His nickname is Darwin's Rottweiler and he earned it - and a reputation that spans the globe - with his pugnacious defence of the theory of evolution.

But Professor Richard Dawkins' strident views, and the way with which they are delivered, came under surprise attack yesterday from an equally eminent scientist, though one better known for his more avuncular style.

Lord Winston condemned Prof Dawkins for what he called his "patronising" and "insulting" attitude to religious faith, and argued that he and others like him were in danger of damaging the public's trust in science. He particularly objected to Prof Dawkins' latest book, The God Delusion, which is an outright attack on religion.

"I find the title of 'The God Delusion' rather insulting," said Lord Winston, "I have a huge respect for Richard Dawkins but I think it is very patronising to call a serious book about other peoples' views of the universe and everything a delusion. I don't think that is helpful and I think it portrays science in a bad light."

Lord Winston, an IVF pioneer well known as the presenter of science documentaries such as The Human Body, Superhuman and Human Instinct, will argue for a more conciliatory approach to religion in a public lecture at the University of Dundee tonight. Entitled The Science Delusion, it is part of the university's Greatest Minds lecture series.

"The reason I've called it the Science Delusion is because I think there is a body of scientific opinion from my scientific colleagues who seem to believe that science is the absolute truth and that religious and spiritual values are to be discounted," said Lord Winston. "Some people, both scientists and religious people, deal with uncertainty by being certain. That is dangerous in the fundamentalists and it is dangerous in the fundamentalist scientists."

Lord Winston, who is a practising Jew, said the tone adopted by Prof Dawkins and others was counterproductive. "Unfortunately the neo-Darwinists, and I don't just mean Dawkins, I mean [the philosopher] Daniel Dennett in particular and [neuroscientist] Steven Pinker are extremely arrogant. I think scientific arrogance really does give a great degree of distrust. I think people begin to think that scientists like to believe that they can run the universe.

He added: "I have a huge admiration for Richard Dawkins. But I'm not sure that his way of approaching his view of the universe is wise. Dawkins is not an arrogant man, but I think he does portray certainty in a way that sometimes sounds arrogant".

Prof Dawkins declined to comment on Lord Winston's criticisms until he had seen the full text of the lecture.

However, Prof Dennett at Tufts University in the US, said, the dangers of religion had been "swept under the rug" for centuries and needed to be exposed. "[I] think it is time to risk offence and not mince words. Let's find out just how good, or bad, religion actually is," he said.

The philosopher AC Grayling at Birkbeck College, London, dismissed Lord Winston's arguments as "tiresome guff". "Belief in supernatural entities in the universe ... is false, and in the light of increasing scientific knowledge about nature has definitely come to be delusional," he said.

Religious divide:

Richard Dawkins

The Oxford evolutionary biologist asserts that belief in God is irrational and profoundly harmful to society. In The God Delusion, the bestseller published last year, he concluded that religion is a useless, and sometimes dangerous, evolutionary accident. "I am hostile to fundamentalist religion because it actively debauches scientific enterprise. It teaches us not to change our minds, and not to want to know exciting things that are available to be known."

Sam Harris

Author of the anti-theistic bestsellers The End of Faith and Letter to a Christian Nation. He wrote last year: "Most scientists are keeping silent when they should be blasting the hideous fantasies of a prior age with all the facts at their disposal."

Steven Weinberg

The physicist, Nobel laureate and prominent public spokesman for science has warned that "the world needs to wake up from its long nightmare of religious belief". Last year he argued: "Anything scientists can do to weaken the hold of religion should be done and may in the end be our greatest contribution to civilisation."

Daniel Dennett

The philosopher last year published Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon, which has helped to push the discussion into the public arena. Dennett believes that within 25 years religion will command little of the awe it seems to command presently but insists that he wants to engage religious readers in a rational discussion, not turn them away.

Edward O Wilson

An evolutionary biologist who last year made US headlines following the publication of his book, The Creation: An Appeal to Save Life on Earth. In it he implores America's religious right to join with science to save the planet.

Linda MacDonald