Reddit Reddit reviews The God Delusion

We found 38 Reddit comments about The God Delusion. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.

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The God Delusion
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38 Reddit comments about The God Delusion:

u/[deleted] · 217 pointsr/science

>idolizing these mens ideals would lead to a better earth

Who says we don't? We certainly have great thinkers alive today and in recent years. No, not the majority, but when has it ever been that way?

>Even with our mighty intelligence and technological brilliance, we're still too ignorant to truly advance as a species.

It blows my mind that people think this way. Compare the progress of the last 100 years against the progress made by humans over the hundreds of millenia before then. How can anyone say we're not advancing? 150 years ago we were living in log houses lit by candlelight. Technologically speaking, we were pretty much still in the dark ages.

Our current rate of progress is absolutely astounding. What about the advances in transportation? Food production? Biomedicine? Genome mapping? Microprocessors? Nanotechnology? Instantaneous information delivery throughout the world? The freaking LHC? Our trajectory of progression is steeper today than at any point in human history.

If your argument is more on the humanitarian side than the technological side, I would still say we're making unprecedented progress. Look at the reduction in slavery and human trade, poverty and welfare assistance, equality for women and minorities, working conditions, treatment of the mentally ill, etc. No, we're not all the way there, not by a long shot. But we're starting to see pockets of civility take hold and spread throughout the world.

It's easy to look at the petty political bickering and dismiss our system as a lost cause, but would we rather go back living in a feudal system? It's easy to see the fundamental evangelicals as a harbinger of some new "Age of Ignorance," but when was the last time we had a massive crusade or inquisition? You can go to a bookstore and choose from a range of best-selling books on the topic of atheism, when it wasn't too long ago that both the author and reader may have been burned at the stake for such heretic thought.

It's easy to get depressed, but take a step back and look at the big picture. We haven't "arrived" yet, but we're well on our way.

>I wish these men were our prophets and messiahs

I think a lot of those men would be disappointed to hear someone advocate that.

u/logged_n_2_say · 44 pointsr/magicskyfairy

LOL, try a different book other than your FICTIONAL LIEble sometime!!!!

HERE i found the perfect one for you!!!!


written by:
> A preeminent scientist -- and the world's most prominent atheist

u/kent_eh · 30 pointsr/atheism
u/NukeThePope · 11 pointsr/atheism

Hey BouncingBettie! Congratulations and well done on digging your way out of that intellectual hole, and welcome to the rapidly growing club!

Thanks also for your shout out. I pour a lot of myself into this place and often earn criticism for being so hardnosed. I'm happy to hear some people like it and, most importantly, benefit from what I do.

In that spirit, a couple of three posts of mine that might help you a bit:

  • Advantages of being an atheist
  • NukeThePope on purpose (love that title)
  • Dying for after fun and profit - the Disneyland analogy.

    If you have any questions about anything, by all means post here!

    Hey, is your hubby a cerebral type? The kind that would read a philosophy book for fun and enlightenment? My current favorite is Sense & Goodness Without God by Richard Carrier; I hope to be writing up a book review on it soon. This is a nice book to give someone if you want them to consider a different world view and don't want to hammer them over the head with the (relatively) confrontational The God Delusion. The nice thing about S&GWG is that it doesn't just tell you to kick God to the curb (in fact, I think it never explicitly advises this); it instead tells you the whole inter-relating story of how stuff works in the real world, including the Big Bang, Evolution, language, human brains, logic, thinking, love, and so on. In other words, a whole world view, not just one with a God-shaped hole in it. Recommended, obviously. I love Richard Carrier for being one of the minds behind the historical proposition that Jesus never even existed.
u/anomoly · 9 pointsr/atheism

Ok, I'll give it a go...


The first thing that got me questioning religion was seeing massive amounts of hypocrisy in church leadership. I was extremely involved as my father was a deacon and my mother worked at the church we attended. It was a common practice for us kids to go to one friends' house or another between morning and evening services, so I saw how the adults acted differently at home then they did at church. I realize not all religious people are like this, but it was the first step for my questioning. Once I was old enough I became a leader in the youth group and started seeing the same hypocrisy in myself.


