellent South African Afrikaans accents, but these then seem to slip into his American accents, and a UK resident has an oddly American twang. One Auusie essayist is rendered American and the use of Americanisms for dates, even in UK voices ( two thousand four for 2004) all the way through is off-putting.

However, I loved this collection of brave, honest, flawed, doubting and varied witnesses to their messy faith journeys all have which have in common an encounter with Dawkins & Friends, and gratitude for being set on the road to faith by the profits of atheism.

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