This is an important book. I won’t say it changed my world, but it did change some thoughts. You need to read it.
This is my first introduction to Richard Dawkins, so I didn’t know what to expect. And, at the beginning, I was a bit confounded: I got the sense this would be a religion-bashing tract, and I wasn’t sure I wanted to continue. That, and it was incredibly dense. I almost stopped.
Maybe it’s my stubbornness, or my need to finish every book I start (the only one I can remember not finishing was The Theory of the Leisure Class, by Thorstein Veblen. That was undergrad, and voluntary reading, so cut me some slack). And I’m glad I did.
Dawkins’ ideas are fresh and refreshing. He has a way of discussing thing, “big” things, in a rational way. I found many of my confusions about religions tackled in this book. (Confusions as to how so many people accept on “blind faith” being one of them – have you seen Jesus Camp yet? – this power-in-numbers, God-elected-me president, if-you’re-not-like-us-you-should-die, “new” American ideal is horrifying.)
In the end, I would say that Dawkins does not condone belief in God. He is an avowed atheist, but I do not think he would try to “un-convert” someone from his/her chosen faith. I do believe he would ask him/her to question his/her belief.
Of course, questionning and looking for evidence goes against Faith, by definition. Oh well. Read it.
As a side note, I found an interesting piece in the NY Times recently about Dawkins and a colleague having trouble getting into a theater showing a creationist documentary they were being quoted in. What is Ben Stein thinking?
Finished: 3/30/08
Pages: 374 (not including notes and appendices)
Running Page Count: 5,455
Posted by acelini 
