book data
5277 ratings, 3.98 average rating, 1157 reviews
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published
January 16th 2007
(first published 2006)
by Mariner Books
binding
Paperback, 464 pages
isbn
0618918248
(isbn13: 9780618918249)
description
In this provocative must-read, the preeminent scientist—and world’s most prominent atheist—Richard Dawkins asserts the irrationality...more
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avg 3.98
I read most of the "big books" this year that really exploded onto the scene - Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens...I have Daniel Dennett on my nightstand to start soon. While I don't always agree with some of the forceful language and bias that I see in the atheist writers - indeed, some of the vitriol seems to match that which I am most upset with when I see it in speakers of various faiths - I am very happy that they have brought more to the forefront a discussion of ...more
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Discover magazine recently called Richard Dawkins "Darwin's Rottweiler" for his fierce and effective defense of evolution. Prospect magazine voted him among the top three public intellectuals in the world (along with Umberto Eco and Noam Chomsky). Now Dawkins turns his considerable intellect on religion, denouncing its faulty logic and the suffering it causes. He critiques God in all his forms, from the sex-obsessed tyrant of the Old Testament to the more benign (but still illogical) C...more
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I'm still reading this one, but already it's not looking too good for Mr. Dawkins, whom I hope is a much better scientist than he is a philosopher. While he writes with a certain wit and flair, Mr. Dawkins often comes across as arrogant and smug, which in itself wouldn't be so terrible if it weren't so dreadfully unwarranted. For the most part, Mr. Dawkins refuses to treat of his subject matter either seriously or honestly, preferring to present straw-man versions of his opponents' arguments i...more
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Read in October, 2007
Richard makes some great arguments against a personal God and the first half of the book is much more scathing and deliberate than the second half. Some of his points fall short of their mark however he does accomplish what he set out to do, namely, helping initiate or foster an environment where it is OK to not believe in God. He is a proud atheist and I'm fine with that. I cannot muster up scientific evidence for God, and if needs proof in order to believe that's fine with me. I don't need...more
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Not quite the asshole Christopher Hitchens is, Dawkins aims to break apart religion from a scientist's perspective. How did religion arise? What purpose did it serve? Does it still serve a purpose? And most of all, how can the majority of an intelligent race share the same or similar delusions? In true New Athiest fashion, Dawkins spends plenty of pages railing against modern (and not so modern) evils perpetrated in the name of religion, all the while pointing out that while athiests have been m...more
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I keep opening this and the sheer arrogance makes me too mad and ill to continue- even his introduction says that anyone reading this book who is at all intelligent and educated will of course agree with him by the time they are done reading it. I respected him for "The Selfish Gene", but hearing his various talks lately about his self declared "militant atheism" I became determined to read this book in order to better argue with it. His view of religion is about as simplis...more
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Read in May, 2007
This book is like getting a full blast preaching and I'm the choir - but you know, it's sometimes good to feel like your beliefs are validated. Other people have church - I get a book. The only thing that makes me nervous about Dawkins is his total devotion to Darwin - not that I think Darwin was wrong but an evangelical zeal for a particular author or book, even a scientist, echoes religious beliefs, the same faith and belief. But I love how he doesn't pull and punches and tells it how it is (h...more
I will read this book, because I am curios what the other side of the spectrum believes and has to say about religion.
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Just can't get into this. I've started it like 5 times and not got beyond pg 6.
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Read in March, 2007
recommends it for:
thinkers in science and religion
Also read: Alister McGrath: The Dawkins Delusion.
Dawkins book positions science as the demystifier of human knowledge, and religion as the great mystifier.
I find many statements in his book to which I respond positively, yet I think he overlooks something in religion that is very worthwhile, and the reason that religion seems undiscardable: the power it gives to people to deal with their own existence. Science is not really interested in anybody's existence, let alone my existence.
Mc...more
Dawkins book positions science as the demystifier of human knowledge, and religion as the great mystifier.
I find many statements in his book to which I respond positively, yet I think he overlooks something in religion that is very worthwhile, and the reason that religion seems undiscardable: the power it gives to people to deal with their own existence. Science is not really interested in anybody's existence, let alone my existence.
Mc...more
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A friend of mine picked up this book in the airport in Kenya. My own religious beliefs are so undefined, I would like to explore a few different angles. Just finished the memoir/diatribe about the injustices of Islam, check. I'd like to read this on atheism, check. Read a great book on the craziness that is Mormonism, check. And maybe I'll add one of Angie's books about the difference between what passes as modern Christianity and what Jesus actually stood for. Check.
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recommends it for:
everyone
I am currently reading this book, because I have always questioned not my spirituality, but my faith, and whether or not it was misguided. I have also always mistrusted organized religion, as an establishment, as well as the authenticity of the Bible. This book is an interesting look at the both sides and how famous revolutionary scientists such as Darwin and Einstein's faith have been manipulated throughout history to serve evangelical interests.
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I finally managed to get a remaindered copy of The God Delusion. My main reason for waiting this long was not wanting to encourage Richard Dawkins in his tirade against the religious.
I must say in the recent turmult surrounding the publication of this and other neo-Atheistic tomes, I have been somewhat disappointed in the behaviour of the so-called "scientific&q
I must say in the recent turmult surrounding the publication of this and other neo-Atheistic tomes, I have been somewhat disappointed in the behaviour of the so-called "scientific&q
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Read in September, 2007
This was one of the best books I've ever read and no it's not because I don't believe in God, but because although it tries to prove science is better than a faith-based system, it never out right say that God doesn't exist but rather tries to demonstrate how the world will probably be without the extremisms that faith has given the world. Everything is backed by evidence and is a book any and everyone should read.
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Ariel says: Written for scientifically educated people. Atheists have been raised to believe that displaying your atheism is bad manners. The goal of this book, even if Dawkins isn't explicit about it, is to convince these people that they should have the courage to say that they are atheists. Dawkins succeeds at arguing that being an atheist is perfectly legitimate.
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Dawkins is the latest person to be "Rushdied," this time by the Turkish government; giving offense to fundamentalist Muslims seems to put one in good company these days (I'm thinking of the poor, well-intentioned Briths schoolteacher in Sudan). So I'm taking this book off my shelf, where it's sat, unopened, since its purchase, and packing it for holiday reading.
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3 comments
recommends it for:
self congratulatory atheists
When you preach to the choir, I feel like it undermines your incentive to bring your A-game preaching. Although he doesn't do so explicitly, Dawkins appears to assume outright that his audience is self-congratulatory atheists -- either that, or he isn't too worried about his snide tone offending any of the faithful that might stumble into the pathway of this book.
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