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The cover of The God Delusion

The God Delusion

Richard Dawkins

Richard Dawkins makes the case that a supernatural creator almost certainly does not exist, traces religion to misfiring evolved instincts, and argues that morality needs no God.

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11 parts, about 30 minutes to read.

Why read it

  • Treats God as a scientific hypothesis and argues that a supernatural designer is almost certainly absent, using natural selection as the alternative
  • Proposes that religion is a misfiring byproduct of useful mental habits, such as a child's readiness to believe what grown ups say
  • Argues that our moral sense has Darwinian roots, and that scripture and a shifting moral consensus show morality does not come from religion

Who it is for

  • Readers questioning the faith they were raised in
  • Believers curious how an atheist argues against God
  • Readers curious how evolution explains belief and morality

What the summary covers

  1. Preface2 min
  2. A deeply religious non believer2 min
  3. The God Hypothesis3 min
  4. Arguments for God's existence3 min
  5. Why there almost certainly is no God3 min
  6. The Roots of Religion4 min
  7. The Roots of Morality2 min
  8. The Good Book and the Changing Moral Zeitgeist4 min
  9. What's Wrong with Religion? Why Be So Hostile?2 min
  10. Childhood, Abuse and the Escape from Religion3 min
  11. A Much Needed Gap?2 min

Recommended by

  • Steven WeinbergNobel laureate in physics
    Dawkins's latest book deserves multiple readings, not just as important work of science, but as a great work of literature
  • Julian BarnesEnglish novelist
    Richard Dawkins's The God Delusion should be read by everyone from atheist to monk. If its merciless rationalism doesn't enrage you at some point, you probably aren't alive
  • Michael FraynEnglish playwright and novelist
    A wonderful book . . . joyous, elegant, fair, engaging, and often very funny . . . informed throughout by an exhilarating breadth of reference and clarity of thought
  • Claire TomalinEnglish biographer
    There is not a dull page in Richard Dawkins's The God Delusion , a book that makes me want to cheer its clarity, intelligence and truth-telling

About the author

  • Richard DawkinsFormer Simonyi Professor of the Public Understanding of Science at Oxford
    • Born in Kenya in 1941
    • Childhood in colonial Africa, boarding school in England, zoology at Oxford
    • Zoology at Balliol College, Oxford; DPhil by 1966
    • First book The Selfish Gene, 1976
    • Simonyi Professor at Oxford 1995 to 2008
    • Relation to the book's subject: founded a foundation for atheism and science in 2006 (the book's year)

Read it alongside

  • Pushes backThe Righteous Mind

    Richard Dawkins proposes that religion is a misfiring by product of useful traits and does not support group selection; Jonathan Haidt argues that religion evolved to bind communities together, with costly commitments screening out free riders.

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