The God Delusion

I just finished reading _The God Delusion_ by Richard Dawkins, and wrote this short "book review". Enjoy!

Joe Scott

Wow. Dawkins is a sharp intellect, to be sure. This was the first of his books I've read, and I was definitely impressed by his breadth of knowledge of a multitude of subjects, notably philosophy, which he leaned on heavily in his writing. I was not surprised, however, by the fact that like most atheists and attackers of Christianity in general he always attacked a "straw man" version of Evangelical Christianity, or attacked the worst aspects of this or that sort of "religion" to suit his needs of whatever point he was making. Also, I was a little bewildered at the very end, after all he had said in the previous chapters about how he can show so well that God does not exist (Chapter 4 is entitled "Why There Almost Certainly Is No God") he can make a statement such as "Our imaginations are not yet tooled-up to penetrate the neighbourhood of the quantum" (paperback, page 407) and other such phrases that seem to show, in the grand scheme of things, the universe -- and indeed concepts involving the universe -- is indeed bigger and grander than anything we can comprehend. To me, this begs the question: Could it be that your (or my) mind is not yet tooled-up (or ever will be tooled-up) to penetrate the neighbourhood of God? Could it be that a spiritual realm does in fact exist, and is NOT discernable by the typical means of senses and scientific investigation? I know what his answer would be to these questions -- that of "I have no need for your God to explain anything, therefore He doesn't exist" -- but I think that's been the answer generations of people have had who felt they had no need for God. I think he's a decent writer, if a bit wordy, and very intellectual. If I have the time, I will look at reading others of his works. Also, I'd be happy to have a civil conversation with anyone who might be interested in discussing the book with me.