The God Delusion

I read the book from start to finish. I felt belittled and bludgeoned for not being convinced by his way of thinking.

That really is the strength of this book: that it makes people feel stupid for disagreeing with Dawkins. The actual science in this book is weak, it is basically a "rant" to quote Trent's review below.

If you need proof of this, consider that his main argument, the Ultimate 747, is actually not that convincing IMHO. Go read it again, and just imagine ways you can poke holes in his argument, it's not too hard.

I'm not saying this because I'm a religious nut, just because I want people to be aware of what Dawkins is doing. Don't be bullied by this book, read it a little more carefully.

He's good at explaining things in terms that both a layperson and an expert would understand. You don't need to be a philosopher or a theologist to be able to understand this book.

Great book, engaging, a live entity forcing you to think for yourself.

Amazing book, everyone should read it. Funny how many religious nutjobs wrote about a dozen books in reply to this one. The most pathetic one was the "Dawkins delusion" where the word "Dawkins" was printed using the "Dracula" font like in horror movie titles (you know, the one where the letters look like they're made of blood or something). Typical of religious wackos.

Also very funny how these people think the tone of the author was aggressive or otherwise offensive towards religion and religious people. I thought it was very mild and calculated, everything was backed by logic and argumentation, it never came anywhere close to a rant. But I guess religious people are brainwashed to fiercely attack anyone who dares to present an alternative to their beliefs. Luckily, Dawkins was born in modern times, the religious freaks would have burnt him at stake a few hundred years ago!

Thought provoking look at the dangers of religion from the atheistic and scientific point of view. Some portions of the book were more enlightening and interesting than others. An important read.

Richards Dawkins is an acclaimed atheist, documentary maker and writer, advocate of reason and knowledge. In 'The God Delusion' Dawkins attacks the religion problem from several different perspectives, creating a very interesting summary that aims to eliminate any doubt about the non-existence of God and why mankind has succumbed to religion despite of all its downfalls and atrocities of past millennia and present times.
One of the things that appeal to me the most about this book is its entertaining way to shed light into religion's strangest arguments. One of the pillars of this battle is the argument that religion, compared to other global organizations, gets far too great of a free pass in society. It is not acceptable by the religious folks to be criticized about their beliefs. They think everyone, even atheist, should completely 'respect' anything related to God. This completely undeserved respect wakens an outrage within anyone daring to question the thought of an almighty being in the skies.

It's reasonable to accept that everyone has their own set of beliefs and they are entitled to them, whatever they are. But unfortunately societies and the lives of new generations are being affected greatly by religion. Indoctrination - Dawkins makes the case - is another way to enslave young mind and boycott a better future.

Dawkins shows reasonable patience in suggesting why the scientific approach is the valid one by examining all available evidence. But the argument of faith mixed up with obedience makes for very stubborn individuals and points of view.

Dawkins makes compelling arguments against Creationism and Intelligent Design. He points out how misguided Creationist are and demolishes any wall put in front of the Darwinian theory of Evolution.

Dawkins covers some questions such as morality issues as well as whether or not religion can sometimes serve other uses in society.

This was a great book with alot of valid points.

Back in August, I wanted to do a deep dive on the origin of life. Well, my hectic 9 - 5 delayed this exercise by four months. Anyway, I started off by reading The God Delusion, a bestseller written by the famous Richard Dawkins. This book not only defends atheism, but it goes so far as to attack the religious position. Here are some of the main principles explained:

1. The God Hypothesis - Dawkins contends that if god really created life, then who created god in the first place? He goes on to remind us that the whole problem we started with was to explain the statistical improbability on the origin of life. Thus it makes no sense to take the god position because there is the larger problem of who designed the designer. In comparison, evolution by natural selection becomes a more probable and hence preferrable theory.

2. Evolution of complex organs is possible - creationists argue that complex organs like the eye could not have evolved in a piecemeal fashion over time. This is because the eye is made of several critical parts without one will cause the entire system to fail. Dawkins counters by pointing out that the eye could actually have started out as a simple light receptor. Having a light receptor is definitely better than nothing when you are in the wild searching for meals and trying to avoid becoming someone else's meal. What came next were the functions of focus, colour, etc., each of which brought additional advantages that were perpetuated by natural selection.

