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The Blind Watchmaker | Richard Dawkins | QI: The book of general ignorance | Climbing Mount Improbable | God Is Not Great |
Book Description
From Publishers Weekly
The antireligion wars started by Daniel Dennett and Sam Harris will heat up even more with this salvo from celebrated Oxford biologist Dawkins. For a scientist who criticizes religion for its intolerance, Dawkins has written a surprisingly intolerant book, full of scorn for religion and those who believe. But Dawkins, who gave us the selfish gene, anticipates this criticism. He says it's the scientist and humanist in him that makes him hostile to religions?fundamentalist Christianity and Islam come in for the most opprobrium?that close people's minds to scientific truth, oppress women and abuse children psychologically with the notion of eternal damnation. While Dawkins can be witty, even confirmed atheists who agree with his advocacy of science and vigorous rationalism may have trouble stomaching some of the rhetoric: the biblical Yahweh is "psychotic," Aquinas's proofs of God's existence are "fatuous" and religion generally is "nonsense." The most effective chapters are those in which Dawkins calms down, for instance, drawing on evolution to disprove the ideas behind intelligent design. In other chapters, he attempts to construct a scientific scaffolding for atheism, such as using evolution again to rebut the notion that without God there can be no morality. He insists that religion is a divisive and oppressive force, but he is less convincing in arguing that the world would be better and more peaceful without it. (Oct. 18)
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[해외주문원서] 고객님의 요청으로 수입 주문하는 도서이므로, 주문취소 및 반품이 불가합니다.
(단, 재고부족인 경우는 가능) [인터파크 제공]
Groups with this in collection
Marriage (1) | Leer en inglés (12) | The Collective (40) | Pseudoscienze (31) | Atei riuniti (25) |
- Book Details
- English Books
- Rating:



(207)
4 stars 
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- Hardcover 416 Pages
- Edition: 1
- ISBN-10: 0618680004
- ISBN-13: 9780618680009
- Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
- Pub date: Sep 18, 2006
- Dimensions: 23 cm x 15 cm x 3 cm Just how big is that?
- Also available as: Paperback, Audio CD and Others
- In other languages:
Der Gotteswahn
(Deutsche Bücher)
El espejismo de Dios
(Libros en Español)
L'illusione di Dio
(Libri Italiani)
God als misvatting
(Nederlandse Boeken)

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An atheist criticizing Christianity (esp. Catholic)from a Darwanian point of view. Some of the arguements, like the parts about babies being baptized, the terrorists' unquestioning faith and the misuse of power by the church in the past, are sound. However, being too eager to defend his view, Dawkin ... Continue
An atheist criticizing Christianity (esp. Catholic)from a Darwanian point of view. Some of the arguements, like the parts about babies being baptized, the terrorists' unquestioning faith and the misuse of power by the church in the past, are sound. However, being too eager to defend his view, Dawkins sometimes presents points and arguements that are as unconvincing as those presented by the church when it comes to inconsistency and contraditions within the bible.
Well written and very highly recommended. However, I don't think that the Boeing argument is even necessary and that Dawkins plays it up a bit much. The pure absurdity of theology, the absolute lack of evidence, and the fact that when confronted by a similarly insane belief in another culture we wou ... Continue
Well written and very highly recommended. However, I don't think that the Boeing argument is even necessary and that Dawkins plays it up a bit much. The pure absurdity of theology, the absolute lack of evidence, and the fact that when confronted by a similarly insane belief in another culture we would rule it out (e.g. cargo cults) is more than enough.
An excellent argument for atheism and after reading it, the first time in my life I can say I am an atheist with full confidence. Although I agree with Harris that we shouldn't need a term for atheism...no one wakes up and says "I'm not an astrologer! I'm not an alchemist! I don't believe in the Gre ... Continue
An excellent argument for atheism and after reading it, the first time in my life I can say I am an atheist with full confidence. Although I agree with Harris that we shouldn't need a term for atheism...no one wakes up and says "I'm not an astrologer! I'm not an alchemist! I don't believe in the Greek gods!"
I'm certain religious people will wither at Dawkins' arrogant tone, but I think this makes a point. In what other area of human discussion do we tip-toe so lightly around other people's ideas of the world when not based on evidence? Do we respect someone's views of history if they don't support it with evidence (Holocaust-deniers)? Would we tolerate a doctor who said, "No matter what evidence you show me for or against this procedure, nothing with shake my faith in it"? Dawkins SHOULD have the right to be blunt. We should be able to openly question religion, just as we openly question any other area of human knowledge.
"Religion is an insult to human dignity. With or without it you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion."
Steven Weinberg
This is not just Darwin's evolution VS religion. It also covers some philosophical arguements on religion. It traces the root of goodness and evilness of human beings, argues that we don't necessarily need religion to act nice. On the contrary, Dawkins thinks that religions sometimes do cause harm ... Continue
This is not just Darwin's evolution VS religion. It also covers some philosophical arguements on religion. It traces the root of goodness and evilness of human beings, argues that we don't necessarily need religion to act nice. On the contrary, Dawkins thinks that religions sometimes do cause harm to us, the monotheistic thought especially leads to a lot of conflicts in the modern world. His arguements are clear and humorous. And his braveness of challenging the 'untouchablility' of religious matters is highly admirable, though his tone may sound a bit arrogant and offensive to people who are deeply religious.
Overall, it is a nice read (it take patience though). Both theists and atheists should give it a go.
This book should be required reading for schoolchildren. Let's replace the mumbo-jumbo forced into their little minds - often before they even started to believe in Santa Claus - and replace it wth rationality.