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The God Delusion | 
 enlarge | Creators: Richard Dawkins, Lalla Ward
Publisher: Tantor Media
Category: Book
List Price: $79.99
Buy New: $51.25
You Save: $28.74 (36%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  1214 reviews
Sales Rank: 1199579
Format: Audiobook, Cd
Media: Audio CD
Edition: Unabridged
Number Of Items: 11
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 6.7 x 6.5 x 1
ISBN: 1400133785
Dewey Decimal Number: 211.8
EAN: 9781400133789
ASIN: 1400133785
Publication Date: January 5, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Brand new Item. CD, DVD, Book, VHS more than 400 000 titles to choose from. ALL days Low Price !
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Product Description
Richard Dawkins, whom Discover magazine recently called "Darwin's Rottweiler" for his fierce and effective defense of evolution, now turns his considerable intellect on religion, denouncing its faulty logic and the suffering it causes. 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. In so doing, he makes a compelling case that belief in God is not just irrational, but potentially deadly.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 1209 more reviews...
 Rising Slowly from the Deep to Prevent the Bends July 2, 2008
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
As a former Catholic Christian fundamentalist, Richard Dawkins book has aided me immensely in removing the "immoveable, unchangeable" blocks to reason and truth. Especially helpful are the sections treating "natural selection". I could see the light as I gradually floated upward toward the oxygen I needed to recover from the abuse I suffered about eternal damnation, fear, and "suffering is good". Regardless of the outcome, I can encourage others who have suffered the same, to let his book speak to you. "the truth shall make you free". Also recommend Christopher Hitchens - "god is not great".
An Essential Read July 2, 2008
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
The God Delusion is a book that really ought to be read by open-minded people of faith. My favorite point in the book is the idea that having two views, God(s) and no God(s), doesn't mean we have a 50/50 toss-up.
As far as any kind of a "call-to-arms" goes for secularism I'm still on the fence. I'm convinced that pure fundamentalism is terrible, and that we really need to keep "Intelligent" Design out of public schools, but I attend a more moderate church with my family and I see no real dangerous delusion, just some intellectual inconsistencies.
I don't believe that there isn't a god, I'm CONVINCED there isn't one, (a subtle difference.) I put it like that for personal reasons which I think anyone who reads this book will understand.
In the end religion is going to be around for a long time. Maybe forever as someone like Chomsky or Hitchens would argue. Atheism/secularism may be loosing the masses of the layman but I don't think this is true with the masses of higher education and people who really enjoying asking the tough questions.
Read this book. Sit down with your friends, and yes your family too, and have a civilized conversation about Dawkins brilliant collection of ideas. It's awkward and tense at first, but you'll find that as you argue your viewpoint you'll learn more about yourself and what you believe. I don't think we have enough of that these days...let's shake up the boat.
Wouldn't it be nice if all disagreements were expressed over coffee and book swapping?
Fairminded and Convincing July 1, 2008
5 out of 6 found this review helpful
Though he has received highly virulent criticism for his books and opinions, (I think) Dawkins does a remarkably fair job of presenting his views on religion and god(s). It is simply a result of the fact that the issue itself causes a great deal of argument and disagreement that it can be difficult to discuss. Dawkins, however, does a wonderful job in being non-offensive in his remarks - if the evidence requires it, sometimes one cannot avoid being rather blunt in showing it.
If anyone actually takes the time to understand/read his work, one can clearly find a well-reasoned and thoroughly researched argument. Indeed, in this book, Dawkins continues to present the case in such a way that I am constantly amazed that anyone can presist in disbelieving in evolution.
I find, more often than not, that Dawkins has the ability to present evidence, logic, and (quite simply) common sense in ways that make me say, "yes! that is exactly how I feel!"
Good book, but not that deep. June 30, 2008
0 out of 6 found this review helpful
If you are an atheist this is a good book for you, but Richard does not really try to convince us that there is no God, his arguments are of a different kind.
I was an atheist and I can understand Richard, but there is a higher place from atheism which pictures "God" in a different light than the classical one (bible). The progression is like this: God (bible) -> no God (atheism) -> new God (revelation)
The book was a page turner at some points, in average about 100 pages were the good part. Sometimes I found it rather boring.
A good book in average, but not what I expected, his aim was more to point out the flaws in religion (good arguments) than to prove that there is no God, purpose, etc.
Live and let Live No More June 30, 2008
7 out of 10 found this review helpful
Now in my late 40's, I grew up quite literally in the shadow of Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, OK--the epicenter of American Evangelicals. My Mother was Roman Catholic and my father Southern Baptist. It's taken many years and Herculean effort to escape such an auspicious orbit. And I thought I had long escaped. I eventually settled into a live-and-let-live, middle-of-the-road agnosticism.
Then I read this book. And I realized that that passive acceptance, that "live and let live" approach to American Fundamentalist Christianity I'd held, was itself dangerous. By not openly refuting something so blatantly ignorant and destructive, I was passively contributing to it. I now realize this to be clearly true and I thank the author for this powerful distinction. Especially as I reflected back on my own religious indoctrination, as a very young child, I desperately needed even a wink from a wise soul, as if to say, "Don't worry son, the smart ones don't actually drink the kool-aid." Only after reading this book, I realized, I had to start standing up for what I believe in. And especially, for what I don't believe in.
Those schooled reviewers who criticize Dawkins as being too hard on religion or especially personal spirituality are still missing the point. If you believe in anything other than a Fundamentalist, Literalistic interpretation of religious texts, you are abjectly hypocritical. If forced to accept your own believes literally, you would abandon them. Moreover, by accepting them as being divine but also vague, you accept that any interpretation is acceptable--it's a personal choice (and yet, a divine overarching truth). You might then say, those choices, however, have limitations--say laws to prevent inspired apostles applying their personal interpretation as to fly planes into tall buildings. But then you're saying religious texts are superseded by laws, composed by sober societies. So your religious ideal is now relegated to a very vague, still divine, but not proscriptive idea, which you're entitled to because it makes you feel good. Like smoking pot. And yet, indulging even privately in that inebriant is illegal.
I highly recommend reading this book in corroboration with Letters to a Christian Nation by Sam Harris and Misquoting Jesus by Epstein.
This book is important. If you love religion, read it. You've nothing to fear. Right?
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