The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins
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Book Reviews of The God Delusion
Book Review: A Well Written Rational Critique of Religion
Summary: 5 Stars
Richard Dawkins' "The God Delusion" is a caustic but exceptionally well written skeptical critique of arguments for religious belief. Dawkins also includes plausible evolutionary explanations for the origins of religion and morality.
A few of Dawkins' arguments and critiques could be sharpened by professional philosophers and theologians--after all, Dawkins is writing outside his realm of expertise. But the fact remains that Dawkins writes and argues so lucidly and with such wit (page after page provides guilty giggles at the expense of religious friends) that the cumulative effect must be daunting for most religious readers.
One classic critique of pro-theistic arguments emphasized by Dawkins is that claiming design in nature implies a designer "raises the larger problem of who designed the designer" (p. 188). If the theist says, "Ah, but nobody designed the designer," then the atheist has every right to say, "Ah, but nobody designed the things of nature either." Dawkins is right to question the logic of the theistic argument from design, but this classic criticism exposes the profound mystery with which the universe confronts us. If we go back far enough in the history of the universe, we come upon something for which we have no explanation other than (a) it just happened, or, (b)it just is. There's no reason to arbitrarily introduce an anthropomorphic god as the preferred explanation since, again, there would be no explanation for that god. Humble acknowledgement of our ignorance appears to be the best response.
In addition to his criticism of theistic arguments, Dawkins also compiles a list of beliefs and examples of moral and practical idiocy from scriptures (primarily from the Bible, whereas Sam Harris concentrates on the Quran) as well as from professed beliefs of religious people. Dawkins' list is stunning, as are the lists compiled by other contemporary atheistic authors.
The weakest and most implausible part of the book comes in Chapter 9. Dawkins argues that it's morally wrong for parents to rear their children to believe in the parents' religion, and that this moral view should be recognizable and observed by religous parents. When the child is old enough, says Dawkins, let the child choose for himself.
Although the rest of Dawkins' book is excellent--far better than Daniel Dennett's wordy and more condescending "Breaking the Spell"--Dawkins' Chapter 9 persuades me that Dawkins' antagonism to religion blinds him to the profound mental states and moral standards that can be achieved by religious belief and the demands they obviously would make on parents.
Even so, it's a great book.
Book Review: The Definitive Book to End All Arguments
Summary: 5 Stars
Every school in the free world should make Richard Dawkin's book become part of their curriculum. Every religious organization should open their eyes to Dawkins prose which he so delicously spills out in thought provoking ease and unescapable truths. Every clergy should read this, every agnostic, every jew, everyone involved in the brutal world of Islam. Every social worker should read this, every rehab counselor, every one of those pompous, cretin like guidance counselors and elitist corporate titans.
I have bought this book ten times ten to share with everyone from my childhood priest, to the kids that I mentor. My own children will read this, so they themselves can decide what is the truth or what is science fiction. Perhaps this book, above almost all others, is the most important work of writing in the past twenty or thirty years, and its accolades are deserved and warranted.
I wish in my teenage years a book of this magnitude and voice was available for youth who were brainwashed from jumpstreet by ignorant parents and the like; these youth never being able to question what they were born into and why things had to be a certain way, because the good book said so.
In closing, I would like to quote one passage in which Dawkins has guided me into believing, quite reasonably, why he is one of the most important people on the planet. His book could bring peace, hope, ambition and understanding to a world that is blinded by intolerant religious fanatics and mass hatred.
"Admittedly, people of a theological bent are often chronically incapable of distinguishing what is true from what they'd like to be true. But, for a more sophisticated believer in some kind of supernatural intelligence, it is childishly easy to overcome the problem of evil. Simply postulate a nasty god - such as the one who stalks every page of the Old Testament. Or, if you dont like that, invent a seperate evil god, call him Satan, and blame his cosmic battle against the good god for the evil in the world. Or - a more sophisticated solution - postulate a god with grander things to do than fuss about human distress. Or a god who is not indifferent to suffering but regards it as the price that has to be paid for free will in an orderly, lawful cosmos..."
That should be the preamble to any prayer or homeroom attendance. Clearly, if you are a rational person with any form of higher intelligence, you can't not agree that that excerpt alone, says mountains of things to the world and it's widening problem with religion and its fallacies.
Here's to your health Richard Dawkins. I thank you for this, absolutely stunning.
Book Review: Hero of the new dark ages
Summary: 5 Stars
I relished the God delusion and enjoyed the clever arguments that run throughout its pages, especially the one about religion not being the one and only path to goodness and conscience. While many will continue to attack this work, given that fanaticism is on the rise, it would be nice if zealots gave themselves permission to exercise the faculty of thought, instead of rushing to hide behind pages from their holy book.
I found the argument about there not being any "Christian children/Jewish children/Moslem children", but only children of Christian/Jewish/Moslem parents, to be an excellent and very valid point. That religion, thus forced upon the newborn without them having any say in the matter, is but a form of abuse, is one of those truths that many would rather not be heard.
