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Loading... The God Delusion (2006)by Richard Dawkins
  
Books Read in 2016 (3,128) » 9 more Required reading for a rational society. (  ) chaosfox | Feb 22, 2019 |  a truly terrible book, consistently taking evidence out of context (e.g. when he talks about horrendous acts committed in the book of judges without alerting his audience to the fact that judges has a cyclical cycle where the israelites fall into immorality before a judge comes to save them) or misinterpreting evidence (e.g. his misinterpretation of aquinas' argument from motion to be using our normative sense of motion rather than the medieval sense of ontological motion [change]) or telling us someone is lying when they say they are religious (e.g. einstein, mlk and freeman dyson are all interested in "the wrong parts of religion", so dawkins informs us that evidently they are not religious and none of their work is religious, despite their own words to the contrary). (  ) livingtoast | Jan 23, 2019 | A thorough refutation of the "reasons" in favor of the existence of God, from the point of view of a Darwinian biologist, mostly using evolution and natural selection to disprove the persistent myths. One of the accusations that is constantly leveled at Dawkins, even by non-believers themselves, is that he is arrogant and condescending. I found nothing of it in this book. Quite to the contrary, I think he even spends too much time and patience trying to refute some of the more obviously flawed arguments for the existence of God or against evolution. For example, it is entirely obvious to me that being compassionate to one another would have many benefits pertinent to our survival both as individuals and as a species, without having to read an entire chapter of justifications. It is quite astonishing how often I found myself laying the book aside in order to reflect on what I've read. Though some parts I found less interesting (the meme theory seemed a bit suspect to me), this is a must read for this day and for anyone who ever stops to consider the world we live in, even if for just a moment. (  ) matija2019 | Jan 8, 2019 | Very good, no doubt, but after all the hype, a little underwhelming, I felt. And frankly a bit too boring. I really think in this school of authors, Hitchens is more readable and generally better while I get a lot more out of Dan Barker even. Still, a good work. ( ) scottcholstad | Dec 25, 2018 | There are definitely interesting and good parts of this book, especially in the later chapters. I preferred the sections that were more informative or philosophical to the ones that were directed at countering any point the creationists had brought up in the past. To me, it's a waste of time to read about why creationists are wrong, since they so obviously are wrong. I also don't plan in engaging in any conversations where I attempt to prove to people who don't use logic why their beliefs are illogical since that is a pointless endeavor, so I didn't get anything out of these sections. At times I believe Dawkins exaggerates the extent to which extreme religious beliefs are mainstream in America to stir up fear that we need to confront this problem. My experience as an American who knows a diverse set of people from many economic, religious, and racial backgrounds is that these extreme beliefs are not as common as he argues, though I'm sure they are much more widespread in particular parts of the country. Still, I couldn't help but see many of his claims as exaggerated based on my experience working with people from all over the country. (  ) 3njennn | Nov 25, 2018 |
 That was the first time I had ever considered, even in my own thoughts to myself, that I could be an atheist. I was 36. My husband was down with this—he told me he was an atheist, too. I felt it was weird we were finally having a conversation about this after being married for six years, but maybe we intrinsically knew all along. In The God Delusion, Dawkins argues that evolution has removed the need for a God hypothesis to explain life, and advances in physics may soon do the same for the universe. Further, the existence of God is a proper question for science, and the answer is no.  Despite the many flashes of brilliance in this book, Dawkins’s failure to appreciate just how hard philosophical questions about religion can be makes reading it an intellectually frustrating experience. Creationists and believers in God are right to see him as their arch-enemy. In The God Delusion he displays what a formidable adversary he is. It is a spirited and exhilarating read. In the current climate of papal/Islamic stand-off, it is timely too.
References to this work on external resources.
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(retrieved from Amazon Thu, 12 Mar 2015 18:13:00 -0400)
Argues that belief in God is irrational, and describes examples of religion's negative influences on society throughout the centuries, such as war, bigotry, child abuse, and violence.
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