Paul is right. After the US Supreme Court ruled the teaching of creationism unconstitutional, the drafts of the creationist textbook "Pandas and People" were amended by replacing "creationism" with "ID" throughout, making it quite plain that ID is just creationism with a different name.

archie, Sydney,

Greg - you have confused the terms. ID proponents still raise the argument of 'irreducible complexity' which is not compatible with evolution at all. ID is Creationism. If ID were not then the court cases in the US would not have happened at all.

Paul, Northampton, UK

No Greg ID, is creationism in a tuxedo. It starts off with a premise and trys to prove it by selecting the evidence that supports the hypothesis. This is the opposite of science. Evolution is a true scientific theory that started with observation and evidence!

James Morgan, Bolton, UK

Terry Walker:"ID and Creationism are the same animals"

Really not. And intelligent design, as a phrase, would include a christian evolutionist, like myself. It's irrelevant how you or anyone else defines it. Dawkins, as a rigourous scientist, should have used the 22% for creationists: 1 in 5.

Greg Lorriman, Leatherhead, UK

The people I fail to understand are those "moderate" believers who say that they believe in god yet accept evolution as fact. What gives them the right to pick and choose which bits of their bible to believe in?

Pete Evans, Walton on Thames, UK

Greg Lorriman: ID and Creationism are the same animals in a different cloak. The only difference is that in ID, the designer isn't named, where as in Creationism, it is "known" to be god.

Terry Walker, Vancouver, Canada

That 40% figure was actually ID (17%) + creationsts (22%), evolution 48%. Since the question was phrased "What best describes..." I would choose ID as I am a christian evolutionist. Naughty Dawkins. Further he uses a strawman, ad hominem attack, and distracts from xtianity with all other religions.

Greg Lorriman, Leatherhead, UK

libby purves - another one who suffers from hard facts-a-phobia!

owen martin, cavan, ireland

"Didn't seen the programme but did find the tone of The God Delusion disrespectful. "

Your beliefs are NOT owed respect simply because you believe them. The sooner religious people learn that criticism of their belief is not a personal attack, the better off we'll all be.

Christopher Petroni, Walla Walla, USA

Howrad:"Wow..Christians..admitting they accept evolution. Next..they'll be saying they don't believe in God"

That's a bit rich. A Catholic priest invented the Big Bang theory, still the best going, and a Catholic monk is considered the father of modern genetics. Look out of your Dawkins cage.

Greg Lorriman, Leatherhead, UK

Michael, welcome to the 21st century. We now have things like search engines, where in a second or two you can find answers to questions like yours. Here's one link related to the polls:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4648598.stm

Rob Davidson, Brisbane, Australia

Wow, now Christians are crawling out of the woodwork and admitting they accept evolution. Next, like the Bishop of Durham - remember him? - they'll be saying they don't believe in God........

Howrad, Davenham,

Richard Dawkins is entitled to talk about religion in relation to evolution, as the opposition to evolution is religiously motivated. This is important to clarify, given the attempt to mask creationism in the purportedly secular intelligent design movement. It explains the impact of Darwin, too.

Alex, Newcastle,

Evolution does undermine fundamentalist Christianity. Whenever faced with that its almost impossible to not become a preacher of atheism since the language used to debunk fundamentalist faith also debunks most of what moderate faith is.

So, naturally, it sounds as he preaches atheism. Unavoidable.

Gustaf Sjöblom, Stockholm, Sweden

Religious minds really do have a nasty habit of seeing what they want to see, believing what they want to believe, regardless of what is actually going on. Libby Purves saw what she wanted to see in this program, well done Richard for calling her out on it.

Paul Edwards, London,

Quite so, Chris Packam.

Atheism is not a belief system. It is simply an absence of belief. To describe atheism as a belief is like describing "off" as a television programme or "bald" as a hair colour.

Ivan Bailey, London, UK

I am a great fan of Dawkins and reading his works have helped me free my thinking from child-taught-thinking about origins.
Dawkins is a fantastic writer & lecturer, but this first programme gave us controversy rather than rational argument.
More Darwin and less pandering to creationists, please.

Patrick, Argyll, Scotland

Dawkins is quoting stats for creationist belief, but the reality is that almost no Christian demoninations have a dogma that the Bible is literal. Simple christians may take the Genesis account literally; others may have been beguiled by Dawkins in to defending it: but it is not an article of faith.

Greg Lorriman, Leatherhead, UK

Dawkins" although I have made it elsewhere, spelling out the nuanced argument in The God Delusion."

How nuanced must it be to conquer the fact that most Christians are not members of denominations that have creationism as a teaching. The biggest, Catholicism, accepts the possibility of evolution.

Greg Lorriman, Leatherhead, UK

man is far too stupid an animal to even guess at what there is out there....much like a goldfish in a bowl looking out and wandering what the heck is going on ....to me the only difference between believers and non-believers is that I could live happily with one group but never the other

ed, bournemouth, england

Libby Purves's article demonstrates either her breathtaking inability to listen and think, or her interest in stirring up an argument by making ridiculous assertions in which she does not truly believe. Perhaps she would like to indicate which.

Rob Howe, Udon Thani, Thailand

"Having never met anyone who claims to believe in creation against the irrefutable scientific evidence of evolution..."

I have, I've met a disturbing number of them in Northern Ireland. The most powerful political party (the DUP) here is pushing for creationism to be taught in schools!

Franchesca, Belfast, Northern Ireland

It's very telling how Prof. Dawkins' opponents prefer to attack and misrepresent him, rather than dispute his arguments. Much easier to call atheists "disrespectful" and cry "offence" than to defend your beliefs intellectually.

Mark Francis, Liverpool, England

Hoist by his own petard. Just another rant - perhaps he should move to Iran or somewhere where they put people who rant into positions of power. How can you take someone seriously who thinks everyone who's not convinced by his arguments lives in North London and eats canapés?

Philip , London,

There's too much 'Oh, we can't say that, it's disrespectful' going around these days. Good on Professor Dawkins for not being afraid to voice his opinions in an age where offending people is seen as a hate crime.

Matt, Solihull, UK

Micheal Smith: He's right, I looked into the polls for the U.S. and culled only the results for those who chose "Strongly deny" evolution, I didn't count "doubt evolution" or anything above it. The result? Using the Census stats for American Christians, a little over half claim to be creationists.

Robert, Orlando,

(i) Religion isn't something that deserves respect in the first place.
(ii) There is no such thing as "atheism". ergo, one can not win respect for atheism. This is a terminology that needs to cease being used.

[whack]

Heather, Dallas

Heather, Dallas,

Hopefully we can raise the consciousness of our families and friends before it's to late. Things are getting bad here in the [soon to be a police state] U.S. ran by the (to borrow more from you) cynical manipulator of unreasoning fools. Thanks for everything Professor.

Shawn, Minneapolis, US

Well said Richy Richy

we are living in a world where the vast majority are creationists but we will reach the tipping point as people suddenly think

" I made god up" he/she/it has not more validity than any other made up character- low lets get on with life"

David O'David, london, UK

Thanks Richard.

I honestly thought I was the in seeing no connection between what you said in your programme and what Libby Purves miscommunicated in her comment.
I am impressed by the legacy you have left behind in the teaching of science and the debunking of religion, generally.

Bernard Baptiste, Birmingham,

Anita "can't stand Oxbridge intellectual smugness." Perhaps, but Richard Dawkins is anything but smug. His views are the result of decades of hard, scientific graft; he is no armchair philosopher concerned only with the frisson of a good debate.

Laurie Fraser, Kurrajong, Australia

A wonderful and much needed riposte to a poor thought out article Libby Purves.

Atheism is not, contrary to many posts after her article a belief system. Atheism simply says "I do not believe in God." This is usually because the atheist does not accept that sufficient proof is available.

Chris Packham, London, United Kingdom

As always, a forthright, straight-to-the-point and deliciously easy-to-follow and impossible-to-refute answer from Professor Dawkins. The man is a national hero; long may he continue to set the record straight and provide a counter to the entrenched forces of supernaturalism and medieval claptrap!

Alex McGregor, Plymouth, UK

And, may I add: we'd all like to hear a response from Ms Purves on the subject. I await her well-crafted argument with baited breath.

Alex McGregor, Plymouth, UK

Whether it be Christianity or Marxism or Neo-Liberalism, when a person who rabidly believes such ideology is the one TRUE way, they often dehumanise those who do not agree and attempt to eliminate them. All belief systems seem to have such extremists.
They are the only ones we tend to notice.

John Webster, Glasgow, Scotland

The tone of books such as The God Delusion does not have be respectful concerning views that do not merit such treatment. Respect has to be earned - evidence. An athiestic viewpoint is easier to respect because of the sheer volume of evidence for evolution.
Those polls do seem a little odd though

Spike, Liverpool, UK

What polls "suggest that more than 40% of the British population are creationists"? Having never met anyone who claims to believe in creation against the irrefutable scientific evidence of evolution, I would be interested in finding out what questions these polls asked, and of whom.

Michael Smith, Maidehead,

Didn't seen the programme but did find the tone of The God Delusion disrespectful. The best way to win respect for atheism is probably not to scornfully mock the views of others, irrespective of whether you think them ludicrous. I can't stand Oxbridge intellectual smugness. And yes, I am ex-Oxbridge

anita, cambridge, uk