The God Delusion

By: Richard Dawkins

Narrated by: Richard Dawkins, Lalla Ward

Length: 13 hrs and 52 mins

Publisher's summary

Discover magazine recently called Richard Dawkins "Darwin's Rottweiler" for his fierce and effective defense of evolution. Prospect magazine voted him among the top three public intellectuals in the world (along with Umberto Eco and Noam Chomsky). Now Dawkins turns his considerable intellect on religion, denouncing its faulty logic and the suffering it causes.

He critiques God in all his forms, from the sex-obsessed tyrant of the Old Testament to the more benign (but still illogical) Celestial Watchmaker favored by some Enlightenment thinkers. He eviscerates the major arguments for religion and demonstrates the supreme improbability of a supreme being. He shows how religion fuels war, foments bigotry, and abuses children, buttressing his points with historical and contemporary evidence. In so doing, he makes a compelling case that belief in God is not just irrational, but potentially deadly.

Dawkins has fashioned an impassioned, rigorous rebuttal to religion, to be embraced by anyone who sputters at the inconsistencies and cruelties that riddle the Bible, bristles at the inanity of "intelligent design", or agonizes over fundamentalism in the Middle East or Middle America.

©2006 Richard Dawkins (P)2006 Tantor Media, Inc.

Critic reviews

"Richard Dawkins is the leading soothsayer of our time....The God Delusion continues his thought-provoking tradition." (J. Craig Venter, decoder of the human genome)
"The God Delusion is smart, compassionate, and true....If this book doesn't change the world, we're all screwed." (Penn & Teller)
"The world needs...passionate rationalists....Richard Dawkins so stands out through the cutting intelligence of The God Delusion." (James D. Watson, co-discoverer of DNA, author of The Double Helix)

The God Delusion, or The God, the Bad and the Ugly

Dawkins book is an interesting read that definitely puts into perspective the concept of religion and how it continuous to be used today for nefarious ends; e.i. greed, political gain, and extremism. However, Dawkins does not succeed to completely free the reader's mind of the idea of a real God. In one chapter, 4 I believe, he talks about the statistical chance that earth is a "goldy-locks" planet, and we have evolved over a millennium to be, possibly, the only intelligent, feeling creatures in the whole of the universe. The sheer numbers alone suggest to me something more than chance had to make it possible for the necessary DNA/RNA to just appear in the primordial soup. Statistically, I am probably wrong, but those numbers are so great it is also possible Dawkins is wrong.

Weather burgeoning atheist, or a believer curious on what science has to say about our origin and being human, The God Delusion is an enjoyable, and informative read. As Dawkins himself points out in the book, faith should be able to handle scrutiny, so I especially recommend it for theists who believe they have a strong faith in God. You will either change your mind, or have stronger convictions for it.

Hard to follow

I’m going to have to buy The paperback version maybe I’ll I understand it better than

A delight from start to finish.

All the things you already know, all the arguments you've made, all the counterarguments you've heard, laid out better than you could yourself. It's a long book, and your neck will be sore from nodding your head in agreement with every truth. And who better to narrate it than the author himself?

Outstanding, but narrative tone is too bitter

Would you listen to The God Delusion again? Why?

No, the arguments and message were very clear and there's not enough time in life to re-read books when you don't have to.

What was one of the most memorable moments of The God Delusion?

I enjoyed the discussion of the religious views of America's founding fathers. I also enjoyed the discussion of the moral zeitgeist.

Would you listen to another book narrated by Richard Dawkins and Lalla Ward ?

Perhaps "The Selfish Gene"

If you could give The God Delusion a new subtitle, what would it be?

The title is perfect. I'm not aware of a subtitle.

Any additional comments?

The material is outstanding, but the narrators' overly bitter tone undermines the message to some extent. I would have liked to have heard more about the psychology of why people accept religion (e.g. basic insecurities, disdain for making tough moral decisions, need for external leadership, etc), but perhaps this would be better served by a followup book (?)

Antitheist-approved!

Would you consider the audio edition of The God Delusion to be better than the print version?

It could have been, but I did not enjoy the dual-narrator system. It did not seem consistent, and I think Prof. Dawkins is a fine-enough orator to have done it himself.

What three words best describe Richard Dawkins and Lalla Ward ’s performance?

Just one, please.

If you could give The God Delusion a new subtitle, what would it be?

If Christopher Hitchens hadn't used the title for his own book, "How Religion Poisons Everything" would have worked for this one.

Thought provoking

Would you listen to The God Delusion again? Why?

I might listen to it again. I think he talked about a lot of things that I might gain more from if I were to listen again.

What was the most compelling aspect of this narrative?

I think the most compelling thing is just how illogical religion and god are and how he demonstrates that. If you can listen to it and really think about it without getting emotional, you can see how illogical it all is.

What does Richard Dawkins and Lalla Ward bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

It was interesting having two readers to clearly distinguish between the author's words and others'.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

No. I found myself agreeing with so many things he had to say. I was surprised actually how much I agreed. It's scary to not believe in god or religion when you grow up in a world where so many people believe so strongly and think that without religion you're less of a person. It was nice to hear from someone who has put a lot of thought in to it and made very intelligent and logical arguments.

biblically true refutation of the bible

so many gems, I don't even know where to start. Thank you Prof. Dawkins. loved it.

Distracting at times.

I won't deny that this is an interesting, well researched book. But, i do have a problem with the audiobook. It isn't a problem with the narrators, both Richard Dawkins and Lalla Ward are very well spoken and very easy to listen to throughout. My problem, is the very strange choice of the back-and-forth between the two. It is extremely distracting at times when they switch back and forth, for example, when reading quotes or suddenly switching passages. with an audiobook, i pay much better attention when there is only one narrator, and for this book, i believe, it is very important to pay attention to the points they are trying to make. I feel that the audiobook could have been much better executed by perhaps Richard Dawkins reading one chapter, then Lalla Ward reading the next chapter. that would be much, much less distracting.

The only other problem that i have is that both Richard and Lalla can come off as very condescending, and pompous even, during some of the issues they discuss. While for the most part, i would agree with most of what they are saying, they seem to come off as abraisive in those instances. However, if you watch or listen to Richard Dawkins in interviews, lectures, etc., that just seems to be his personality in general, so that may be more of an issue i have with him, rather than the book itself.

Overall, i would recommend this book, however, i would rather recommend the Kindle or standard book editions, simply because of the distracting narrative styles used in the audiobook.

great book

Once again, Dawkins writes a coherent and logical book that manages to change my mind about the out look with which I view the world. Chapter by chapter he reviews the arguments for the existence of God and offers simple and powerful counterarguments. He then ventures into the reasons why the 'God Idea' may be so pervasive in society.
My only negative comment is his repetition (He must have said "who created the creater?" almost 100 times!) His overuses 'the anthropic principle', a concept that is not all that clear to begin with. Overall, though, it was a good read.

Great Concepts, a little too much rambling

I think that the points made in this book stick to the main point of the book, however Richard Dawkins's method of proving such points take the long way around, so to speak. He gets back around to the main point, but not in a timely manor. It was an enjoyable book though and through, but not easy to stop and start again.