The only point I tend to disagree with the author on is in viewing people's need for religion as something that could easily be changed, given the right information. There are many who cannot live without the consolation of something to believe in. Setting his goal as arguing out the need for religion is too ambitious and unrealistic at the moment (unless we have a nice visit from inhabitants of another galaxy, which would make the task easier). Instead, a more achievable aim would have been arguing for observing and enforcing secular rule over all (without exceptions due to "cultural sensitivities"), stressing the necessity of de-fanging organized religion, and letting it be a private matter, inside the hearts of whoever chooses to keep it, provided that they were really given a choice, a choice which, as Mr. Dawkins rightfully observed, many were not given, and which, if exercised in adulthood, is, in some religions, punishable by death!
Contrary to what some of his critics believe, Mr. Dawkins credits the average man with a great deal of inner strength, for it takes that much to acquire the degree of imperviousness to emotional blackmail necessary to step outside of organized religion. I think that is a very optimistic overestimation of the average man on the part of the author.
At any rate, Mr. Dawkins did a VERY BRAVE, clever, insightful and absolutely delightful job in this book! Recommended for anyone who wants to really think about religion and not just obey whatever dictums were handed down to them without question. Recommended also for anyone secular at heart and who is in dire need of solace and company at times when religious frenzy, and its dangers, are reaching new heights...or, should I say, lower depths?
Book Review: Pleasantly Surprised! An Excellent Introduction to Atheism
Summary: 5 Stars
I approached this book with some trepidation, even though I tend to agree with most of the author's opinions. My hesitation was because of a TV program Dawkins did on religion in the UK a couple years ago, in which I recall him being quite arrogant and condescendingly dismissive of all religion and religious people ("faith-heads," he called them).
So I was very pleasantly surprised to find this book to be a calm, fair, rational argument for atheism. It takes all major theistic arguments seriously and addresses each of them in turn. The book covers a variety of fascinating topics, from the nature of religion (and possible reasons for its existence) to the specific evidence for evolution and against creationism. It concludes with an excellent discussion of the meaning of life without God or immortality.
The nature of the debate is eloquently set out in the first chapter, addressing common objections like "science is just another religion" and "only fundamentalist/extreme religion is bad", explaining his general refusal to publicly debate creationists, and wondering why we should be asked to "respect" religions by not criticizing or questioning them - when the same is not asked of political or other opinions. That last topic is an especially important one that I thought he handled beautifully.
The most important historical problems with Jesus' life and resurrection are highlighted. A full chapter is devoted to the morality of the Bible, using concrete examples to explain why it shouldn't be the source of anyone's ethics (and actually, that it isn't). He includes data from studies ("thought problems" posed to volunteers) that show all humans share a similar sense of what's right and wrong, regardless of religion or culture.
A highlight for me was a fascinating description of the cargo cults of Africa, which sprung up around the 1950s. They include a named messianic figure who would have been active only 60 years ago, and yet it hasn't even been possible to verify he existed! It is a striking illustration of how religions can get started so quickly on such obscure origins, even in the modern historical age.
This book is an excellent introduction to the major arguments against theism and to the major philosophical and scientific issues concerning religion. It strikes the perfect balance between technical and readable (he's one of the few scientists to manage this) and is well-organized into topical chapters - I enjoyed reading it straight through, but you can jump in anywhere.
Book Review: An Atheist Handbook
Summary: 5 Stars
There have only been 719 reviews to date, so far so I thought it needed another. This title, now available in paperback has some comments on criticisms of the hardback edition in a new introduction and amazon are currently offering it at half price.
Why has this book been so controversial? Well Dawkins isn't a theologian (nor does he need to be, but more on that later) he is an evolutionary biologist and is famous from his books wherein he developed the pioneering gene's eye view of evolution (instead of the level of the individual animal) in books such as 'the selfish gene' and 'the extended phenotype'. It seems that being a symbol of modern neo-darwinian theory he found himself the target for the oddest attacks from creationists, people who said his field wasn't a field at all but an ungodly contradiction of the biblical story. In his biology books, Dawkins famously tosses in a few asides about how silly religious faith is and how so many of their holiest observances seem to be based on just so much made-up fairytale nonsense.
Finally it seems that being on the defensive against fundamentalists did not suit his nature and he published his first non-science book - 'The God Delusion'. Despite taking the offensive he keeps firm hold of his scientific methodology and establishes through reason and logic how pretty much everything in religion is wrong. How silly the arguments are for God, how we don't need it for ethics, How it doesn't even provide much comfort and so on.
None of Dawkin's arguments are particularly new and groundbreaking. What he achieves in this book is the rather less revolutionary though incredibly useful act of bringing all the arguments together. This is why I would call it an atheist's handbook. You can neatly look up an argument to trounce a theist and then follow it up with his excellent bibliography. Some of the criticism based on the hardback was due to the fact that Dawkins had no religious training, and he dispenses with this rather juvenile complaint in the introduction to the paperback.
If you're an atheist, you'll love it, if you're someone who just 'doesn't believe in god much' then it might expand your mind and you will probably put it down as an atheist. If you're religious? It will ask you hard questions which I hope anyone reading this will have the courage to do honestly to make them think about what they choose to accept as true.
So far, this is the most important book of the 21st century.