“The God Delusion is smart, compassionate, and true like ice, like fire. If this book doesn’t change the world, we’re all screwed.” — PENN AND TELLER
 

Microsoft Word dictionary defines delusion as “a persistent false belief held in the face of strong contradictory evidence, especially as a symptom of psychiatric disorder.”  Robert M. Pirsig: “When one person suffers from a delusion, it is called insanity. When many people suffer from a delusion it is called Religion.”  
 

If you are the type person who must hold to beliefs regardless of all facts and logic, then this is not the book for you. But if you have the least bit of curiosity as to how there can be hundreds of religions all vociferously claiming to be the “one true religion,” or “the only way,” or some such phraseology. Dawkins’ flawless logic and impeccable background research will enlighten and delight. 
 

Dawkins says this book was written for the purpose of raising consciousness on several levels, but the primary one is to show that it is a perfectly reasonable life stance to be an atheist. As well, the book is a frontal assault on the only irrational behavior generally condoned, even accepted and supported by society — religion. No other behaviors or claims receive a virtually automatic pass without justification the way those of religions do. Dawkins spends considerable effort in sharp analytical examination of why this is so.
 

In his preface he notes that if you were born in Arkansas, chances are that you are a Christian, whereas if you were born in Afghanistan, chances are you are a Muslim. And, without a doubt, if you reversed places and parents of birth you would reverse religions also. A moment of reflection should make one wonder what is wrong with this picture?
 

Most persons who profess a particular religion came to do so as a result of having their parents’ religion thrust upon them before they reach an age of mature intellect. This book lays out the reasoned logic for why that is not a practice in the best interest of the mental and moral integrity of the child nor in the best interest of the human race. It makes the point that to say that a child is a Catholic child or a Muslim child or a Baptist child is as nonsensical as saying that a child is a Keynesian child or a Monetarist child or a Strict-Constructionist child.
 

Children don’t have the maturity to know what their views on religion should or should not be. They should mature enough to take comparative religion courses to see the similarities and mutual exclusiveness of all religions to know that all can’t be “the true religion” as each one claims. Only then should they be allowed to accept a religion of their choice and even then should never be forced to do so.
 

In fact, Dawkins suggests that we imagine with “John Lennon, a world with no religion. Imagine no suicide bombers, no 9/11, no 7/7, no Crusades, no witch hunts, no Gunpowder Plot, no Indian partition, no Israeli/Palestinian wars, no Serb/Croat/Muslim massacres, no persecution of Jews as ‘Christ-killers’, no Northern Ireland ‘troubles’, no ‘honor killings’, no shiny-suited bouffant-haired televangelists fleecing gullible people of their money (‘God wants you to give till it hurts’). Imagine no Taliban to blow up ancient statues, no public beheadings of blasphemers, no flogging of female skin for the crime of showing an inch of it.” (We could now add the Israel/Lebanese war and the Shiite/Sunni Iraq war.)
 

Or (again quoting from the preface) “Perhaps you feel that agnosticism is a reasonable position, but that atheism is just as dogmatic as religious belief.” If so, his detailed argument that “the God idea is a scientific hypothesis that deserves as skeptical evaluation as any other” is a powerful incentive for you to read the book.   
 

Perhaps you have been told that theologians and philosophers have developed convincing arguments for the existence of God. Dawkins examines these and shows in flawless logic why all are extremely weak cases.
 

Or perhaps if you are of the opinion that God exists or else how does the universe exist, you may be curious and shaken when you read his chapter titled, “Why there almost certainly is no God.” Dawkins explains with simple logic how Darwinian evolution through natural selection has presented us with the world we know, and shows how the appearance of design in nature is illusion.
 

If you think that God exists because religion is so ubiquitous, because all people have religion, or that without God and religion there would be no morals you will want to read Dawkins vigorous explanations. They are almost guaranteed to be of a fresh and interesting angle from anything you’ve heard before.
 

Let’s suppose you think that faith is not for you but that the world is better off for having religion. Dawkins suggests several important reasons that you may want to rethink this position.
 

In more consciousness-raising, he explains how “a proper understanding of the magnificence of the real world, while never becoming a religion, can fill the inspirational role that religion has historically — and inadequately — usurped.”
 

Dawkins blasts religion from all angles, and when he is finished, one is simply left with no need for it. He and John Lennon are very convincing that the world would be better off without it. I can imagine it. You can too.
 

In summary, if reason appeals to you, as opposed to dogma, or unsubstantiated claims that you have been told to believe but don’t know why, you will love this book. It answers those questions that have been hanging in the back of your mind all these years, those that you could never get answered before. I found it educational on many fronts. Dawkins writing style is very entertaining, often humorous. I highly recommend it. Five stars.      
 

© 2006 R. Leland Waldrip