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| The God Delusion | 
| List Price: $27.00
Buy New: $3.81
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Avg. Customer Rating:   (based on 1286 reviews)
Sales Rank: 4314
Category: Book
Author: Richard Dawkins
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Studio: Houghton Mifflin
Manufacturer: Houghton Mifflin
Label: Houghton Mifflin
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 416
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.3
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6 x 1.6
ISBN: 0618680004
Dewey Decimal Number: 211.8
EAN: 9780618680009
ASIN: 0618680004
Publication Date: September 18, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 Entertaining but... November 10, 2008
6 out of 10 found this review helpful
Let me start by saying that I am currently in the middle of a PhD in evolutionary biology, and I also have a bachelors degree in philosophy - specifically focusing on epistemology, science and religion.
Dawkins' book is enjoyable however there are a number of problems. Throughout I couldn't help but feel he is an extremely angry man. He presents a good reason to be angry, but still, something about every sentense felt angry in tone.
Dawkins is not a biblical scholar, nor a philosopher of religion. I would recommend a book such as Stephen Davies introduction to the philosophy of religion for those that are truely interested in evaluating arguments around the hypothesis of a theistic god. Davies goes through theistic and athiestic arguments succinctly and in an easy to understand manner.
What this book does is highlight some of the absurdity present in the major theistic religions and texts. It is often amusing and I do not mean to fully condemn it. It touches on some of the philosophical arguments, but does not critique them adequately. Basically I see this book as what would happen if you got an erudite evolutionary biologist with an antipathy to religion to do some reading on the flaws of major organised religion and report back.
If you want a light book looking at religion and its flaws written well, this is for you.
 Must read! November 9, 2008
2 out of 4 found this review helpful
Transforms the traditional outsiders opinion on religion. With scientific and philosophical logic and reasoning Dawkins transforms religion from a respected honored tradition to what it really is: a mental disorder. God bless you Dawkins. (Pun intended)
An Atheist Handbook November 8, 2008
10 out of 11 found this review helpful
There have only been 719 reviews to date, so far so I thought it needed another. This title, now available in paperback has some comments on criticisms of the hardback edition in a new introduction and amazon are currently offering it at half price.
Why has this book been so controversial? Well Dawkins isn't a theologian (nor does he need to be, but more on that later) he is an evolutionary biologist and is famous from his books wherein he developed the pioneering gene's eye view of evolution (instead of the level of the individual animal) in books such as 'the selfish gene' and 'the extended phenotype'. It seems that being a symbol of modern neo-darwinian theory he found himself the target for the oddest attacks from creationists, people who said his field wasn't a field at all but an ungodly contradiction of the biblical story. In his biology books, Dawkins famously tosses in a few asides about how silly religious faith is and how so many of their holiest observances seem to be based on just so much made-up fairytale nonsense.
Finally it seems that being on the defensive against fundamentalists did not suit his nature and he published his first non-science book - 'The God Delusion'. Despite taking the offensive he keeps firm hold of his scientific methodology and establishes through reason and logic how pretty much everything in religion is wrong. How silly the arguments are for God, how we don't need it for ethics, How it doesn't even provide much comfort and so on.
None of Dawkin's arguments are particularly new and groundbreaking. What he achieves in this book is the rather less revolutionary though incredibly useful act of bringing all the arguments together. This is why I would call it an atheist's handbook. You can neatly look up an argument to trounce a theist and then follow it up with his excellent bibliography. Some of the criticism based on the hardback was due to the fact that Dawkins had no religious training, and he dispenses with this rather juvenile complaint in the introduction to the paperback.
If you're an atheist, you'll love it, if you're someone who just 'doesn't believe in god much' then it might expand your mind and you will probably put it down as an atheist. If you're religious? It will ask you hard questions which I hope anyone reading this will have the courage to do honestly to make them think about what they choose to accept as true.
So far, this is the most important book of the 21st century.
Interesting, but Difficult read November 1, 2008
0 out of 4 found this review helpful
Mr. Dawkins is obviously an intelligent man and cites more references than I ever cared to read in one work, but I give him credit. He is extremely convincing of his arguments, almost to the point of being condescending to anyone who doesnt think like his definition of an athiest. His verbage is a bit like studying for the SAT again. Is it really necessary to write that way to get your point across? I know what those words mean, but if he was so convicted in his ideology, then he would have made it easier for people to understand as opposed to showing everyone how smart he is. I also thought his "victimization" of athiests as social outcasts was interesting, and perhaps in some circles, true, but I think it was a bit of a weak point. His complete rational destruction of religiong as an institution, is absolutely beautiful. However, his points to disprove Gods existence are only as provable as the controls and variables of any experiment. It has been proven time and time again, that the impossible has been proven possible, so I think Mr. Dawkins should not judge the impossible so harshly.
Everyone should read this October 31, 2008
2 out of 6 found this review helpful
Everyone should read this book. If it does its job, and if you're rational, it'll convince you that there is no god.
This is the book that started new atheism. Please stand up and be counted. We can do it!
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