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The God Delusion | 
 enlarge | Creators: Richard Dawkins, Lalla Ward
Publisher: Tantor Media
Category: Book
List Price: $29.99
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Avg. Customer Rating:  1223 reviews
Sales Rank: 308882
Format: Audiobook, Cd
Media: MP3 CD
Edition: MP3
Number Of Items: 2
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.1
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.3 x 0.6
ISBN: 1400153786
Dewey Decimal Number: 211.8
EAN: 9781400153787
ASIN: 1400153786
Publication Date: January 5, 2007
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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 1218 more reviews...
 The GOD Delusion is Ironic July 27, 2008
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
Richard Dawkin's latest book, "The GOD Delusion" is a must read for everyone. Theist or Atheist, believer or non-believer, Dawkin's has, for the first time, placed the complete set of arguments about the existence (or non-existence as he would prefer) of God, into a single place for easy reference during after dinner conversation. Not withstanding his relentless negative and somewhat emotional attacks on the believer, his arguments and counter arguments are well written and within easy grasp of all. If you can read this book and maintain your own level minded perspective you will be in strong possession of significant knowledge to either impress your dinner guests or perhaps upset them to the point of keeping them from ever coming to your house again -- if that is your wish. In the end, based on the comprehensive research he has provided, either perspective can still be argued, although he has clearly stated that he is trying to convert believers to his side -- but he has missed the best and perhaps newest argument due to a lack of evidence.
Most of his arguments are old, 19th century as he has been accused, but never quite understood why. And most contemporary believers have reconciled their faith with the natural science of the day. However, he has one new intriguing thread with regard to the origin of religion and he pulls on it, but he freely admits it is arguably one of perhaps many threads that could have caused the human brain to develop religious beliefs as a bi-product of selecting for other things pertinent to survival, or whatever was deemed important during the selection process. And this thread bumps up against something far more important than religion -- It cries forth with the question of human consciousness and it's evolutionary development -- a.k.a. Julian Jaynes. Alas Dawkins never crosses fully into the pursuit of consciousness and it's potential origins leaving us to wonder if Jaynes was a genius or a quack -- I wonder why? If you prove consciousness is an illusion than absolutely you have proven there is no God. He has unfortunately shied away from this subject. It is the substance necessary to create not just artificial life but artificial intelligence. A subject he never addresses -- although he poignantly relays the tragic end to Alan Turing, the father of AI, for a completely different reason.
More important to his writings, however, is his insistence that it is the believer who is suffering from a delusion, when it is just as clear that he suffers from some sort of emotional discontinuity, perhaps paranoia, that propels his own delusions about what is and what is not true religious faith. So here Dawkin's labors away, trifling with the Almighty, a personal God or natural selection -- no one should really care since both belief in the Almighty or the processes of natural selection are far stronger than Richard Dawkins. Regardless of what they may believe during the good times, during the dark of night, or on their death bed, does not change the fact that the universe is really really big, perhaps infinite, and he is far from unlocking its ultimate secrets -- something he freely admits in the end. The secrets that he hopes to find, keep slipping through his fingers as the universe keeps expanding and the smallest building blocks of matter keep turning back into something that he cannot quite grasp. Yet the curiosity of science propels him forward in his quest -- with such conviction to know or finally know, that there is no God. This is clearly a crusade of sorts for Dawkin's, yet he maintains that he is an atheist. Somewhere in Chapter 2 though he rates himself a level 6 agnostic -- allowing for a very very small possibility that there actually is a God. Or else he couldn't continue his quest, it wouldn't make logical sense. So he too, is deluding himself. By allowing himself a brief, if not unconsciously repressed uncertainty, about the meaning of life enables him to go on his atheistic crusade -- mimicking all of the same characteristics of religion that he so soundly criticizes. This is his first state of irony.
Second, if social behavior including morals and values actually evolved as he suggests, including religion, then these things are hard wired into our physiology. They are firmware, not software, which makes them real. And no matter what delusion he thinks believers are suffering from -- he goes to quite some extent to explain why these actions are real and necessary -- believers, therefore, are not suffering from anything false. They do what they do because they are supposed to. They are behaving as their creator, designer, or natural selector would have them behave...hence reality, no matter whose side you are on. So twice Dawkin's delusion has taken an ironic twist -- which is truly ironic. And this makes for the best kind of after dinner conversation.
Dawkins most significant contribution to society, though this particular book, however, has nothing at all to do with God or religion. It has to do with the abuse of young minds. His stance should be every parent's stance and the brainwashing of young minds throughout history is indeed an affront to humanity. Religion, no religion, God, or no God, we do not have the right to lie to our children in ways that would torment or terrorize their thoughts. Particularly in ways that would fundamentally alter the way they brains are developing -- at least before the age of eight or nine. To do otherwise would be the same as altering their bodies physically for instance, the heinous binding of a young girl's feet in certain countries. Dawkin's carries this topic quite well -- but I'm not sure why it's in this particular book.
So in the end, Dawkins has given us a good book -- but has only raised more questions upon which the reader is still left to answer on his or her own -- science gives Dawkins his meaning of life, not humanity in general...and this is irony in his own delusion.
 Life-altering book! (For some of us...) July 25, 2008
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
I agree with Dr. Dawkins, from one of his interviews: his books are unlikely to cause anyone to lose their "faith" - if they're already invested (although he still had hope). He says that it's mainly for middle-of-the roaders (or something to that effect) -- those of us (especially in the U.S.) who didn't even know Atheism was an option. I've always been an Atheist (despite my Mom's best attempts), but didn't know what to call it - what do you call the absence of unrealistic belief? The words "sane" and "logical" come to mind for me - but not for most people. I had no idea there were so many others like me out there. Now I know. Thank you Dr. Dawkins, for letting us OUT!
A few new arguments but lots of confirmation July 25, 2008
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
Lots of confirmation on the kaleidoscope of topics in this area. This is a tough read in "England English" but a strong testament to Dawkins experience, knowledge and intelligence all brought to bear in this Atheist Owners Manual.
Extremely well-thought out and analytical July 22, 2008
2 out of 5 found this review helpful
Richard Dawkins rationally analyzes why there is no god from every possible angle, and why religion hurts societies. Much of the book is like a debate that takes the token responses of theists and then a long and thorough rebuttal from Richard Dawkins. I already knew a lot of the arguments Dawkins goes over just by thinking about it on my own, which many are quite obvious yet need to be stated. The part of the book I found most interesting was how religion hurts societies, which no one really talks about. The arguments Dawkins bring up are very complete and if you're an atheist looking for some added tools in your arsenal of argumentation, this book is perfect for that too. All in all, the book is pretty long, somewhat dry at parts, and is not a quick read either. If you are open-minded and/or interested in the subject I would suggest this book. I don't think the book is going have the intended effect of converting many people to atheism, because believing in god involves preconceived faith not rational thinking imho, but is likely to make more atheists come out of the closet (for lack of a better metaphor) because of the comfort this book will bring to atheists.
Awesome arguments and intense analytical points on the delusional idealism of god and theism July 21, 2008
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
Professor Dawkins compares and contrasts all theories and "proofs" of an existence of a higher being. Using the scientific perspective he voids all arguments pointed out by theists and creationists. Awesome book and I highly recommend it!
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