I believe he was always aware of this, but thought it was different this time because of wide access to information and technology, etc. Reading that, it does s

I believe he was always aware of this, but thought it was different this time because of wide access to information and technology, etc. Reading that, it does sound like a sort of religious belief, but that's how he (Dawkins) had posed it in the past since the 90s or so when questioned about it.