Shadowing Practice: God is a Delusion | Oxford Union Speech - Alex O'Connor - Learn English Speaking with Video
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Madame President, it's good to see you again.
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Deesra and I met about a month or so ago on a boat by sheer coincidence on the River Thames somewhere,
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and I was told that there was an upcoming debate at this union
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that Michael Shermer had pulled out of that was on, essentially, the existence of God or whether it was a delusion and that they were in need of a replacement speaker.
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Now, I won't go as far, especially given the circumstances, is to call this providence.
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However, it does leave you with a slight sense
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that there might have been more than chance at play in bringing me to this chamber tonight.
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But it is exactly that kind of thinking, the seeking of agency and design, where there is, in fact, none, that I've traveled here in an attempt to dispel.
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We've heard a lot about arguments.
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But as a psychological phenomenon, I wonder how relevant these really are to God's belief.
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That is, when you hear somebody recounting a conversion story, how often does it really begin with premise one you're more likely to hear a narrative
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or a story some kind of account of an experience indeed
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the most high profile conversion perhaps of this millennium happened just a few weeks ago
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when the fifth horsewoman of new atheism iyan hersey ali announced in a long
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and celebrated essay that she had embraced christianity
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i was far from the first reviewer to notice something rather peculiar about this publication That is,
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its somewhat conspicuous lack of arguments for the existence of God or for the truth of Christianity.
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Instead, she devoted the entire thing to talking about culture.
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She talked about the looming threats of Russia and China, of global Islamism, of wokeism.
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I think that an essay which mentions Osama bin Laden, Vladimir Putin, and indeed Professor Richard Dawkins,
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exactly as many times as it mentions Jesus Christ might tell us
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that we're looking at a conversion
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that is at best insensitive to the truth claims of religious belief and instead an attempt to escape or a result,
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I should say, of a desire to escape certain unfortunate social realities.
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That is where God appeared in a dream to Joseph or to Zachariah.
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It seems that the president of Russia appeared in a nightmare to Ayaan Hirsi Ali, and also endowed her with a skill that I'm unable of,
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which is to adopt a belief simply because of its political or existential convenience.
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And again, perhaps my desire for my philosophical convictions to be, you know, true is just too high a margin to demand.
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What I really want to ask is whether this should be any kind of surprise, this approach, I mean.
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There is some recognition, even amongst the religious, that this is at least in part what religion does, what religion is.
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It provides some kind of unifying ethic to suppress the more depraved elements of our human nature.
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Evelyn Waugh was once asked how he reconciled his private hedonism and gluttony.
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He was accused of being rude and self -indulgent, how he reconciles this with his professed Christianity.
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He accepted the charge and simply said, can you imagine how much worse I would be if I wasn't a Catholic.
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Fair enough.
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I think that I'm far from the first to suggest that religion is,
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in essence, nothing more than a mimetic entity that serves some kind of social purpose like this.
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That's what it's for, but isn't actually true.
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And I'm glad to hear that at least one member of the opposition this evening seems to agree with me.
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I'm not sure if you'll see it that way too, ladies and gentlemen.
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But I won't say that I know this is the case, of course, I can't do so.
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I will simply ask a question of you.
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What would you expect to see if God existed?
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And all of this was being supervised.
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What would you expect the world to look like?
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How would you expect life to have evolved?
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And if we assume the alternative hypothesis, that is atheism, materialism, that is
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that the world we find ourselves in is just an amoral
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arena of accidentally existing organisms competing in an endless struggle for survival, what would we expect to find?
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And what do we find?
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A system of natural selection which explains the origin of species on planet Earth
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that does not just cause or bring about but relies upon suffering and death.
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Survival of the fittest is the same thing as the death and destruction of the unfit.
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99 % plus of all of the species, species, let alone animals, that have ever inhabited this planet have been brutally wiped from existence.
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And for what? for our development, it seems that unimaginable, indescribable,
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and seemingly inexplicable suffering is embedded into the very mechanism by which I'm told God decided to create human beings.
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I'm not saying this can't be explained on theism.
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Of course I can't say that.
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You could say that this is all part of some grand plan of Jobian proportion in its unintelligibility.
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Maybe there's some kind of compensation in the afterlife.
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Maybe dogs do go to heaven after all, sure.
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I'm just asking you what you would actually expect to be the case.
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I think that we wouldn't expect to see anything like what I've just described
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if we assume that there is a benevolent invigilator overseeing the process.
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However, if we assume atheism, not only do we come to explain this phenomenon, but in my view, we also come to expect it.
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If I'm wrong, however, if the truth of theism is indeed as plain
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and graspable as many on the opposition would doubtless like to suggest this evening, then I must ask why religious belief has traditionally, if not essentially delusional in essence,
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relied so heavily on, if you like, non -rational modes of convincing.
