Both of these men are intelligent, articulate and respectful. This is a good discussion about a difficult issue in a gentle and sophisticated way.

I am not sure how you can describe Rowan Williams as a "perfect clown" after listening to him in this conversation. He is clearly and self-evidently an extremely intelligent and articulate and compassionate human being.

Thanks for posting!

Screw the naysayers ! I think The Good Book is a wonderful piece of humanist literature that is inspiring, uplifting, wise and entertaining. As good as any book that has won the Nobel Prize for Literature. Love it ! The religious nuts will never get it ! Thanks A.C. !

As always, philosophy is about clarifying our perspective and becoming aware of our own presumptions in analysis. It is quite clear in this talk that both speakers have a particular redaction of history based on their own presumption-A.C.Grayling seems to project his own modern humanist perspective onto classical culture.

We reflect the natural world because we evolved from it...what is mysterious about that?

@bayreuth79 check out interview of Denys Turner by Jonathan Miller and you will see at the end of the interview a theologian of some repute surmising that his belief in god comes down to faith, after admitting that it has to come down to personal revelation because there is so much counter evidence!

What you're doing is merely reflecting the rather mediocre critiques of religion by "thinkers" such as Dawkins and Hitchens. I wonder if you've actually thought for yourself and looked at what faith actually means in the Christian tradition.

It would seem that you're the clown, for you believe, despite the evidence, that faith is believing something without evidence; but where is your evidence for this? Certainly, Rowan Williams and all the great theologians wouldn't agree that faith is believing without evidence.