3. Abundance of Goldilocks planets in the universe - Creationists claim that the conditions necessary for life to exist on Earth are so unique that it must have been the work of a supernatural god. Earth is a Goldilocks planet, because we are at just the right distance from the sun to support carbon-based life forms. But Dawkins maintains the Earth is not that special after all. Contemporary astronomical data suggest there are about 1 billion stars in our galaxy. Orbiting these stars are another 1 billion to 30 billion planets. Look farther out and it is estimated that there are close to 100 billion galaxies in our universe. Let's err on the conservative side, knock a few zeros off, and say there are just 1 billion billion planets in our universe. Suppose the rise of life from spontaneous generation of DNA material, being highly improbable, only happens on one in a billion planets. With these odds, you can still expect to find life on a billion planets throughout the universe. Given the unbelievably large playing field the universe offers, it is almost illogical not to expect life on other planets.

Though none of the above concepts are bleeding edge, Dawkins does a great job using everyday language to argue his case. If you want to learn a few things on atheism vs theism, this is a good introductory read. Make sure you get your facts right however and not just rely on this one book. As the saying goes: when one person suffers from a delusion, it is called insanity. When many people suffer from a delusion it is called religion.


-PTS
www.parttimescholar.com

A brilliant examination of the negative impacts of religion on human life. Incisive logic based on an unwavering adherence to the principle that all assertions made by men must be testable by science in order to be believed. Surely an uncomfortable read for the religious, but it will hopefully help the doubting to free themselves further of religious dogma.

It was a bit difficult to decide how to write my opinion on this book because it took me in 2 different directions. First of all, I am in agreement with Dawkin's point of view. Despite people's opinion that he is 'extremist', he is actually stating what he simply believes is 'obvious' to him (and to me). His points are valid and he gives as many examples as possible to drive his point home. My second direction that this book took me on was the way in which it was written. As much as I agree with Dawkins, I found it difficult to get through the first couple of chapters and periods of other chapters as they were not always well focused and sometimes went off on tangents which can leave the reader bored or wishing to skip ahead. So overall, a great book with great points but not well focused consistently. This book will of course be viewed venomously by religious people, but I strongly advise people to read with an open mind, not a jugemental one because this is an important book to understanding our 'meaning of life' in this universe. It's always important to respect people's opinions and thoughts regardless of whether you agree or not.

Already an athiest and just want something you can bob your head up and down to without thinking? Perfect book for you! Richard should be embarrassed. His use of statistics would make a high school student cringe. For every odd theology thought of that past that he ridicules, there are 10 x that number from the past scientists. He only pokes at the 'right', 'conservative' version of Christianity (think Televangelists), and uses this as a steriotype, despite his initial comment about talking about all religions. I believe this book was solely written for those who only want to read what they want to hear, and for him to make big $. Judging from most of the other reviews, he has succeeded. Richard could not possibly be a Mensa.

A brilliant look into facts and common sense so few Americans will even attempt to explore due to their faith. I just wish more people would think for themselves so they could see.

I read this book to see things from an atheist's perspective - a 'know thine enemy' kind of thing. I found Dawkins to be rather arrogant and obstinate. He refuses to admit that he could be wrong and uses very poor evidence to prove his theory. He does not seem to have an actual understanding of people's religious beliefs. His tone throughout seems to be rather mocking, especially in his conferences on the subject. He described two different types of Gods people 'believe' in but neither of those is my God. Nor, in fact, do I know of any religion that does believe in them. Then he mocked our belief in these Gods. I find it demeaning and unfair. He says it is wrong for people to "force" their beliefs on their children but he is clearly doing the same thing to a much larger audience. It doesn't matter what age people are. If you tell them something and they have little to no previous knowledge of the subject, they will probably believe you. He is giving his opinion without giving the other side of the argument a chance to respond. He also tries to paint atheists as an oppressed group of truth-seekers who need to stand up for themselves. I see it as the other way around. I have never felt more judged than after telling people I'm Catholic. It is much harder to be religious than to be an atheist or agnostic. The book did nothing to change my religious views at all. It just made me think less of atheism.

I bought this book thinking that a scientist like Dawkins, with a big name in the literary and scientific community, would be able to present a convincing argument for his beliefs about theology. All I got was a bunch of ranting about how religion is crazy, people who believe in God are completely crazy, and atheism is the only right thing to believe in because everything else is crazy crazy crazy.

Throughout the book, Dawkins would present an argument against God, then turn around and use an argument for atheism that was susceptible to the exact same logic as the point he just debunked. It came across as very narrow minded, which really affected his argument. When debating a topic, your points are stronger when you seriously try to understand why someone would believe in the opposing opinion. Dawkins completely failed to do this, and as a result, his book lacked sustenance.

Dawkins does have a good writing style, which made the book bearable. And for atheists out there looking for a good rant against God, this is probably your book. But if you're looking for an insightful theological debate, don't bother with this book.

I have read a lot of science related books. Most of them are in regards to some aspect of physics. Some can be a little difficult to understand, as the science is a bit complicated to translate to lay english. I thought I'd give the great god Dawkins a read and try the evolutionary biology genre.

After reading Kip Thorne, John Wheeler, Paul Davies, Lisa Randall, and authors like that I thought let see what Dawkins is like. He's been, I guess, voted one of the greatest intellects in the UK. Must be a good read?

Without discussing whether or not I agreed with his conclusions or not, I have to say this is not a great book. I really don't understand why people think it is. It is controversial, yes. It promotes an agenda that some people want promoted, yes. It really puts it to some people that need to reexamine their core beliefs, yes. But is it a good, well reasoned book?

It isn't. It is a rant by someone who assumes that you already agree with him, and if you don't then "Thanks for the money, now go away and behave like the idiotic little presbyterian suicide bomber you are. And please stop abusing the children." is the only answer you will get. Obviously, if you don't subscribe to diatribe as proof then you aren't intelligent enough to understand his style of explaining why he is correct.

Again, many of the points he makes are absolutely true. From a certain point of view. The problem is, at the very beginning of the book it is made extremely clear that any other point of view is so obvioulsy wrong he doesn't see the need to actually examine them. It's the "I'm right, so why look at alternative explanations" position.

I think there is a possibility that he may ultimately be right, but if this is his argument then I can use the same arguments against String Theory and the Grand Unification Theory researchers and state with absolute certainty that they aren't really scientists but a bunch of deluded pseudophysicists. There is no proof of String Theory. It might be true, but as of yet it doesn't make any verifiable predictions that can't be predicted by non-string theory. By Dawkin's analogy they are also deluded, but the question is whether teaching our children that there are little stings of energy that vibrate in 11 dimensions and they make up the entire universe but we can't see them because they are smaller than quarks can be also considered child abuse. You see children are not by nature String Theorists. They are made so by deluded adults, apparently.

So, might be correct but anyone who is convinced by this is either a latent antitheist or would be equally be convinced to take Canadian Tire money to the bank to find out what the current exchange rate is.

This would be a great book in comedy except Dawkins believes his delusion. Dawkins intent fails completely and his arguments are without merit.

I have seen the video of the same name and read this only a part of this book (could not go on it’s the same). Dawkins takes too much out of contexts to make extreme accusations against religion and the few points he does make are simply over whelmed by the rest. I only hope that Dawkins can get back to taking a actual scientific view on religion next time he writes his book because this one was like reading a piece of propaganda. Written by an extremist atheist fundamentalist trying to convert us all

Dawkins' novel, The God Delusion, presents an articulate, sometimes comical, and foreboding message about the future of our world in the wake of religious belief. It is a very entertaining read, and Dawkins' voice resounds clearly through each page as though he was sitting across the table speaking directly to you. Dawkins' aim in this book was to 'raise consciousness', and he has done exactly that. This book will be truly enjoyed by anyone who shares his passion for atheism and fear of the religious future. And for those who do not share his perspective, this book will open their eyes to a new perspective on life and morality without God. The book sets up brilliantly the arguments for and against the existence of God, and appears to set the stage for millions of people to join the cause of atheism. However, I fear this will not be the case for many of those millions.