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A sign as sure as they come of delusional belief is an inability to muster
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and a resistance against rational defense of that belief, especially in the face of challenge and most evidence when the threat
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or enforcement indeed of suppression or physical violence is substituted in its place
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that is the place of rational argument
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and this hardly needs explication just 600 feet from the door
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of this chamber there's an easily missable cross on the floor of Broad Street
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which marks the spot where three bishops of the Church of
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England were burned at the stake not even for being the wrong religion
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but so close the wrong denomination the wrong interpretation of the words doctrinal disputes like this have a long
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and violent history within the religious tradition
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and I think it's worth asking why that's the case oh you think
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that the Sun you think that the Sun proceeds from the father alone not the father
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and the Holy Spirit oh you're about to find out as
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you meet your maker wherever religious authorities have had the political power to do
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so I would say
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and found the threat of otherworldly hell fire to have somewhat lost its efficacy on certain people then it provides
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or they provide shall we say a corporeal simulacrum of this
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bringing the flames into our own veil of tears providing a
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very worldly inferno to ready the heretic for the inferno that's
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to come in Hades reducing heretics to literal ashes in the
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full view of anybody else who might have the temerity to question or to challenge the authority and compassion of the church.
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Why might a religious tradition, which I'm told is balanced upon reason and provability, evolve such a knee -jerk mortal resistance to freedom of thought?
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Of course, in our modern age, where the state is no longer the principal auxiliary of religious violence, I of course understand that that's the case.
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This is something that happened hundreds of years ago.
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Now that That ignoble mantle is taken up instead by individual religious fanatics who cannot
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and will not be deterred by the morality of their fellow creatures
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or indeed by the laws of their country
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because there is no legislation written by any person of any time
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that could even count one iota against the dictates of the supernatural creator of the universe.
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Access to whose precise and exacting will is of course only a delusion when it's somebody else's God, when it's the wrong God.
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If that's not the case, then not only is this belief in God and access to his will not delusionary, but now, I'm told, is actually a prerequisite for reason,
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for science, for morality, all of the noble pursuits that humanity entertains.
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This despite the fact
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that most of the important developments historically in all of these
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areas have regularly been made by dissidents who subverted the clerical authoritarianism of the very religious traditions
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that now wish to claim these developments as their own.
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Touch scandalous, I think you'll agree.
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I hope you'll agree, I should say.
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Again, I can simply ask you what best explains this psychological condition.
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Might this suppressive and sensorial historical attitude, which seems essentially tied to the history of religious thought,
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be compatible with the truth of religious claims? Of course.
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Absolutely.
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Is it better explained by an inability to provide serious and conclusive rational defenses of those beliefs?
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Maybe.
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Might this also explain the characteristic taboo on the criticism of people's religious belief
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that survives with us in many ways to this day?
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Perhaps also, I'm not sure.
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Might this also explain why faith, as we've already heard, that is belief without evidence, reflect on that for a moment.
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The one I'd also explain why this is proposed as a virtue
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and indeed the foundation of belief in God blessed after all are those who believe without saying without seeing I don't know.
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It's not really for someone like myself who strictly speaking is an agnostic.
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It's not really for me to say
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but I can only leave it with you and I suppose the remainder of the opposition.
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Thank you.
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What You'll Learn from This Clip
This video is a goldmine for building critical thinking in English and articulating complex ideas—skills perfect for IELTS speaking practice. You’ll also pick up how to use rhetorical questions to engage listeners, like when the speaker asks, “What would you expect to see if God existed?” These tools help you sound more persuasive and natural in debates or casual discussions.
Listen For These Sounds
Pay attention to connected speech in phrases like “it's good to see you again” (pronounced “it's goo - ta see ya again”) and “a month or so ago” (blended into “a month or so ago”). Reductions like “I won't” (wuhnt) and “you're” (yur) are common here, so train your ear to catch them. These nuances are key for understanding native speakers and improving your own pronunciation.
Say It Like a Native: The Shadowing Technique
Use the shadowing technique (or “shadowspeak”) to mirror the speaker’s rhythm and stress. Notice how he emphasizes words like “delusion,” “agency,” and “truth” to highlight his points. Pause the video, repeat his lines, and focus on matching his pace—he slows down for dramatic effect in questions and speeds up during anecdotes. This practice will make your speech sound more natural and help you master the flow of English. Whether you’re prepping for IELTS or just want to speak more confidently, shadowing this clip will boost your pronunciation and fluency in no time.
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | was told · was accused · being supervised |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | I've traveled · We've heard · have ever inhabited |
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.