I wrote a review of The God Delusion on Amazon. Here’s what I said:
For the last few years, Richard Dawkins has been becoming more and more open and confrontational with his views on religion. A few of the essays in “A Devil’s Chaplain” and this year’s Channel Four documentary “The Root Of All Evil?” left no doubt as how he feels about the growing influence that the religious are having on society. And now he has produced a book on the subject.
And what a fabulous book it is. Dawkins pulls no punches in his criticism of organised religion and the book will (hopefully) be seen as a call to arms for atheists everywhere. The churches have had things their way for far too long and it’s time we stood up to their medieval beliefs.
The core of the book is chapter four. Dawkins admits freely that it’s impossible to prove the non-existance of a supernatural being, but he goes on to show that the existance of something like a god is very improbable. In the process he demolishes most of the common arguments in favour of god’s existance.
The rest of the book isn’t as important as chapter four, but it’s still a very enjoyable read. It will arm you with useful facts to use in discussions with religious people. One of the most interesting sections for me was the one showing that the founding fathers of the USA never intended it to be a christian nation. Another section takes a very funny look at the ludicrous suggestion that the Old Testament of the christian bible can be used as a basis for any sensible moral system.
I know that Dawkins will largely be “preaching to the converted”. It’s unlikely that many religious people will read this book. But if you have any interest at all in the arguments against the existance of god or the huge damage that religion is doing to society, then you should really read this book.