Product Description

A preeminent scientist -- and the world's most prominent atheist -- asserts the irrationality of belief in God and the grievous harm religion has inflicted on society, from the Crusades to 9/11.

With rigor and wit, Dawkins examines God in all his forms, from the sex-obsessed tyrant of the Old Testament to the more benign (but still illogical) Celestial Watchmaker favored by some Enlightenment thinkers. He eviscerates the major arguments for religion and demonstrates the supreme improbability of a supreme being. He shows how religion fuels war, foments bigotry, and abuses children, buttressing his points with historical and contemporary evidence. The God Delusion makes a compelling case that belief in God is not just wrong but potentially deadly. It also offers exhilarating insight into the advantages of atheism to the individual and society, not the least of which is a clearer, truer appreciation of the universe's wonders than any faith could ever muster.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #994 in Books
• Published on: 2006-09-18
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 416 pages

From Publishers Weekly
The antireligion wars started by Daniel Dennett and Sam Harris will heat up even more with this salvo from celebrated Oxford biologist Dawkins. For a scientist who criticizes religion for its intolerance, Dawkins has written a surprisingly intolerant book, full of scorn for religion and those who believe. But Dawkins, who gave us the selfish gene, anticipates this criticism. He says it's the scientist and humanist in him that makes him hostile to religions—fundamentalist Christianity and Islam come in for the most opprobrium—that close people's minds to scientific truth, oppress women and abuse children psychologically with the notion of eternal damnation. While Dawkins can be witty, even confirmed atheists who agree with his advocacy of science and vigorous rationalism may have trouble stomaching some of the rhetoric: the biblical Yahweh is "psychotic," Aquinas's proofs of God's existence are "fatuous" and religion generally is "nonsense." The most effective chapters are those in which Dawkins calms down, for instance, drawing on evolution to disprove the ideas behind intelligent design. In other chapters, he attempts to construct a scientific scaffolding for atheism, such as using evolution again to rebut the notion that without God there can be no morality. He insists that religion is a divisive and oppressive force, but he is less convincing in arguing that the world would be better and more peaceful without it. (Oct. 18)
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From Scientific American
Richard Dawkins, in The God Delusion, tells of his exasperation with colleagues who try to play both sides of the street: looking to science for justification of their religious convictions while evading the most difficult implications—the existence of a prime mover sophisticated enough to create and run the universe, "to say nothing of mind reading millions of humans simultaneously." Such an entity, he argues, would have to be extremely complex, raising the question of how it came into existence, how it communicates —through spiritons!—and where it resides. Dawkins is frequently dismissed as a bully, but he is only putting theological doctrines to the same kind of scrutiny that any scientific theory must withstand. No one who has witnessed the merciless dissection of a new paper in physics would describe the atmosphere as overly polite.

George Johnson is author of Fire in the Mind: Science, Faith, and the Search for Order and six other books. He resides on the Web at talaya.net

From Bookmarks Magazine
Richard Dawkins's latest book raises the question of style over substance. As in his well-known books The Selfish Gene, The Blind Watchmaker, and River Out of Eden, the renowned evolutionary biologist has done his homework, and argues with precision and a fair glaze of wit. But Dawkins can't restrain his vitriol for those that have put their faith in religion, to the point that he comes off as rabid as those believers whose eyes he yearns to open. This fatal flaw knocks his book down a rung or two for critics, many of whom seem inclined to believe in Dawkins, if only he weren't so preachy.

Copyright © 2004 Phillips & Nelson Media, Inc.

Customer Reviews

David and Goliath
Let me say this right off the bat: I like Richard Dawkins. I like his gentle yet slightly sarcastic demeanor, his pleasant British voice, and his willingness to say exactly what he thinks. Unlike some religious people, I wouldn't mind having him for a neighbor.

Finding him so likable, I'll start with the positive points of "The God Delusion." The first one being that yes, indeed, God is often a delusion. Dawkins has done us a favor by fearlessly pointing out the obvious, like the child in the story that points at the naked emperor and says what everyone is afraid to say: He has no clothes.

I have spent much of my life among religious people and can say from personal experience that the majority of what is believed and claimed about God can only be a delusion - not least because of the many contradictory claims about Him.

So thank you, Richard, for being that child who points at the naked emperor! If it causes believers to be a bit more cautious regarding their claims about God, the publication of the book has not been in vain.

Another inspiring part of the book is Dawkin's obvious love for life and awe of existence. If "The God Delusion" even causes one person to live more consciously and appreciate existence more deeply, the book's publication has likewise not been in vain.

Another thank you to Richard.

Now to the critique, which is simply this: "The God Delusion" belittles its opponents too much and therefore aims too low. Through the book, as well as through Richard's book tours, films, and TV appearances, he has created the impression that all religious people are either completely stupid or victims of religious child abuse and thus unable to ever free themselves from the mind-wracking warp of religion.

This, though, is simply not true. Many, many intellectual giants have been religious, and not only because they have been duped into religion, but because they arrived at religion after thinking long and hard about it. To call all of these great people either stupid or victims seems to me an insult to common sense.

To use a Biblical metaphor, Richard is like the little David who wants to take on the Goliath of religion. David did indeed speak confidently against Goliath, but he did not deny that Goliath was a giant. He aimed high enough to hit the head. Richard, in contrast, keeps calling Goliath a dwarf and then swings his sling so low that he only hits his well-protected legs.

Treating all religious people as either retards or victims will not bring down the Goliath of religion - even when Richard does his slinging with admirable beauty, wit, and clarity.

I might have given the book five stars, if it had admitted the obvious intellectual size of its opponent. As it is, I cannot give it more than three.

- Jacob Schriftman, Author of Job's Wager: An Alternative to Pascal's Wager and the Atheist's Wager (With Color Illustrations) and Other Books

Epic.
Great book. I had a fun time reading the hypocrisy of religious individuals. ;)

The irony of Dawkins' hate argument
Dawkins presents Christianity - and the belief in a god(s) in general - to be the essence of hate. He rants and raves page-upon-page at how religion in general has produced nothing but hate and malice toward the planet as a whole - including ALL of its inhabitants - for thousands of years. Yet, Dawkins "argument" [more like a tantrum exhibited by a 2-year old] produces nothing but PURE hate and genuine hostility toward anyone, regardless of their beliefs, who doesn't express the same views as he. Dawkins is supposed to a "scientist", yet there is no obvious scientific approach in this at all; the book is nothing more than SLANDER. The absence of intelligent thought is overwhelming and sickening - you will lose brains cells if you read this book.