Despite realizing my hypocrisy I continued to believe, even to the point in participating in multiple missions trips held by the organization Speed the Light. While on these trips we were told to write down our personal testimony so that we could present it during presentations and services. When I tired to put into words why I believed in God and, more importantly, why the audience should believe, I couldn't come up with a good reason. I sat in a bed in the country of Belize thinking, "If I can't come up with a good reason why these people should believe what I do, then why do I believe it?". Despite this thought I continued my charade for two more missions trips and a few more years.


Eventually I stepped down from youth leadership and entered a state of apathy towards religion. I didn't go to church, but I didn't really think about it much. Every now and then something really bad would happen and I'd wonder if God was punishing me, but they were more of fleeting thoughts than anything.



The next big hit for me was when I went to Iraq for a year. When you see good people with families who love them (some of which who were religious) die, the answer "God allows us to suffer so we learn/build character/build faith etc" just doesn't cut it anymore. About a year after I came home from the deployment I actually started looking for information that refuted religion. I'd say that was when my state started the path from apathetic to agnostic to atheist.



The book Letter to a Christian Nation was a big eye-opener for me. Along with other works of Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins, Christoper Hitchens, and other authors I'm sure you'll become aware of if you continue to question things. The more I investigated, the more absurd religion seemed; and the more science explained all of the things that I attributed to the supernatural. When I was a child I believed, truly believed, that when I was lying in bed one night I saw an angel appear in my room. It wasn't until I read The God Delusion that I realized there was a scientific explanation for things like that.



The more I found that science could prove things, really prove things, the more I realized that "it's true because the Bible says so" didn't work for me anymore. In the last few years I've learned things that have blown my mind. Things that I thought would take away the wonder of the world have actually enhanced it. I'm a good person because I want to be, not because I'll burn in hell if I'm not; I don't steal because I realize that it's unproductive in the long run, not because some ancient stone tablet and a preacher told me not to, etc.



I'm not saying I don't have personal issues like anger, sadness or depression. You can only fight evolution to a point, we are still human. I guess I'm just saying that the answers I found leading me to atheism were far more satisfying and comforting than anything religion ever offered me. Hope that helps.


tl;dr: it's basically a de-conversion story, read if you'd like I suppose.

u/JoanOfSarcasm · 7 pointsr/TwoXChromosomes

This summarizes it beautifully. However, to add to the original question, I felt I should share with you all my story.

I grew up a Southern baptist. I always had questions that no one had answers to, and I always felt guilty for asking them. Regardless, I felt like I was "required" to be Christian to be good, and so I was.

As I got older and I started to experience more, my doubts creeped in. My Christian friends told me it was a test of my faith, and I looked up to them for their strength. They seemed strong, good, and loving.

It made me feel guilty for being a "bad" Christian. I didn't believe in all aspects of the Bible, and that made me a hypocrite in my eyes. Could God forgive a hypocrite who consciously knew she was sinning? It felt wrong, but I wanted to live my life as I felt was right -- I didn't want to get married, I wanted to have sex in my loving relationship, I didn't want to be submissive to a man. The list goes on.

Then, last year, I finally broke.

I took a leap of faith and love and flew halfway across the world to spend a month with a man I loved dearly. When I left, I just remember the sinking realization I would probably never see him again. I've never cried so hard in public -- the 16 hour plane ride home was easily the worst experience of my life. I came home beaten, angry, and woefully depressed. I reached out to a friend -- a childhood friend who I had always looked up to for being so strong in his faith -- and his family was there for me, until I told my friend one night during an argument that I felt like his hatred for gays was wrong and not dissimilar to hatred of different races of people. As a result, my friend betrayed me -- he lied to his parents about me, spread rumors all over Facebook, and even called me with a suicide threat. The next day, I lost my dog suddenly to a fat embolism following an amputation that was suppose to save her from cancer.

