The God delusion - Dawkins, Richard
Summary: 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.
Choice Reviews
Dawkins (Oxford), the prolific polemicist who is also a brilliant scientist and erudite writer, has launched another attack on the sacred center of religions: God. He declares God a delusion and devotes 350-plus pages to elaborate on this theme. The book is replete with the absurdities of many self-proclaimed religionists, and disposes of scientific proofs for God with ease. It dismantles the framework in which God becomes plausible, and illustrates how religions have led to war, bigotry, and child abuse. Virulent attacks, whether on belief systems or on governments, whether with words or bloody deeds, arise from moral outrage or the victim complex. They are based on the conviction that their targets represent all that is wrong/evil in the world, and are spurred by the hope that enemies will be eliminated by such words or acts. Their authors are ignorant of, or choose to ignore, anything positive that their enemies might have done. Though it is doubtful that these authors will succeed in completely decimating the adversary, their attacks can have reformatory effects on the enemy and on their own group. For these reasons, more than for any originality in the thesis, this book is a worthy addition to humanity's cultural history. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-level undergraduates through faculty/researchers. Copyright 2007 American Library Association.
