The God Delusion
Has Religion Done So Much Harm That We Should Actively Oppose It?

Richard Dawkins has been called 'Darwin's Rottweiler' for his ferocious and effective defence of evolution. The world's foremost atheist and a world-renowned biologist, he is also brave enough to challenge the very premise of all religion. Dawkins's critics call him hostile and confrontational and, many people wonder, what is he so angry about? Has religion, specifically Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, really done so much harm that we should actively oppose it?

Well, yes. In the past five years, we have witnessed the evils that men do in the name of God. In his new book Dawkins uses historical and contemporary evidence to show how religion fuels and justifies war, encourages bigotry and xenophobia, and damages children's intellectual development. He makes a compelling case that belief in God is not just irrational but incredibly harmful.

Still, many religious people find it hard to imagine how, without religion, one can be good. Dawkins argues that our moral sense has a Darwinian origin, and he answers, "Do you really mean to tell me the only reason you try to be good is to gain God's approval and reward or to avoid his disapproval and punishment? That's not morality, that's just sucking up." Further, and more seriously, Dawkins says, "Those who literally wish to base their morality on the Bible have either not read it or have not understood it."

With rigour and wit, Richard Dawkins examines 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. And he offers exhilarating insight into the advantages of atheism to the individual and society, not the least of which is a clearer, truer appreciation of the universe's wonders than any faith could ever muster.

Format: 152 x 234 mm, 406 pages, paperback

About the Author
Richard Dawkins has taught zoology at the University of California at Berkeley and at Oxford University, and he is now the Charles Simonyi Professor of the Public Understanding of Science at Oxford, a position he has held since 1995. The Wall Street Journal said his "passion is supported by an awe-inspiring literary craftsmanship." The New York Times Book Review has hailed him as a writer who "understands the issues so clearly that he forces his reader to understand them too." Among his previous books are 'The Ancestor's Tale', 'The Selfish Gene', 'The Blind Watchmaker', 'Climbing Mount Improbable', 'Unweaving the Rainbow', and 'A Devil's Chaplain'.

".... passionately stated and poetically expressed, but rooted in reason and evidence."
Steven Pinker, Johnstone Professor, Harvard University

"Richard Dawkins has had a profound effect on so much of our collective thinking, and 'The God Delusion' continues his thought-provoking tradition."
J. Craig Venter, decoder of the human genome

".... in training his Darwinian guns on religion, he risks destroying a larger target than he intends."
Jim Holt, New York Times