Prof Richard Dawkins. Pic by Murdo Macleod.

Perhaps no book has quite so forthrightly, fearlessly and ‘scientifically’ challenged established religion and belief in a supernatural God as The God Delusion.

When published, it electrified the debate to the extent that, quite improbably, it directly led to a 120% increase in sales of the Bible on Amazon.

It can also be said that The God Delusion by Professor Richard Dawkins created a new genre of pro-religion books that have responded in a number of ways to the author’s central argument that belief in God is both irrational and profoundly harmful to society.

It has been announced that Prof Dawkins is to speak at the Faclan book festival on November 2 in Stornoway on the Isle of Lewis, a community often described as the last bastion of fundamentalist presbyterianism.