Living in the Lake District, we make a definite choice that the mountains, the lakes and the lifestyle outweigh the more readily-available intellectual stimulation gained from living in a city.

The Right Reverend Graham Dow, Bishop of Carlisle is to be applauded for a debate about The God Delusion, the million-selling book by Professor Richard Dawkins, evolutionary biologist and campaigning atheist. He certainly got my evolutionary-derived neurons firing.

The talk was held at St Mary’s church, Windermere, and there were about a hundred people present. Given the battle lines that were drawn up at the start, the talk went along predictable lines. Dow had the stage to himself, with no one to offer the counter argument. Although one-sided the general tone was friendly and reasonable.

The fun really started during the questions. It rapidly became apparent that I was slightly outnumbered. One gentleman seemed to be about to call for the Dawkins book to be burned. I began to wonder if I was going to be able to escape the church unsinged. Eventually I gathered the courage to ask for a head count of atheists. The bishop wasn’t too keen on this. One other hand went up. It’s quite invigorating attending an event when you know your views are outnumbered 49 to 1.

There were a few genuine attempts to engage in debate; one person expressed concerns that the book had shaken her faith. But in the main the bishop was preaching to the 98 percent converted. The real debate took place afterwards in the tea room. I discovered that Richard Dawkins had been invited to the event. A pity he was unable to attend - now that really would have been intellectually stimulating.

Colin Shelbourn