The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins
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Book Reviews of The God Delusion
Book Review: Live and let Live No More
Summary: 5 Stars
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 But then you're saying religious texts are superseded by laws, composed by sober societies.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?
Book Review: I was a Christian at the begining and an atheist at the end.
Summary: 5 Stars
I am a recovering theist. As a Christian I always knew that all the other religions had it wrong don't ask me why they just had it all wrong and the Christians had the truth no doubt if I had been born in Saudi Arabia I would have said the same thing about Islam.
I read this book at a horrible time in my life a number of tragedies had befallen myself and my family and one day I simply stopped believing no lighting bolts were aimed in my direction and my friends and family did not abandon me while I thought answers to various questions that I had long been perplexed by. Questioning of various items in Christian Dogma was never discouraged at the various churches I attended but one was expected to arrive at the theologically correct interpretation namely humans were inherently sinful and we all needed the lord's presence in our lives. I began to have doubts and thought other explanations.
In the midst of the search I found Dawkins, Hitchens but also Dan Barker's excellent Losing Faith in Faith. I have respect for the conclusions reached in all books essentially people trying to grapple with deep questions about faith and the meaning of life that religion, God, Gods or any other type of belief structure can no longer provide. I no longer say with certainly that there is a God and yet part of me desperately and always will want to believe in him or her of course God could soothe my doubts and restore my faith by a simple 5 second appearance this has unfortunately not transpired as yet.
If it comforts any Christian readers to think that I am simply angry at God so be it. My challenge to you is read this book using the power of your own intellect and decide for yourself you're not going to bust into flames or burn in hell because you read a book.
Since reading this book it shocks me how many people I run into that don't consider themselves religious balanced, normal people who have a problem with the need for absolute faith in anything. This runs contrary to everything I had ever been told about Atheists and Agnostics essentially that is the point of Dawkin's book that life is possible without religion.
Overall-The most basic question Dawkins poses to all of us is this "Why should faith in any form be held to a higher standard then reason" and remember because the bible tells me so is a supporting argument.
Book Review: The 'Atheist Pontiff' thought so
Summary: 5 Stars
Murder in the Vatican: The CIA and the Bolshevik Pontiff
Someday, when all is said and done, and we come to accept the fact that God is not a superman dressed in an elegant white robe sitting on a golden throne with a notepad recording everything each one of us does from the time we are born until we take our last breath, this book will take its place as one of the more important works of the new millennium. It is sad that so many will give it low grades for its philosophical content vs. their mythical convictions. Dawkins' work is the great ally of Sam Harris's 'The End of Faith' and a lesser known work, Lucien Gregoire's 2008 biography of the 33-day pope 'Murder in the Vatican: The Revolutionary Life of John Paul & The CIA, Opus Dei and the 1978 Murders'.
John Paul's atheist father, who had spent a lifetime trying to change the Church from the outside, decided it could only be changed from the inside. He secured a grant from the Communist Party of Italy and placed his son - Albino Luciani - in a minor seminary at the age of eleven with the commission to bring change to the Church. A year later, the boy wrote an article in the school newspaper that reached all of Europe, demanding that nations live up to their copyright laws and place a warning on the Old Testament, "This is a work of fiction. Keep away from children." Most laughed at the boy. Yet, Albert Einstein brought world attention to the boy's article, when he called it, "The first bit of common sense to have ever come out of the Roman Catholic Church."
Often labeled the 'Atheist Pontiff' by right wing elements, in his last audience the day before his unwitnessed death, John Paul told a group of bishops, "The fundamental difference between the believer and the atheist is that the believer believes in ghosts and the atheist does not. We must always keep in mind that God is a ghost - a reflection of mankinf itself - a creation of man's imagination. . ." One reason for his demise was that he threatened to bring an end to mysticism in the Church. LIke Joh XXIII before him who had coined the phrase 'The Fatima Cult.'
Murder in the Vatican: The CIA and the Bolshevik Pontiff
Book Review: Intolerant of a Pernicious Hypothesis
Summary: 5 Stars
Believers in any religion will find little to agree with in Dawkins' book because it is a polemic against religion in any form and in favor of atheism and intolerance of religion. Initially he says that he wants to "raise consciousness to the fact that to be an atheist is a realistic expectation, and a brave and splendid one." (p. 1) But he soon goes on the attack against religion as pleading for special protection from unbelief. "A widespread assumption, which nearly everybody in our society accepts - the non-religious included - is that religious faith is especially vulnerable to offence and should be protected by an abnormally thick wall of respect, in a different class from the respect that any human being should pay to any other." (p. 20) He makes it clear that he will show no such respect, for he sees the "God Hypothesis" as a "pernicious delusion." (p. 31)
What's wrong with religion? He maintains that "even mild and moderate religion helps to provide the climate of faith in which extremism naturally flourishes." (p. 303) Moderate religion, he says, is "an open invitation to extremism." (p. 306)
As a believer, I found little in this book that I agree with. What I found useful was that Dawkins is encyclopedic in his review of literature on the subject of atheism, especially the books written by scientists. In an appendix, he also provides a listing of organizations and websites where atheists can find support. Even more interesting is the fact that he recommends Biblical literacy. Religious instruction of the young is equated with child abuse, but he points to a listing of phrases (pp. 341-343) which require knowledge of the Bible in order to be an educated person.
The book is very entertaining unless you are a believer without a sense of humor. Dawkins also raises some points that believers should take seriously in clarifying their beliefs. For example, I think believers should listen when Dawkins asks: "But why, in any case, do we so readily accept the idea that the one thing you must do if you want to please God is believe in him? What's so special about believing? Isn't it just as likely that God would reward kindness, or generosity, or humility?" (p. 104)
I give this book five stars because it is an outstanding example of a polemic against religion.
Book Review: Comprehensive
Summary: 5 Stars
This is excellent for the atheist. I don't know whether it is a good book to introduce to religious people who are not used to questioning their faith because Dawkins sometimes comes off as too harsh. Yet, if you were an atheist or skeptic or just someone who is comfortable with questioning your faith, you would not find him crazy fanatical. It would be a comprehensive coverage of many aspects of what is essential to dealing with religion. He is funny at times but that's where I worry. Atheists will see it as genuinely funny. Religious people might be turned off instantly by the mocking tone and not appreciating the actual argument. He divides the book into neat chapters and go straight to the point. I believe this is what makes him effective.
Now if you are a Christian, a lot with lie with your faith that the bible is inerrant. Or you may think some are literal, some metaphorical, and that it's alright. Or lastly, you may not really know what you know about the bible as most Christians do. This book is not for you yet because it touches too briefly on these. Instead, read up any bible textual criticism works such as the popular ones by Bart Ehrman.
The book itself:
If you are a Christian, you will know that there are old scholars with their arguments for God/Christianity just as you will know there was a Plato even if you never read it. Dawkins deals with the famous arguments and goes straight to the point why they don't work. More recent arguments for Creationism/Intelligent Design are dealt with. Other methods Christians use to debate, such as design, authority...etc are dealt with.
What else do you rely on if not intellectual arguments? The bible of course. He discusses this as well.
Say you are convinced to incline toward atheism. The next question is, without God, where is morality? This is the natural next question that is commonly asked, as Dostoevsky also talked about in "brothers karamazov". he discusses this.
and then the rest is info on problems with religion being in the world with him discussing some of his concerns such as childhood indoctrination and such.
You can read any of his chapters independently and they are effective. That's what makes this book well maped out and a good read.