He's been speaking at the Edinburgh International Book Festival about his brief brush with God when he was 13-years-old.
"I was briefly seduced by it and took it all in and would pray very vigorously every night," he said.
Dawkins spoke of a belief he could pray intensely at an altar and an angel would appear before him but added: "God never actually did get through to me for some reason".
He did, however, admit that he didn't try the scenario: "I shall never know if it might have happened," he said.
Dawkins is a world famous atheist and has written several books on the topic.
He was a member of the Church of England as a teenager.