Theos, a new Christian think tank, heralded their launch by commissioning a poll from Communicate Research. They started by taking one of Richard Dawkins’ more confrontational statements and asking if people agreed with it: “Faith is one of the world’s great evils, comparable to the smallpox virus but harder to eradicate”.

And what do you think they found, this Christian think tank?

42% agree with the view of Richard Dawkins that “Faith is one of the world’s great evils, comparable to the smallpox virus but harder to eradicate”, compared with 44% who disagree.

The UK Polling Report also reports that, on another question in the poll,

53% agree that religion is a force for good in society, compared with 39% who disagree.

but what’s really interesting is how that breaks down by age

69% of over 65s agreed, with only 24% disagreeing. Amonst the youngest age group, under 25s, only 43% agreed with 52% disagreeing.