Dawkins has been in the news a fair bit lately because of this book and I finally got around to reading it yesterday. Even though I read about the book from editorials, blogs and other such sources I was surprised at how little of its contents I knew beforehand. Sadly, this is because instead of talking about the content of the book, most people did not get past its topic.
Whether in South Park, on The Globe and Mail's editorial page, or even here in the last Dawkins thread I posted (link), people call him mean, a bully, disrespectful, a dick etc. His 'crime' is not that he is any of these things but merely that he choses to speak about religion. People have bestowed such a hallowed place for religion in society that merely discussing it in a frank and reasonable manner is enough to cause such hostility and outrage. If instead of religion his book concerned politics, he'd be treated as a reasonable critic, far, far removed from such crazies as Coulter. It's sad, but this special religious respect is political correctness gone absolutely mad - its not that you can't use certain words but you can't question vast swathes of very important ideas that people hold!
For those who don't find the idea of discussing religion the way you'd discuss foreign policy outrageous, I highly recommend this book. Contrary to what you might have read/heard, he isn't a strong atheist (but apart from the stupid 'rebel' teenagers, who is?) and he doesn't actually disprove god (as no reasonable person should expect anyone to do), he just offers his view of why there probably isn't one. The part on god actually covers only 2 of the 10 chapters, with the rest talking about religion, morality, etc.
My mind was not changed by the book since my views weren't much different from his (ie, technically agnostic, though sceptic of a deity's existence), but I did find his reasoning and views to be much more well thought-out, complete and resting on much firmer ground than mine. But I suppose that's why he's the one writing these books and I'm the one reading them
In any case, its definitely worth a read even if you already agree to varying degrees with a position like his. To top it all off, the last part of the last chapter is one of the most inspirational things I've read in a long time.
This being ATOT, here is the Cliff:
Regardless of your position, but provided that you do not mind discussing religion in frank and open terms, this is a very interesting, inspirational, enlightening and definitely worthwhile read which doesn't deserve the bad press its gotten.
Whether in South Park, on The Globe and Mail's editorial page, or even here in the last Dawkins thread I posted (link), people call him mean, a bully, disrespectful, a dick etc. His 'crime' is not that he is any of these things but merely that he choses to speak about religion. People have bestowed such a hallowed place for religion in society that merely discussing it in a frank and reasonable manner is enough to cause such hostility and outrage. If instead of religion his book concerned politics, he'd be treated as a reasonable critic, far, far removed from such crazies as Coulter. It's sad, but this special religious respect is political correctness gone absolutely mad - its not that you can't use certain words but you can't question vast swathes of very important ideas that people hold!
For those who don't find the idea of discussing religion the way you'd discuss foreign policy outrageous, I highly recommend this book. Contrary to what you might have read/heard, he isn't a strong atheist (but apart from the stupid 'rebel' teenagers, who is?) and he doesn't actually disprove god (as no reasonable person should expect anyone to do), he just offers his view of why there probably isn't one. The part on god actually covers only 2 of the 10 chapters, with the rest talking about religion, morality, etc.
My mind was not changed by the book since my views weren't much different from his (ie, technically agnostic, though sceptic of a deity's existence), but I did find his reasoning and views to be much more well thought-out, complete and resting on much firmer ground than mine. But I suppose that's why he's the one writing these books and I'm the one reading them
In any case, its definitely worth a read even if you already agree to varying degrees with a position like his. To top it all off, the last part of the last chapter is one of the most inspirational things I've read in a long time.This being ATOT, here is the Cliff:
Regardless of your position, but provided that you do not mind discussing religion in frank and open terms, this is a very interesting, inspirational, enlightening and definitely worthwhile read which doesn't deserve the bad press its gotten.
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