Review : The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins

MY BRIEF STORY

This is the first book i have read by Richard Dawkins. I picked up the book 2 years ago, largely being drawn to the sensationalist title. I started reading, barely 20 pages in, and lost the motivation to go on. The writing was thick, littered with quotes, examples, formal terms. Someday, I thought.

I finally picked it up a week go, determined to finish; confident that the interim 2 years would have made me better equipped.

God, and Religion have always amused me, for as long as I can remember. My father and my sister are devote followers. But thanks to my mother’s and aunt’s aversion to the crassness of Hinduism, I didn’t grow out to be ignorant about religion. My mother is a Christian, and believes in a spiritual, personal God. Meanwhile my aunt(with whom I spent much time growing up), never showed any interest towards religion, and was always a bored spectator in the family rituals. You could sense that she was a non-believer, just not a loud one. I was never explicitly told to decry religion or be an atheist, by any of them, but their attitudes towards religion, I think, had an unconscious effect on me, for which I am very grateful.

THE BOOK

The God Delusion is a similar attempt to dissuade believers, from a brilliant Evolutionary Biologist who shares, much of the world’s and scientific community’s frustration with Religion. He is passionate in his arguments, which are rational, scientific and unforgiving. The book is categorized into 10 chapters, each of them focusing on a certain aspect of Religion. The starting is slow, and you may need to drudge through the formalism, but around second chapter, it picks up much of its pace. The area in which the book shows no dearth, is the well researched real life examples, analogies, anecdotes, quotes from famous personalities. It sometimes, becomes overbearing, seeing Dawkins taking apart the arguments from Bible, and Creationist remarks. But it may be argued, that a capable atheist should know how to deal with them, and Dawkins is a master in the art. He carefully dissects the arguments in favor and against of Religion, and doesn’t refrain in giving the readers many different perspectives.

The Strong points -

The book is at its strongest, and the most interesting when it argues from the point of view of Evolutionary Biology and Evolutionary Psychology; the former, in which Dawkins is an expert. The middle chapters about arguments against God, roots of religion, and roots of morality, have been the most enlightening to me. His explanation of Natural Selection, Anthropic principle, and Irreducible Complexity are lucid. The quotes from Einstein, Carl Sagan, Douglas Adams, Bertrand Russel, and many other scientists, keep sprouting to offer wisdom between pages. The parts about raising consciousness through science do not fail to inspire. He gives serious credibility to almost laughable experiments,  and claims, then goes on to prove their internal inconsistencies. It provides much amusement, and insight into human stupidity. On a more serious note, Dawkins in the end, is entirely successful in proving that God Hypothesis is false, and that Religion(Superstition or Ignorance, in general) causes real harm; that religion should be denied the position it has in our society, culture, education; and it should not be accepted, but fought against. I think this is a reason enough to read the book.

The weak points -

Dawkins mainly focuses on Church and Christianity throughout the book, as his punching bag. I became increasingly bored when he kept talking about Old Testaments, and New Testaments. Creationist arguments, once fun to dissect and ridicule, later fail to amuse. Many examples deal with what x-pastor/theologist/creationist said, and then proceeding to dissect it. Later on in the book, I simply skimmed those parts, and jumped to solid Science.

Dawkins is passionate, bold, confrontational. His repeating and rephrasing of certain key arguments, although never unnecessary or out of context, give a hint that he is trying to smash his way out, through sheer will. That may be admirable, but it isn’t elegant. This is the central weakness which stops this book from being a great piece of scientific literature.

Conclusion -

Richard Dawkins really really wants the world to be a good place! He explains science behind life, natural selection and human existence brilliantly, but sometimes misses the point with his obsessive over-engagement, of religious ideas. All in all, if you selectively skip over some parts, this book provides much scientific and rational clarity.

Note - 

As I said, this is my first book of Richard Dawkins. His other books about Evolution are much more highly regarded and praised than this, which I have yet to read. I may re-evaluate my impression of this book, after reading more of his scientific writings.