No one should’ve been surprized as Dawkins has made no effort to keep his views hidden. Indeed his views amongst evolutionists are far from uncommon. If you watched the PBS program, “The Power Of Myth”, with the late Joseph Campbell you would hear him say, with a smile of course, that all your religious beliefs were myths constructed to explain what you didn’t understand but what he would now make clear. All religion is “feel goodism”, so to speak.
A pleasant enough fellow but in his way just as arrogant as Dawkins. Answering soft ball questions from Moyers, Campbell, the atheist, made clear that he felt his certitude trumped the “myths” that seized the religious believer.
Since ‘the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom’ no atheist has any wisdom to offer in my view.
However, others who may not know much about this issue may have just come to check out the new Ben Stein anti-evolutionist movie. They may not have been that interested in science, but perhaps have heard about the movie from church friends or maybe they simply like Ben Stein. His popularity may have brought in a whole new crowd.