Dawkins: Probability of a supernatural creator is 'very, very low'

The Archbishop of Canterbury and atheist professor Richard Dawkins debated the origins of the universe before a packed house at Oxford University last week.

Dawkins is known for his feisty outbursts against God, faith and organised religion but the exchange of ideas between the two at the Sheldonian was courteous and polite.

Dr Williams spoke of the uniqueness of the "self-reflexive consciousness" to mankind, a notion that Dawkins struggled to respond to and admitted was a mystery that would probably be solved in the future.

The Archbishop clarified that he did not believe the Book of Genesis should be read literally and that there was probably no "first man".

When Dawkins interjected that the Pope seemed to think there was, Dr Williams quipped: "I'll ask him sometime."

Dr Williams went on to explain his view further: "The writers of the Bible, inspired as I believe they were, were not inspired to do 21st-century physics; they were inspired to pass on to their readers what God wanted them to know.

"In the first book of the Bible is the basic information – the universe depends on God, humanity has a very distinctive role in that universe, and humanity has made rather a mess of it."

Dawkins said he was "baffled" by the way in which "sophisticated theologians who know Adam and Eve never existed still keep talking about it".

He said the idea of God "cluttered up" his understanding of the universe.

"I don't see clutter coming into it," Dr Williams responded. "I'm not thinking of God as an extra who has to be shoehorned into it."

Dawkins admitted, however, that he couldn't be completely sure that God did not exist.

When Sir Anthony Kenny, who was chairing the debate, pointed out that Dawkins was described as one of the most famous atheists in the world, he answered: "Not by me."

Instead, he described himself as an "agnostic" and a "cultural Anglican".

He put himself at 6.9 on his own atheism scale of one-to-seven.

"The probability of any supernatural creator existing is very, very low, so let's say I'm a 6.9," he said.