The God Delusion

By: Richard Dawkins

Narrated by: Richard Dawkins, Lalla Ward

Length: 13 hrs and 52 mins

Publisher's summary

Discover magazine recently called Richard Dawkins "Darwin's Rottweiler" for his fierce and effective defense of evolution. Prospect magazine voted him among the top three public intellectuals in the world (along with Umberto Eco and Noam Chomsky). Now Dawkins turns his considerable intellect on religion, denouncing its faulty logic and the suffering it causes.

He critiques God in all his forms, from the sex-obsessed tyrant of the Old Testament to the more benign (but still illogical) Celestial Watchmaker favored by some Enlightenment thinkers. He eviscerates the major arguments for religion and demonstrates the supreme improbability of a supreme being. He shows how religion fuels war, foments bigotry, and abuses children, buttressing his points with historical and contemporary evidence. In so doing, he makes a compelling case that belief in God is not just irrational, but potentially deadly.

Dawkins has fashioned an impassioned, rigorous rebuttal to religion, to be embraced by anyone who sputters at the inconsistencies and cruelties that riddle the Bible, bristles at the inanity of "intelligent design", or agonizes over fundamentalism in the Middle East or Middle America.

©2006 Richard Dawkins (P)2006 Tantor Media, Inc.

Critic reviews

"Richard Dawkins is the leading soothsayer of our time....The God Delusion continues his thought-provoking tradition." (J. Craig Venter, decoder of the human genome)
"The God Delusion is smart, compassionate, and true....If this book doesn't change the world, we're all screwed." (Penn & Teller)
"The world needs...passionate rationalists....Richard Dawkins so stands out through the cutting intelligence of The God Delusion." (James D. Watson, co-discoverer of DNA, author of The Double Helix)

Must read for all believers and non believers alike.

Richard Dawkins take a pragmatic and systematic look at the history of beliefs, the practice of said beliefs and describes in rich detail how they came to be. He also describes how life on this planet or (possibly) others had come to be using the wealth of scientific knowledge at his disposal. I encourage all who have an interest in religions and evolution to listen to this book!

GREAT WEAVING TOGETHER OF HISTORY

Richard Dawkins (not to be confused with the late physicist Stephen Hawking) gets right to the point of showing the reader where we, as humans, went astray in assuming there was Intelligent Design necessary for the Universe's existence. In each of the following chapters of this audio-book, he dismantles the notion of a divine creator. But why is religion so pervasive among humans? He tries to answer this question.

Preface:
Chapter 1: A Deeply Religious Non-Believer
Chapter 2: The God Hypothesis
Chapter 3: Arguments for God's Existence
Chapter 4: Why There Almost Certainly Is No God
Chapter 5: The Roots of Religion
Chapter 6: The Roots of Morality: Why Are We Good?
Chapter 7: The 'Good' Book and the Changing Moral Zeitgeist
Chapter 8: What's Wrong with Religion? Why Be So Hostile?
Chapter 9: Childhood, Abuse and the Escape from Religion
Chapter 10: A Much Needed Gap?

As you may see from the above chapter list, Dawkins covers this subject quite well. I only knocked off one star because of Richard and Lalla's difficult British accent.

A Must Read for Everyone

Enjoyed listening. Bought multiple copies of the book as well so I can lend it out.

Definitely makes you think

Keep an open mind when reading definitely a book that allows you to see other points of views on things and draw your own conclusion.

Great book for understanding why

Great book for understanding why so many people believe in religious doctrine. And how we are all magical thinkers.

A great book with a lot of information and perspective, but sometimes confusing narration.

I enjoyed the book itself, but while both narrators do a fine job, the back and forth is sometimes confusing. Is this person just reading the quotes? Oh now they are another person? Oh now they are both taking turns as the narrator? Because I’m just listening to it, it could be hard to tell. That said, overall it is worth a listen, but I think I’ll also have to follow up by reading it.

Eye Opening

I've held many of the views offered in this book for some time. But I was ashamed of them because I come from a cristian family. After listening to this book I know I'm not alone and there are good reasons for how I saw religion. It is always comforting to have one's beliefs reaffirmed.

A good listen, if you've an open mind.

I don't fully agree with a few of the assertions, I do understand the logic behind them but as an American I have a greater distrust of government than a brit may have. While I agree that religious indoctrination is a form of child abuse I see no cure for it in government education since whichever side is in the majority simply uses it for their own indoctrination assured that their world view is the best one for all people. Leftist indoctrination is not superior to Rightist indoctrination. Both are religious in nature and both are filled with all sorts of bad ideas.

Otherwise I agree wholeheartedly with what he says. I suspect my mother would die of an aneurysm if she were to listen to this book and find that out.

That one book

When I first read these book in my late 20’s, it helped me “cross to the dark side of the force” some would say. This book made my accept my doubts and inquisitive thoughts as something “ok”, that I shouldn’t fear the unknown.

Understanding our world

Of the many hundreds of books, I have read The God Delusion is in the top 10 most important for helping me to understand the world in which we live the way we have developed this people and how we can make improvements to make life better for all of us. My hope is that more and more people will read this book and that from it, a greater understanding will merge between all people.