I fell into a hole so deep and so dark that I've struggled over a year to find my way back. In the process, I did a lot of thinking, questioning, and reading. I hated the idea that I was putting my mortality in what could potentially be the wrong box. I hated that I felt guilty for living my life the way I wanted to. I hated the "grey area." I hated that some believers hid behind the Bible to do things awful or excuse terrible things. I had seen death, and there was nothing pretty or serene about it. It was awful and gruesome and heartbreaking. And more importantly, I realized how not everything has a point -- not everything is part of some radical plan of a higher being -- some things are just bullshit.

Losing my faith was one of the hardest things I've gone through. The worst was exactly the question the OP was asking: how to cope with bad things, especially loss. I felt empty -- I could no longer ignore my questions, my doubts, or my logic -- and I could no longer fill that hole with an idea given to me by an archaic text.

Coping became easier as time went on. I started talking to people who had experienced something similar -- a Catholic friend who had died in Iraq, only to wake up 3 months later in a coma in Germany, realized that in death he saw nothing -- and I realized I wasn't alone with my questions, my contradictions, or my pain.

I began to delve deeper into science, too, in an effort to answer questions I had about where I had come from, if not a higher being. In doing so, I learned some of the most beautiful things. For example, did you know that we are all, essentially, star dust? I remember crying when I heard this for the first time. It gave my life purpose again, or at least meaning. I realized that yes, we were alone, but we are special, we are beautiful, and we are all connected.

I was reborn, to put it theologically, and I have never felt happier.

Edit: Expounded on my original post, since it was originally written on my phone. Also, I wanted to add this NdGT video, because it is choking me up again as I watch it.

Edit 2: Wording, also, I highly suggest The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins, even as a believer. It raises many interesting points (and questions) about religion in general.

u/Manfred1816 · 5 pointsr/books

The only one I can help you with is religion. For Christianity, I always suggest The Bible. I know this is obvious, but it seems that very few people read it from cover to cover. This may be going away from what you want, though. Personally, I read The Bible as literature, so that does, for me, place it in fiction. If you want an atheist perspective, I highly recommend The God Delusion; for some shorter pieces, I think one should look at Existentialism is a Humanism (if you like this read, it is basically taken from his book Being and Nothingness). If you want to get into some Asian faith, maybe get a copy of the Tao Te Ching to better understand Taoism. Just to add another, and this is one of my favorites; look at Food of the Gods. This is a really interesting read about how substances have affected cultures and their beliefs. It ranges from different foods to the most illicit intoxicants. For me, it really gave me a greater perspective of the uses and benefits to "drugs" that go beyond taking them simply for a good time. If any of these interest you, I can list more for what specifically interests you. It's not much, but I minor in religious studies, so I guess I have a decent grasp on what is worth one's time.

u/secretDissident · 5 pointsr/AskReddit
  • The God Delusion
  • The Demon-Haunted World

    This question comes up a lot. Start with these. But you must understand that atheism IS NOT a religion. It's not LIKE religion. It's the absense of religion. As is famously bandied about, atheism is a "religion" as much as "off" is a channel on your TV.
u/slugboi · 5 pointsr/atheism

Wow, almost an exact account of my deconversion, except my wife played a large role. We were in love, but she was an atheist and I was holding on to religion. Then I realized that if we died, how could heaven possibly exist for me if I knew she was in hell, and if god blinded me to the fact that she was in hell or made me forget her, how would that be me? Then I started watching some videos, and doing some reading, and I said, "Fuck this." Now I am happier and more whole than I've ever been. There is a certain freedom that comes with realizing that you are solely responsible for your actions.

u/snakeseare · 2 pointsr/atheism

At least you know what to get him for Christmas.

http://www.amazon.com/The-God-Delusion-Richard-Dawkins/dp/0618680004

u/TheCannon · 2 pointsr/AskReddit

Anything Richard Dawkins.

