Books The God Delusion

[Drmke]

Now I don't know if any of you have read this book, but more than likely you have at least heard of it. The God Delusion is a book written by Richard Dawkins and was released in 2006 and in paperback in 2007. It has sold over 8.5 million copies worldwide and has created quite a lot of controversy.

The main premise of the book is to not only denounce the idea that the Christian god exists, but rather that no supernatural being of any sorts exists. Dawkins also contends that the idea that morality cannot exist without religion is false, and that morality can easily be explained through Darwinian evolution.

Some of the controversy has stemmed from people claiming Dawkins is rude towards religious values. The most pointed to line is his book to support this is in chapter 2 on page 31 which says:

"The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochist, capriciously malevolent bully."

Dawkins has said that he believes people are more sensitive to their religious beliefs being insulted than anything else. And he believes his approach to this book was the right way to do it and doesn't think he was being anymore rude than people who discuss politics with one another.

Whether you believe in a god or not, this book is a fascinating read, and I highly recommend it to everyone. If you want to know more, here is a link that provides a bit more information of the book: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_god_delusion

 

[jewstin32]

I just bought The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins, because I was duly impressed with the first third of his other book The Selfish Gene (I haven't gotten further than that yet, what with reading Hawking's A Brief History Of Time and Deutsch's The Fabric Of Reality).

Now, I haven't got far enough into the God Delusion to have formed any major opinions (seriously, I bought it less than an hour ago) but it's the softcover 2007 edition. And it did contain, right at the very start, something which made me all lucid in a happy sort of way. It's a quotation.

In Memorian
Douglas Adams (1952-2001)

"Isn't it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too?"

I'd forgotten Adams and Dawkins got along splendidly...

So, has anyone read this book yet? If so, what did you think. I'm sure I'll have read at least half of it before I check back here, so don't worry about spoilers.

Knowing my luck I'll be the last person on this site to have read it, excluding me from the annual atheist picnics...


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[Kaiten]

My issue with this book is that Dawkins is the atheist/evolutionist equivalent of an evangelist/fundamentalist. He has a world view that is complete, with no room for argument, disagreement or differing world view. The world is how Dawkins sees it, there is no other way. This writings can get very frustrating, even if his scientific books are quite interesting.

 

[Drmke]

I'll agree that Dawkins is pretty set in his beliefs, but at least he does listen to other people's view points without interrupting and unlike most fundamentalists, admits that there is at least a 1% chance he could be wrong.

I like reading arguments from either side that are as far to that side as you can get. Middliers aren't as fun to read about as someone who says they know the truth regardless of whether I believe them or not.

The purpose of the book is more or less to convince people there is no god so it makes sense for him to try to seem confident in his claims. But like I that Dawkins is at least nicer than most when stating his opinions on religious matters.