Richard Dawkins

Paula Kirby introduces Richard Dawkins with a word of warning. This talk, she says, is going to be something of a "walk on the wild side," as Dawkins – author of the phenomenally successful and controversial book The God Delusion – makes a departure from that book's subject to turn his attention to a slightly more 'out there' topic: extraterrestrial life.

Kirby notes that the ideas under discussion are "not gospel," and takes as a jumping-off point the incredulous assertion made by filmmaker Ben Stein that Dawkins "doesn't believe in God – but does believe in little green men."

The author explains that this is not exactly the case. Rather, he is philosophically and scientifically more open to the idea of extraterrestrial life than he is to the existence of an omnipotent deity. The problem, he explains, is that we are wrong to assume that any such aliens – if they did exist – would in a any way resemble humans, either physically or scientifically.

Dawkins amusingly illustrates this by recounting how, at the age of seven, he had written a science-fiction story called 'Bobo Goes to the Moon'. "Even then I knew that it was too much to expect that people on the moon would speak English," he recalls, "so I made them speak French."

The serious point is that, in the author's opinion, any such life-forms – and he repeatedly stresses that he is speaking very much hypothetically – although not necessarily carbon-based, would probably have to be formed from some kind of high-fidelity digital code akin to DNA.

In an hour that passes extremely quickly Dawkins covers a range of topics surrounding the issue of alien life, largely avoiding the more controversial debate on religion and scientific atheism for which he has become so well known. This is, perhaps, in part to do with the fact that he is here promoting a new Oxford Book of Modern Science Writing – but when the floor is opened up to questions the audience finally get a hint of the controversy for which many had clearly hoped.

Dawkins dismisses lightly an accusation that, by ignoring 'sophisticated theologians' like Dietrich Bonhöffer and Paul Tillich, The God Delusion only attacks easy targets like Jerry Falwell and Ayatollah Khomeini. Asked whether he has created an 'atheistic cult' the author is equally at ease in his denial, before turning to the more serious question of how an atheistic society might offer a similar sense of community to that provided by the church. It is only when he describes Europe as a "haven of civilization," facing "a dual invasion, mimetic from the USA and demographic from the Middle East," that Dawkins appears out of his depth. The oft-mentioned 'God Squad', however, are notable only by their absence.

The whole thing makes for an engaging and intriguingly different event, and Dawkins seems to relish the opportunity to show that he is much more than just the scourge of fundamentalist Christianity. But sadly, it appears that he does not really believe in little green men.