Lisp, Scheme better than C for AI?

Hello. It seems everyone believes that Lisp-like languages are better than proceedural languages like C for AI. Why is that?

I suspect that recursion plays a part, but could use specific examples. Recursion is also possible in C, but not to the same degree or with the same ease, perhaps? Also, the distinctions between "live" processes and "dead" data have been said to be less clear in dialects of Lisp. Does this imply some valuable sorcery not easily wielded in C yet essential to AI advances? Examples and natural-language responses would be appreciated.

Perhaps a discussion of what's essential to AI and what's not (with respect to programming techniques and paradigms) is the thing I crave, something beyond the many FAQ-level responses.

Is is too low level of a language to do the exploratory programming required in exploring AI. C requires users to deal with busywork like tracking memory allocation and dealing with explicit type definitions. You can write generic Lisp functions that will work on a huge range of data. On top of that, Lisp's macro system makes it easy to write DSL to deal with certain systems. I also like writing anonymous functions in Lisp, it helps in cognition to show the programmer that a certain procedure can be factored into a function without needing to add to the function namespace of the "more important" functions.