Book Review: The God Delusion

-- Richard Dawkins

Though I have been agnostic (more of an atheist) ever since I started reading and having discussions with friends, who have strong opinions (one way or the other) about god, religion, traditions etc.., I never read any authentic work that presents comprehensive research done on such topics. I heard about Richard Dawkins and his The God Delusion in one such discussion at my work (which is very open to such discussions on a dedicated mailing list for people to express their views on anything under the Sun). And, Dawkins instantly made to my all time favorite author list.

Just after turning a few pages, I realized that my romance with this book is going to be a long lasting one. Interestingly, neither there was any bashing on the believer philosophy nor the usage of strong or insulting words, while presenting the work, which is organized almost as an academic book. The book starts with a chapter that calls God a hypothesis, as several experiments were done world over to verify the innumerable claims from times immemorial and how *all* of them failed. It goes on to discuss why there almost certainly is no god by discussing several things from religious scriptures, people's experience, quotes from popular scientists etc.,

After doing a great job in setting a proper foundation, and giving readers a million things to ponder, the author moves on to more interesting and a bit complicated issues like the birth of religion, and what would have made every single human habitat to come up with or believe in and follow one or the other religion, can people be moral with out religion, will the world become chaotic with out any religion etc.,

It concludes with a peek on how subversive can a religion be towards science, how dangerous can absolutism get and discusses some interesting and generally overlooked logical fallacies, again with excellent real life examples.

A highly recommended book. There is enough content to make everyone silently ponder, whether one is a pro-theist, agnostic or atheist.