Book Review: The God Delusion

At long last, I have finished The God Delusion by Cambridge scientist Richard Dawkins. All polls are closed, the verdict is in: I am not atheist material. I am not religious either, despite my fervor for yoga and Buddhism (which are philosophies, not religions). Due to this, I found Dawkins’ book fascinating, humorous and timely.

My favorite quote from the book comes not from its author, but from comedian George Carlin: “Religion has actually convinced people that there’s an invisible man – living in the sky – who watches everything you do, every minute of every day. And the invisible man has a special list of ten things he does not want you to do. And if you do any of these ten things, he has a special place, full of fire and smoke and burning and torture and anguish, where he will send you to live and suffer and burn and choke and scream and cry forever and ever ‘til the end of time… But He loves you!”

Part of Dawkins’ genius as a writer is his appropriate use of other writers’ work. He even uses anonymous internet writers’ words. For example:

Arguments for God’s Existence
38. Argument from Sheer Will: I do believe in God! I do believe in God! I do I do I do! I do believe in God! Therefore God exists.

39. Argument from Non-Belief: The majority of the world’s population are non-believers in Christianity. This is just what Satan intended. Therefore God exists.

40. Argument from Post-Death Experience: Person X died an atheist. He now realizes his mistake. Therefore God exists.

41. Argument from Emotional Blackmail: God loves you. How could you be so heartless as not to believe in him? Therefore God exists.

In the chapter entitled, “Why There Almost Certainly Is No God,” Dawkins sums up his argument against a supernatural deity as such: “The natural temptation is to attribute the appearance of design to actual design itself. … The temptation is a false one, because the designer hypothesis immediately raises the larger problem of who designed the designer. Darwin and his successors have shown how living creatures… have evolved by slow, gradual degrees from simple beginnings. We can now safely say that the illusion of design in living creatures is just that – an illusion.”

The chapter called “The Roots of Religion” touches on the roots of why many people of our generation (I’m not sure whether it’s Generation X or Y, but that’s beside the point) have rejected the religion of their parents. Dawkins writes (with frustration) that, “Faith (belief without evidence) is a virtue. The more your beliefs defy the evidence, the more virtuous you are. There are some weird tings (such as the Trinity) that we are not meant to understand. Don’t even try to understand one of these, for the attempt might destroy it. Learn how to gain fulfillment in calling it a mystery.” This contentment with "the mystery of faith" is precisely why I couldn't continue along the Catholic path that my parents laid out for me.

Two other major points he covers (among many, some of which are so scientifically esoteric that I really don’t understand them) are the teaching of creationism in schools and the indoctrination of children into the religion of their parents. I found this to be a memorable fact: “To get an idea of the scale of this error [considering the Earth to be 6,000 years old] it is equivalent to believing the distance from New York to San Francisco is 7.8 yards.”

Upon reading this book, I am further away than ever from belief in the supernatural aspects of Christianity (virgin birth, resurrection, purgatory, etc.) However, I am still a staunch believer in universal energy, something more vast and all-encompassing than the human mind. Something divine that dwells within and without us…