u/ApokalypseCow · 2 pointsr/atheism
u/ceramicfiver · 2 pointsr/AskReddit

Funny you should mention that because those studies that the author of the article mentioned were done at the International Culture and Cognition Institute, which specifically examines what parts of humanity are culture driven and what parts are psychologically driven while trying to figure out the dynamics between culture and cognition. Plus, in Dr. Bering's book, The Belief Instinct (which I read) he addresses Richard Dawkin's view of religion as a culture delusion and suggests there's also a cognitive illusion at play too. So, yes, there's no doubt culture involved to add detail, metaphor, story, and character but the core of these ideas are sustained by our innate ability to think about other minds, think teleologically, and our tendency to imagine the mind continuing to exist after the death of the body.

u/AlSweigart · 2 pointsr/atheism

"The God Delusion" by Richard Dawkins. Dawkins doesn't really go into anything new or original, but the strength of the book is that is a great, concise summary of all the beginning arguments for atheism.

http://www.amazon.com/God-Delusion-Richard-Dawkins/dp/0618680004

I'd follow it with Daniel Dennett's "Breaking the Spell", also a good recommendation. Same goes for Carl Sagan's "A Demon Haunted World"

http://www.amazon.com/Breaking-Spell-Religion-Natural-Phenomenon/dp/0143038338

http://www.amazon.com/Demon-Haunted-World-Science-Candle-Dark/dp/0345409469/

Christopher Hitchens is a bit vitriolic for some, but "God is not Great" has some nuggets in it.

http://www.amazon.com/God-Not-Great-Religion-Everything/dp/0446579807/

I personally didn't like Sam Harris' "End of Faith" but I did like his "Letter to a Christian Nation".

http://www.amazon.com/Letter-Christian-Nation-Vintage-Harris/dp/0307278778/

For the topic of evolution, Talk Origins is great (and free) http://toarchive.org/
Dawkin's "The Selfish Gene" is also a good read (and short). Not so short but also good are Dawkins' "Blind Watchmaker", "Climbing Mount Improbable" and "Unweaving the Rainbow"

http://www.amazon.com/Selfish-Gene-Anniversary-Introduction/dp/0199291152/

http://www.amazon.com/Blind-Watchmaker-Evidence-Evolution-Universe/dp/0393315703/

http://www.amazon.com/Climbing-Mount-Improbable-Richard-Dawkins/dp/0393316823/

http://www.amazon.com/Unweaving-Rainbow-Science-Delusion-Appetite/dp/0618056734/

u/Nicoon · 2 pointsr/atheism

If you visit the book's Amazon page, you can click the cover to get a preview of the book's contents. I suggest you read through its table of contents as that will give you a rough idea what the book is about.

If you've seen Dawkin's talks on youtube, then chances are that you've already been in contact with a lot of the material mentioned in the book. However, the book is a lot more in-depth and I'd say it's still definitely still worth the read.

If you're having trouble finding the motivation to pick up a book, then maybe an audio book could help you along the way.

u/ThesePantsShafe · 2 pointsr/atheism

Richard Dawkins' The God Delusion will be a good one to start with.

u/MajorWeenis · 1 pointr/atheism

For the lazy:

u/MrMostDefinitely · 1 pointr/DebateReligion

Yes. I have heard atheists say that Dawkins book was an important source of information for them and it helped lead them to atheism.

Here is a website called Amazon.com

They allow users to review the book.

http://www.amazon.com/The-God-Delusion-Richard-Dawkins/product-reviews/0618680004

The top comment is by someone who might qualify as "EVIDENCE" that you are looking for.

So here is some evidence, anecdotal and 3rd party.

Versus you saying:

>I don't think Dawkins was very good at converting the religious to non-religion.

>I suspect that most of Dawkins readers were already in agreement with him.

Well.

Yes.

