At first glance, the typographic layout of Dawkins' The God Delusion is beautiful. Gray headers, centralized title pages, full-capital section titles, they all work perfectly. Definitely worth commenting on.

The book was a great read. It is one of the best non-fiction books I have read this summer. Dawkins is continuously interesting from page 1 to the end. His prose is light and readable, even witty at times, and (having been raised Catholic and having nearly used the word "defection" to describe my path outwards from religion) the chapter on religion and the education and abuse of children was strikingly persuasive. His open contempt towards religion has made it so that, in a way, I do not think I'll enjoy any book that tries to reconcile science and religion ever again; Dawkins does not do this at all in this book. The section on NOMA (the erroneous concept that science and religion should remain completely separate fields) was extremely enlightening.

Dawkins is openly, but rationally and understandably so, aggressive towards most things having to do with religion. A lot of people seem to have been offended by this; I just think he's using a catapult to return a few stones that were thrown at him and, well, every other atheist in the western world. ( )

really just so good. dawkins has a great, witty, smart, writing style, and really supports his arguments. this is an important book. ( )

I too got caught up in the hype - but soon began to regret it: you might as well ask a sociopath to write a meaningful work on why social relations are pointless and therefore irrational.One of the most exquisite moments on radio for me recently has been to hear Dawkins squirm and flounder when asked to explain and justify the existence for humans, or the evolutionary purpose, of anything remotely metaphysical (such as, say, beauty, the effects of music, and the pursuit of philosophical truth) that lie beyond the ken and stricture of his own scientific rationality. He simply cannot do this convincingly, despite his considerable purely intellectual powers.There's a lot wrong with religion, and with reliance on religion but man does not live by bread alone - hence, indeed, the roots of science itself.

Inspirational book, with so much information and detail. I loved his enthusiasm for his subject and it gave me the confidence to say I don't believe in god and the tools to explain why. ( )

I hear often that Dawkins is a shrill, abusive person when it comes to religion. This really doesn't show through in The God Delusion. Sure, he is very much anti-religion and pulls no punches, but he doesn't attack religion in an unfair or disingenuous manner.

The information in the book is good, but the presentation can run to the dry side for quite a bit of it. I especially liked the section on religion as a Darwinian by-product, a new explanation that I hadn't heard yet and one that makes some sense.

That said, I don't think this book works well at his stated goal of converting people to atheism. Let's face it, if rational arguments worked to convince people, there wouldn't be any religion left in this world. ( )