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The Killers frontman Brandon Flowers was forced to defend his religion when author and ethologist Richard Dawkins called the Book of Mormon ‘an obvious fake’ on a Swedish talk show.
Flowers described his faith as ‘a beautiful thing’ and said that he ‘took offence’ after The God Delusion writer Dawkins called Mormon founder Joseph Smith ‘a charlatan’ on the show Skavlan – before the singer told the author to ‘do his research.
He was appearing with The Killers to promote their new album Battle Born where they also performed latest single Runaways.
Also on the panel with Flowers and Dawkins were Ulrika Johnsson and former Abba member and famous atheist Björn Ulvaeus.
Explaining his atheist stance, Dawkins argued that ‘the world will be explained fully by science’ before adding:
“There is far more beauty in the real understanding of the reality of nature than there is in reading some ancient book – or in reading some modern book which is what the book of Mormon is. I have to say that when I read the book of Mormon recently, what impressed me was that this was an obvious fake. This was a 19th Century book written in 16th Century English. That’s not the way people talked in the 19th Century – it’s a fake. So it’s not beautiful, it’s a work of Charlatanry.”
Flowers, clearly uneasy with the situation responded by telling Dawkins: “These are all falsehoods – you should do your research.”
He said: “The book has been studied and torn apart and looked at but I’m not one of the professors that have done it. To call this man a charlatan – I take offence to it.”
During the interview, Flowers was asked if Republican candidate and fellow Mormon Mitt Romney had asked The Killers for their support. He replied: “There have been some talks but the whole band isn’t Mormon. We aren’t divided necessarily but we all have our different opinions on things and we’re pretty much standing on neutral ground when it comes to this stuff. We’re a secular band – we’re the Switzerland of bands.”
Watch the clash below.
The Killers new album Battle Born is out now. Read our review here.