Conjecture.

u/dumbell · 1 pointr/Fitness

Let them see you reading this then they'll be too upset to worry about when you're eating :)

u/liquidpele · 1 pointr/Christianity

If you want....

http://www.amazon.com/Letter-Christian-Nation-Sam-Harris/dp/0307265773

http://www.amazon.com/God-Delusion-Richard-Dawkins/dp/0618680004

I just like Sagan's works better myself, he has a way with words and his unwavering optimism and love of science is refreshing to me, but because of that he usually doesn't address religion directly and sticks to explaining why science is better at explaining nature. Any of Sagan's books are good, the other I recommend is Cosmos.

u/ShavedRegressor · 1 pointr/atheism

I recommend The God Delusion if you like science. Dawkins does not pull punches. The book is full of good arguments and interesting information.

For friends and other people who could use a gentle introduction to the idea that atheists aren’t evil, I strongly recommend Letter to a Christian Nation. It’s the sort of book you might give your mom.

u/TooManyInLitter · 1 pointr/atheism

> How did the big bang happen?

"Humankind has not found the answer to that one yet. But, father, isn't it exciting that us mere humans are able to appreciate the grand scope of the universe? It is so much more than any religion admits. Father, since humans do not yet know the answer, I will concede that whatever it was that started the initiation of the creation of the universe some 13.7 billion years ago we can call "god." I accept this god and I will identify as a [Deist](Deism (or maybe as a Pantheist). Please know this oh Father oh mine, as a Diest, I do not see anything evidence to support a belief in a personal creator God, or a God that in anyway interacts with within this grand universe. Prayer, worship and contemplation is not required and if pursued takes time and effort away from other more meaningful things - such as sleeping."

Just a suggestion. Good luck.

Edit:

> Anybody know about this book?

Sorry I don't. Perhaps you can make a deal with your Father. You will read and discuss that book if he does the same with a book you suggest. A suggestion: The God Delusion [Hardcover]

u/lordicarus · 1 pointr/AskReddit
u/thebigsqueeze · 1 pointr/atheism

That's a good start for not believing in creationism, but The God Delusion would be a better start for arguments against god.

u/A_Simpson · 1 pointr/DebateReligion

>The Argument from Change

Even if I were to agree with the article, it in no way points to a Christian God, or any God worshiped by humans.

>The Argument from Efficient Causality

If everything needs a cause (SUCH a religious train of thought), and God gave us that cause, who gave God cause? Of course, you think he's timeless and exempt from the rules you put on everything else.

I'm going to stop reading here. As far as I can tell, these are arguments to prove there is A god; not a specific god, certainly not the one you worship, just a god. And the arguments are not convincing anyone with half a brain.

You should check out this book. It will help make sense of religion, the bible, everything that is hard to understand about "god".

u/tikael · 1 pointr/atheism

>If you know as much about science as I hope, then explain how everything came out so perfect out of (insert atheist way of creation)!

I will refer you to 3 books for that one, but then I will explain why that is not a valid argument and then explain why god does not answer that question either.

First the books: the first two will explain the big bang and inflationary cosmology (this is actually what took over or heavily modified the big bang theory from its original form) they are both by Briane Greene and I highly recommend them if you are interested in physics at all (they are not about god) the fabric of the cosmos and The hidden reality. There are also NOVA specials you can watch from the Fabric of the cosmos and his earlier book the elegant universe though I do not remember if they cover the big bang or inflation. The third book is specifically about the argument you just put forward. It is The fallacy of fine tuning:why the universe is not designed for us by Victor Stenger.

The reason that the argument you made is fallacious involves logical fallacies. Now, I don't want to seem like I'm talking down to you at all (I'm not) but I'm not sure how familiar you are with the intricacies of logic. Basically every argument has a premise, logical steps, and a conclusion. The argument you made (that the universe is perfect) has three flaws.

1: False premise - The universe is not actually perfect, far from it in fact. The reason why we are accustomed to the universe as it is is due to evolution. We evolved to fit the universe, not the other way around. If you mean something specific like how could the constants have got to the exact values we have please read the hidden reality, it answers that question by explaining multiple instances of how the universe can be fractured into slightly variable universes. The god delusion also answers this question but from my experience most theists are not willing to read it.

