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Richard Dawkins, for anyone who hasn't been living on the moon for the past 40 years, today is, quoting precisely the introduction found on the back of the aforementioned book, "not only a famous scientist, a brilliant popularizer, and one of the most influential intellectuals of our time, but has become the most famous atheist in the world".
Indeed, even judging by the provocative title of his essay, "The God Delusion" precisely, it doesn't surprise me that he has become an intellectual of such fame, capable of writing works that have rallied the masses and interested both the scientific community and the laypeople, especially his famous "The Selfish Gene," which in the '70s made him the standard-bearer of the so-called "neo-Darwinists." In short, the premises for an interesting book are all there, so that I, as a bored teenager, was looking for something to fill my hours of math in high school and found in this book an interesting and especially stimulating company.
But now high school is a not-too-distant but surely faded memory, and the urge to put down my thoughts that this book left me is pressing enough to write a review about it. The aforementioned book unfolds in various sections, ranging from the usual prefaces and introductions to a series of chapters, whose titles are no less ironic than that of the book itself ("What's Wrong with Religion? Why So Hostile?" is one of many...), which, according to the author but especially according to his editors, "cleverly aim to 'prove' the nonexistence, unfoundedness, and absolute uselessness of any concept of divinity, God, creator, supreme entity, and so on". In many of them, references to news stories, scientific and non-scientific literature (Darwin is widely cited here), enrich the author's considerations regarding his thesis, drawing even from his past publications (including "Climbing Mount Improbable", "The Blind Watchmaker", and others).
All this, at first glance, is really very interesting: there are indeed several curious anecdotes and ruthless references to recent and past news events intended to discredit, question, argue, and mock the numerous aspects a book of this kind can address, and the variety of episodes certainly benefits the reading, which is fluid and enjoyable but never trivial. There are extensive sections devoted to the analysis of aspects hegemonized by the various religions, such as ethics and morality, revisited from the perspective of a Darwinist scientist, or the harsh criticisms directed at those types of institutions and organizations that in the "Name of God," have ruined the existence of hundreds of thousands of people, concealed mysteries and crimes, stolen and defrauded, stained entire historical epochs with blood, with a specific reference to the American system and its bigotry: if you want an example, I'll cite Pat Robertson, an American televangelist, who stole a dozen million dollars from viewers under the pretense of seeing God in a dream saying "if you don't raise all this money, I will kill you". The fact speaks for itself.
In summary, I remember after a few weeks dedicated to this book, between reflections and insights, I was quite satisfied, both for the similarity with my ideas and indeed for its literary value in itself. But before recommending the purchase of this book to Debaser users, there is a serious note to make. "The God Delusion" is an interesting, clever book full of references and with an enviable bibliography, which will certainly look good in your library, next to "The Name of the Rose" and "The Brothers Karamazov," if we want to talk about books with an anti-religious intent, but over time (at least that's what happened to me), it is a book that will leave very few traces in your memory. A reason?
Simply, "The God Delusion" is NOT a book about God, in the most simple and literal sense of the term; it is a book that is rather about criticizing certain institutional and obscurantist systems, fundamentalism, the anchoring to certain traditions and superstitions, the abuse that certain people, powerful or not, have committed in the name of God. And this, at first glance, seems like a set of accurate arguments aimed at discrediting the existence of any God (in favor of what, you might ask? But it's obvious... resonance theory, clinamen, random variation, fast transition theory... read any random book by Prigogine to understand), after some time, you will realize that it is simply the confessions of a man who hated catechism and who, taking advantage of his popularity and investments, wanted to write a book that placed him at the center of the debate to promulgate certain other values at the expense of something else, namely, religion and its facets, but indeed, NOT God, in any way.
Had he given it a different title, say, "The Illusion of the Pope" or "The Illusion of Augustine," things would have been very different, but, even highlighting a certain attitude that is not very "politically correct" (Lamarck, if we want to talk about evolutionism, is not mentioned even once... could it be a coincidence?), all this led me to conclude that this book is nothing but one of the many lures of a certain type of new age propaganda that actually has very little serious substance other than a dozen inspired newspaper articles and the usual quotes from Einstein, Russell, Hawking, and other known atheists/agnostics scattered around the world.
In conclusion, dear Dawkins, it takes very little to state that you don't believe in a personal God, as Einstein did in his time, unleashing the ire of conservatives, denigrating the Judaic/Christian idea of the bearded man with the tablets in hand sitting on a cloud judging men; just watch a George Carlin show to grasp all the contradictions and lies contained in every type of mass religion. However, claiming the nonexistence of something based precisely on the speculations that man has made about it is quite another, and above all, it is absolutely unscientific.
Do you want a book that harshly criticizes the classic idea of God and the devious work of religions?
Read "The Antichrist," and don't give more than a passing glance to "The God Delusion."
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