Although The God Delusion does an amazing job of setting up the reader to see the world (and the universe) as Dawkins sees it, I found that the hostility that comes through in his narrative sometimes clouds the pictures. I got the recurring visual in my head of Dawkins sitting in a chair, waiving his arms, shouting "How do you not see this?!?!?", which left some parts of the novel seeming less research-based and calculated and more of the rantings of a passionate atheist trying desperately to show his readers the flaws in the beliefs of individuals who will likely never read the book anyways. The facts are there, and the arguments are quite sound, but he uses multiple examples and sidetracks that could confuse some readers.

All in all, I truly enjoyed the book, and I think it would be more effective if it were narrowed down slightly to shave off some of the unnecessary rantings. Dawkins has, however, succeeded in his main goal, to 'raise consciousness' and allow for religion to become the subject of the same scrutiny as any other topic in this world. Through this book, people will discuss, banter, debate, and, one can hope... open their eyes.

As someone who has always been intrigued by science, I was fascinated by Dawkins' use of evolution and mathematical probability to dispute the existence of God. Despite having learned a significant amount about evolution throughout my university career, I cannot say that I ever gave it much thought in the context of religion. I found myself wishing that Dawkins had discussed the topic in greater detail within this book.

In contrast, Dawkins seemed to go off on tangents quite frequently where, in my opinion, it was completely unnecessary - sometimes to the point where I momentarily forgot what exactly he was trying to prove. His discussion of memes was one such area and, in my view, it weakened his overall argument.

His claim that raising a child in a religious environment is tantamount to child abuse, is a gross generalization. In certain households, such as those of fundamentalist Christians, I wholeheartedly agree. Documentaries such as "Jesus Camp" have exposed the blatant brainwashing that many Evangelical children are subjected to. Such treatment cannot be described as anything short of terrifying. Still, I cannot say that my moderately religious parents did any serious harm by teaching me their beliefs. I went to a Catholic school (which did not teach Creationism and encouraged questioning religion - imagine that!), and I believe that I actually benefited from the experience. We were required to take a "World Religions" course and were taught tolerance. Never did a teacher claim that we were superior to another group of people. To say that all parents should be forbidden from passing their beliefs on to their children, is quite frightening in itself. I don't see how that's any different from the church taking Children away from those Jewish parents mentioned within the book. It's just a different form of totalitarianism.

Should there be a separation of church and state? Absolutely! Should Creationism be taught in schools? Absolutely NOT! Would we be immoral without religion? Of course not! Does moderate religion have a place in our society? I believe that it does. In fact, I believe that it would benefit everyone if a world religions course was mandatory in every single school. Some of my best friends are of different faiths, and we have no trouble getting along. In fact, we have had religious discussions in the past - not discussions about which religion is correct, but discussions about the differences between them. Thus, exposure to different religions and the people who practice them, is a much better alternative than trying to convince individuals that they should abandon religion altogether. It will never happen.

Dawkins is a brilliant writer, but I disagree with many of his assertions. I certainly don't regret reading this book, as it made me think about a lot of important issues. Still, the hatred that I felt emanating from certain portions of The God Delusion made me feel very uneasy. The last thing this world needs is a group of atheists starting a war against religion.

Whether you're a Bible-touting Christian (Quran-touting Muslim), a fence-sitting agnostic, or a born-again athiest, you'll be fascinated by the philosophy, science, and biblical history Dawkins employs to proclaim the futility, even harmfulness, of organized religions like Christianity, Judaism, and Muslim. You may not agree with all his conclusions, but you'll be challenged to make sense of the finer points of your faith. A 'must' read.