2: False premise - The burden of proof is not on me to prove or explain anything. I don't know is a completely acceptable answer if I had no evidence to put forward (We do actually have evidence, see the three books). Saying that I don't know how the universe came about does not immediately cede the argument to god. God has to answer to the same standards of logic and evidence that I would require of my own pet hypothesis. Burden of proof was explain in analogy by [Russell](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russell's_teapot "This is why our logo is riding in a teapot")

3: Logical fallacy - Argument from ignorance. I already explained this one a little but basically this is the part that says you cannot use what we both do not know as evidence. If we come to a cave, and you ask what is in the cave and I say that I don't know but I bet it's a dragon then I would be using our shared ignorance to try and put forward the idea of a dragon as the inhabitant of the cave (sorry this analogy is bad, I have a flu right now so I'm kind of worn down)

Now, the reason that god fails the logic test (before he fails the evidence test, which he also does) is that if you say that god created the universe then you have put a terminator on the infinite regression that is causality (there are some hypothetical reasons that causality could be violated before the universe but I am skeptical of many of them and it would take me too far off track to get into them). The problem here is why do you give god a break from needing a cause? If we both agreed that there must be a first cause, why the hell should we give it sentience, and intelligence, and supernatural powers? If we also put forward a first cause that did not have those things then we would have an explanation that used fewer assumptions (many fewer assumptions). One of the best logical tools is occam's razor, which says that when we have multiple competing hypothesis we remove the ones with the most assumptions. Now it is only a logical tool and does not guarantee we will be correct but it is still a good probability chooser (remember how I said science is about probabilities).

So anyways, if you read this far I really hope that your takeaway is at least to read the three books i recommended (they are complicated but very interesting). I would also ask that you read the FAQ and probably The God Delusion (as it covers more of the faux science arguments for god than God is Not Great).

u/Galphanore · 1 pointr/atheism

The Demon Haunted World and The God Delusion are good starting points.

u/dafoe · 1 pointr/TwoXChromosomes

As a going away gift, give him this.

u/Peppper · 1 pointr/atheism

I was raised Christian and went to a fundamentalist highschool. I started questioning things when I realized my faith required me to suspend my rationality. Read some books on the historical accuracy of religious claims. My thought was always, "Well if what all these people say is true, it should hold up to rational scientific inquiry." The more I dug, the more I realized that it never could. I fought and fought with myself. Christianity (especially of the fundamentalist flavor) has this built in mechanism to dissuade disbelief. You are constantly indoctrinated to see any doubt that enters your mind as evil, sinful and to simply "pray the doubt away". I'm sure you know of this. Keep fighting, let reason and logic be your guide.

Some books that helped me on my way to breaking free:

A History of God by Karen Armstrong

The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins

Pale Blue Dot by Carl Sagan

I also recommend this youtube series by user Evid3nc3.

Those should give you alot to think about.

Remember the most important thing is to decide for yourself. Question everything and never take something as truth from authority simply because they are an authority. See if it makes sense, find the documented evidence that backs up the claims. The light may hurt at first.

"For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring." -Carl Sagan

u/Tightaperture · 1 pointr/atheism

Thanks, I am really proud of him! before my grandma left she left a bible under his pillow haha he gave her this book as a gift.

u/fuckyouripod · -2 pointsr/offmychest

lad, you are dying to read this and you don't even know it yet.

u/ZeronicX · -2 pointsr/AskReddit

Ask if you can bring this book

or this

but i think you might get better help from /r/atheism than /r/askreddit

u/treeMan1618 · -2 pointsr/Paranormal
u/Basagu · -3 pointsr/teenagers

Games, gaming PC, PC parts, Books clothing, plain money, CD`s, etc!

There is a lot you could ask for!
Happy birthday is advance :)

u/winzippy · -4 pointsr/Christianity

Read The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins