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The God Delusion (Hardcover)

by Richard Dawkins (Author)

3.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (62 customer reviews)

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Product Details

Hardcover: 416 pages
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; None edition (Sep 13 2006)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0618680004
ISBN-13: 978-0618680009
Product Dimensions: 22.9 x 16.3 x 3.3 cm
Shipping Weight: 658 g

Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (62 customer reviews)

Amazon.ca Sales Rank: #17,039 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Popular in these categories:

#16 in	Books > Religion & Spirituality > Spirituality > Atheism
#31 in	Books > Religion & Spirituality > Religious Studies > History
#51 in	Books > Science > History & Philosophy > History of Science

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Product Description

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)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From AudioFile

An evolutionary biologist, Richard Dawkins sees religion as a human construct that is the source of much of the evil in the world, closing people's minds to scientific truths, oppressing women, and threatening people with eternal damnation. As "Darwin's rottweiller," he sets out to annihilate faith. His book-length essay is a bestseller. Since he is human, though, his own understanding of the universe, though devilishly complex, must be based on a hypothesis, a hunch, on faith. Dawkins and his wife, the actress Lalla Ward, perform this book as melody and harmony in two voices. For example, Dawkins will set up a quotation from Einstein, and Ward will speak the lines. Since both have fine English voices, the performance would succeed as music even if it weren't an intellectual tour de force. B.H.C. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

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Customer Reviews

62 Reviews

5 star:		(26)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(10)
1 star:		(9)

Average Customer Review

3.6 out of 5 stars (62 customer reviews)

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93 of 111 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Dawkins Lays Out the Case for Atheism, Oct 7 2006

By	Steve S. (Los Angeles) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)

Richard Dawkins is an evolutionary theorist and holds the Charles Simonyi Chair in the Public Understanding of Science at Oxford University. He is also a best seller author of science books, and quite easy to read.

In this book, Dawkins tackles the problem of religion -- and he does see it as a problem. Dawkins begins by pointing out that there is no evidence whatsoever of god. True, he cannot prove that god does not exist, but the same is true of all possible gods, including Zeus and Wotan. The fact that something cannot be proven false is no evidence whatsoever that is true.

Dawkins further points out how religion (or, more precisely, faith) is so damaging. Faith is, quite simply, the enemy of reason. If one believes something on faith then, by definition, it does not matter what the evidence shows, one will still believe. It is a matter of faith. No matter how strong the evidence of evolution, for example, many faithful simply refuse to believe. With faith, there is no argument, no evidence good enough. With reason, one will still make mistakes, but at least one is trying to get it right.

Dawkins believes very strongly in what he says, but that does not make him just another fundamentalist. Dawkins came to his beliefs by looking at evidence, considering all arguments and applying reason. If, tomorrow, one presented him with evidence that he was wrong, he would change his mind.

This book will offend many readers, but that is not what Dawkins intends and it only proves his point: readers who are offended have been so blinded by religion that they are unable to consider that they might be wrong without suffering pain.

For an explanation of how evolution works, read Dawkins' The Blind Watchmaker. For a small sample of the evidence behind the theory (and a brief history of life on earth), read The Ancestor's Tale. These books are written in a less strident manner, and would only offend the those who take the Bible completely literally, and cannot tolerate the thought that they are mistaken.

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59 of 72 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book - unless you have a vested interest., Mar 14 2007

By	Philip Wort - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I won't waste your time telling you what a good book this is ... get it and read it! Notice that all the bad reviews will quote scripture or otherwise reveal their not-so-hidden agendas for criticizing it.

I'm not sure I read too much that I didn't already know, but this is a great book for recommending to others who need a good overview/primer of the atheist position.

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29 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Dawkins book beautifully written, but monolithic, Jul 9 2007

By	Scott Greer (Bonshaw, PEI Canada) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)

Richard Dawkin's book has rightly generated much controversy, since the topic of religion and science has become a headline item for a variety of reasons (Bush administration, 'terrorism', our shrinking world in the face of narrow world views, etc.). He is a fabulous writer, even if some of the material may take a couple of times. It deserves to be read, particularly by those who are religious but have a open or inquisitive mind about how things work and why. I would hope that being religious, intelligent, and open minded are not as rare---or as mutually exclusive--as Dawkins would have us believe.

I was most impressed by his 'atheism' arguments, and the way he brought Darwinian principles to bear as an explanation for the evidence. His later applications of Darwinism, to the rise of religion for instance, struck me as less compelling. There are 'better' theories dealing with some of the later topics (i.e., morality, religion, and society), such as those by Nietzsche and Freud (and others). In short, his explanations could delve into the psychological realm more thoroughly; rather, we are offered a Darwin monolith of sorts, one that proposes to explain all those things people rely on religion for. Delete "religion" insert "Darwinism"--an oversimplification for sure, but one not altogether unwarranted.

Tricky thing about Darwinian theory: while it definitely offers powerful explanations, you're never completely sure you have exactly the right one. Yes, having or doing "X" would have had some evolutionary advantage; but back-filling in that space from the standpoint of the present with just the right explanation and set of circumstances is far from assured. Changes in our models of dinosaurs, for instance, proves that.

If you're an atheist, or close to it, then he's going to be "preaching to the choir" (if I may use such an ironic metaphor) much of the time. If you're part of the other 90+ percentage of the population, then I would very much recommend reading Dawkins and seriously considering his arguments. You don't have to buy the *exact* explanations he offers---the real question is whether *some kind* of Darwinian/naturalistic explanation is ultimately at the root of our "miraculous" existence (something both sides must agree on).

Therein lies the real value of his book, and read in those terms this is an outstanding (5 star) text. I feel the first (and maybe most important) point should focus not so much on what you believe, just that you think.

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Most recent customer reviews

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