Mr John Cornwell is an English journalist and historian, known particularly for his science writing and books on the Papacy. He is Director of the Science and Human Dimension Project at Jesus College, Cambridge. His works include A Thief in the Night, Hitler's Pope (1999) and The Pontiff in Winter (2002) and most relevantly for the Chaplaincy Lecture his acclaimed 2007 book Darwin's Angel.

Instead of debating the existence of God, Cornwell is interested in placing the discussion in the socio-political ambit: the unspoken conclusion of Dawkins is that religion should be quarantined and somehow eventually purged. This seems to Cornwell an attack on pluralist societies, and in this way Dawkins shows himself to be fundamentalist in a political sense.  Within this context Conrwell will also critique Dawkins' view that religious belief is a form of virus and that believers are virus cariers.

For more information about this talk, contact the Chaplaincy Secretary  chaplaincy@warwick.ac.uk