Scan barcode
A review by kevin_shepherd
The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins
5.0
“The religion of one age is the literary entertainment of the next.” -Ralph Waldo Emerson
“The world would be astonished if it knew how great a proportion of its brightest ornaments, of those most distinguished even in popular estimation for wisdom and virtue, are complete skeptics in religion.” -John Stuart Mill
As a rationalist and a skeptic of all things supernatural, I find myself in a small but growing minority. Reading Dawkins (and Hitchens for that matter) reminds me that I’m in good company. Dawkins gives me license to dare count myself among the likes of John Lennon, Douglas Adams, Sir David Attenborough, Carl Sagan, Bertrand Russell, and Arthur C. Clark. He also provides me with the added opportunity of further distancing myself, both rationally and philosophically, from jackasses like Pat Robertson, Oral Roberts, Fred Phelps, Jesse Helms, Jerry Falwell, and Marjorie Taylor Greene.
I know, I know. Richard Dawkins can come across as arrogant and snooty. I sometimes agree. I also find that quality rather endearing. He is assertive because he knows he’s right. He doesn’t tiptoe around an issue when it can be better addressed with a headlong confrontation. If you’re a theist who is easily offended, or even an agnostic waffling between rationality and civility, this book may infuriate you. If so, I’m glad. If your ideology can’t withstand an occasional full frontal assault then maybe you should reexamine your ideology.
Of course, if one finds Dawkins intolerable one could always advocate for the reinstatement of heresy and blasphemy laws—such laws very effectively squelched the “arrogance” of Giordano Bruno (psst! he was burned at the stake).
“There is one notable thing about our Christianity: bad, bloody, merciless, money-grabbing, and predatory… Ours is a terrible religion. The fleets of the world could swim in spacious comfort in the innocent blood it has spilled.” -Mark Twain
“The world would be astonished if it knew how great a proportion of its brightest ornaments, of those most distinguished even in popular estimation for wisdom and virtue, are complete skeptics in religion.” -John Stuart Mill
As a rationalist and a skeptic of all things supernatural, I find myself in a small but growing minority. Reading Dawkins (and Hitchens for that matter) reminds me that I’m in good company. Dawkins gives me license to dare count myself among the likes of John Lennon, Douglas Adams, Sir David Attenborough, Carl Sagan, Bertrand Russell, and Arthur C. Clark. He also provides me with the added opportunity of further distancing myself, both rationally and philosophically, from jackasses like Pat Robertson, Oral Roberts, Fred Phelps, Jesse Helms, Jerry Falwell, and Marjorie Taylor Greene.
I know, I know. Richard Dawkins can come across as arrogant and snooty. I sometimes agree. I also find that quality rather endearing. He is assertive because he knows he’s right. He doesn’t tiptoe around an issue when it can be better addressed with a headlong confrontation. If you’re a theist who is easily offended, or even an agnostic waffling between rationality and civility, this book may infuriate you. If so, I’m glad. If your ideology can’t withstand an occasional full frontal assault then maybe you should reexamine your ideology.
Of course, if one finds Dawkins intolerable one could always advocate for the reinstatement of heresy and blasphemy laws—such laws very effectively squelched the “arrogance” of Giordano Bruno (psst! he was burned at the stake).
“There is one notable thing about our Christianity: bad, bloody, merciless, money-grabbing, and predatory… Ours is a terrible religion. The fleets of the world could swim in spacious comfort in the innocent blood it has spilled.” -Mark Twain