The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins

The God Delusion

Richard Dawkins

                                            

The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins is a non-fiction book written back in 2006, and as of now the English edition have sold over 2 million copies.

One should keep in mind that Dawkins is not just a writer but an evolutionary biologist and ethologist, a background from which he draws heavily upon during the course of his writing.

Dawkins himself claims inspiration and idea from Lila written by Robert Pirsig, specifically the statement that: "when one person  suffers from a delusion it is called insanity. When many people suffer from a delusion it is called religion". 

Mr Dawkins himself claims to be an atheist (well, a 9/10 leaning towards 10 as certainty without proof would be considered as bad as religion) and as an interesting side note, just to point out the kind of attention he has been receiving for his work, Encyclopedia Dramatica dedicated an article about him, claiming he is the atheist God.

The main plot so to speak when it comes to a non-fictional book is heavily reliant on the scientific point of view when it comes to the god hypothesis, how one could never claim the "God excuse" as a defense of an idea as it lacks proof.

As a pleasant compliment to similar books on the market that openly criticizes religion The God Delusion does not waste time or pages going through history with for example the crusades or the witch processes, they are of course mentioned, not mentioning these occurrences (for lack of a better word) when speaking of religion would be like speaking of cheese without mentioning cheddar (or Venezuelan beaver-cheese).

Dawkins does spend a lot of time discussing the works and theories of others incorporating their ideas into his own and on more than one occasion as when it comes to theologists, disproves them as unreliable in the face of facts, never dismissing anything without cause or proof that the information or theory is false.

The God Delusion offers a lot of topics to be read and the most important person in this work mentioned would be Darwin, someone who it is apparent that Dawkins admires. 

The book is separated into two subplots so to speak, where the first chapters are spent discussing and summarizing proof that there most likely is no God and the second half revolving around morality and religion.

For example Dawkins discusses the issue of morality, religion and children as a specific entry into the book, he argues that to say "a Christian child" or  "a Muslim" child would be little short of an abomination as this categorizes a child as part of something a child is unable to comprehend and the use of such language should be discouraged.

Unfortunately Dawkins have a tendency to over formulate himself in writing he utilizes a very heavy language with very complicated formulations of his ideas on several occasions making him a quite heavy read, simply put he tends to be quite wordy.

In his defense dealing with such a massive topic I will not claim him to be poorly thought out, because doing so would not be considered fair or even realistic as I sincerely believe that nobody could've done a work of the magnitude any better. 

The second problem also draws from his choices of words, if you are not familiar with the difference between for example deitism, agnostics and atheist etc you are in for quite a ride as you will undoubtedly have to refer back to the first chapter where he gives a quick introduction to these theories (and with quick I'm talking about around 10 pages), making it quite an annoying read unless you are already settled in with these ideas.

Besides the "God theory" there are a few other central pillars namely the issue of morality without religion, natural selection and one of the most important once that are so often left out of other works, the claim that atheism is proof of a healthy individual who can formulate his or her own ideas.

The God Delusion does not aim at converting anyone from a religion , not directly it seems more aimed towards the masses which are in between, uncertain and of course those of us who already consider ourselves atheists and are simply looking for a good read.

As a whole this book is one of my personal favorites and I would consider it very enlightening and therefore a recommended read to anyone wanting to expand their minds even if they don't agree with the theories presented.