Richard Dawkins may be the high priest of militant atheists but when it comes to drumming up funds, he’s learned a trick or two from the American evangelicals. An article by Andrew Brown in this week’s Spectator reveals the levels of financial devotion the would-be slayer of God expects from his followers.
Visitors to the Richard Dawkins Foundation website are given the chance to join one of the many high-price tag layers of the “Reason Circle”. For $85 a month you get discounts on Dawkins merchandise; for $210 a month you get the chance to go to one of his talks.
“When you compare this with the going rate for other charismatic preachers, it does seem on the high side,” observes Brown. “The Pentecostal evangelist Morris Cerullo, for example, charges only $30 a month to become a member of ‘God’s Victorious Army’.”
The cost of a private dinner with the man behind the Selfish Gene? A mere $100,000. How much did it cost to break bread with Jesus?
