The God Delusion

Overview
The God Delusion is a book by Richard Dawkins, published in 2006. Its basic thesis is in support of atheism.

Chapters

 * 1) A Deeply Religious Non-Believer sets up some basic premises for the rest of the book:
 * 2) * It is not talking about Einsteinian religion
 * 3) * Religion gets undeserved respect, e.g. unspecified "religious reasons" will trump rational argument every time in a legal setting, even to the point of allowing otherwise illegal activities such as consumption of controlled substances "needed" for a religious ceremony; religious conflicts are often re-branded as "ethnic cleansing" or "inter-community warfare"; etc. Dawkins makes the case that respect for "freedom of religion" is being taken too far.
 * 4) The God Hypothesis argues that God's purported existence is a scientific hypothesis about the universe which should be analyzed as skeptically as any other scientific claim.
 * 5) Arguments for God's Existence delves into the many arguments for the existence of God advanced throughout the ages, and finds them wanting.
 * 6) Why There Almost Certainly Is No God explains how the "design" apparent in the natural world is explained much better by Darwinian natural selection.
 * 7) The Roots of Religion explains why religious belief is so ubiquitous.
 * 8) The Roots of Morality: Why Are We Good?
 * 9) The 'Good' Book and the Changing Moral Zeitgeist
 * 10) What's Wrong with Religion? Why Be So Hostile? invites the reader "to think about ways in which religion is not such a good thing for the world."
 * 11) Childhood, Abuse and the Escape from Religion attempts to raise consciousness about indoctrination of children who are too young to make up their own minds about their beliefs.
 * 12) A Much Needed Gap?

Reviews

 * 2007-03-15 Science, religion and society: Richard Dawkinsâ€™s The God Delusion: a rather detailed and well-informed exploration
 * 2006-10-19 Lunging, Flailing, Mispunching (Terry Eagleton): link to review, plus response to review
 * detailed review and summary by Robert Stewart on The Journal of Evolutionary Philosophy web site:
 * chapters 1-6

Links cited within the book

 * (p215) 2006-05-27 Animal instincts by Richard Conniff