My review of The God Delusion, by Richard Dawkins

The God Delusion

by Richard Dawkins

My rating: 4 out of 5 stars

This is a great read and will, I suspect, be more confronting to agnostics than to worshippers, it's thoroughness and well-argued points really putting the reader on the spot and making them think, rationally.

English biologist Richard Dawkins is a professorial fellow of New College, Oxford and former holder of the Charles Simonyi Chair for the Public Understanding of Science at the University of Oxford. He therefore has no need to seek profile, as certain of his detractors attacked him for over this mega seller. Most true religious believers I've spoken to remain unthreatened by Dawkins' powerful polemic. Some have accused him of preaching atheism in the same way religious zealots proselytise. That was not the impression I came away with. Nor do I believe Dawkins guilty of polarising here, that mind-split was already centuries old before he was born. He certainly fuels it well though.

In December 2006, this reached No.4 in the New York Times Hardcover Nonfiction Best Seller list, remaining on the list for 51 weeks. By January 2010, the English version had sold over 2 million copies.

I read it with some deep grins and pensive frowns. I found this as meticulously researched and presented as I expected of such a preeminent academic. He's at times a cranky old debater, almost comical in itself, but his passion for logic and reason is mightily impressive.

Not something you can flick casually through, I don't think, but the requisite intellectual effort is stimulating, the end result rewarding the cerebral value inestimable.

Some things need spelling out sometimes and here's a splendid example of that.