The God Delusion Explained

Author:	Richard Dawkins
The God Delusion
Country:	United Kingdom
Language:	English
Publisher:	Bantam Press
Release Date:	2 October 2006
Pages:	464
Media Type:	Print (hardcover and paperback)
Isbn:	978-0-618-68000-9
Dewey:	211/.8 22
Congress:	BL2775.3 .D39 2006

The God Delusion is a 2006 book by British evolutionary biologist and ethologist Richard Dawkins. In The God Delusion, Dawkins contends that a supernatural creator, God, almost certainly does not exist, and that belief in a personal god qualifies as a delusion, which he defines as a persistent false belief held in the face of strong contradictory evidence. He is sympathetic to Robert Pirsig's statement in Lila (1991) that "when one person suffers from a delusion it is called insanity. When many people suffer from a delusion it is called religion."^[1] In the book, Dawkins explores the relationship between religion and morality, providing examples that discuss the possibility of morality existing independently of religion and suggesting alternative explanations for the origins of both religion and morality.

In early December 2006, it reached number four in the New York Times Hardcover Non-Fiction Best Seller list after nine weeks on the list.^[2] More than three million copies were sold.According to Dawkins in a 2016 interview with Matt Dillahunty, an unauthorised Arabic translation of this book has been downloaded 3 million times in Saudi Arabia.^[3] The book has attracted widespread commentary and critical reception, with many books written in response.

Background

Dawkins has presented arguments against creationist explanations of life in his previous works on evolution. The theme of The Blind Watchmaker, published in 1986, is that evolution can explain the apparent design in nature. In The God Delusion he focuses directly on a wider range of arguments used for and against belief in the existence of a god (or gods).

Dawkins identifies himself repeatedly as an atheist, while also pointing out that, in a sense, he is also agnostic, though "only to the extent that I am agnostic about fairies at the bottom of the garden".^[4]

Dawkins had long wanted to write a book openly criticising religion, but his publisher had advised against it. By 2006, his publisher had warmed to the idea. Dawkins attributes this change of mind to "four years of Bush" (who "literally said that God had told him to invade Iraq").^{[5] [6]} By that time, a number of authors, including Sam Harris and Christopher Hitchens, who together with Dawkins were labelled "The Unholy Trinity" by Robert Weitzel, had already written books openly attacking religion.^[7] According to the Amazon retailer in August 2007, the book was the best-seller in their sales of books on religion and spirituality, with Hitchens's God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything coming second. This led to a 50% growth in that category over the three years to that date.^[8]

Synopsis

Dawkins dedicates the book to Douglas Adams and quotes the novelist: "Isn't it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too?" The book contains ten chapters. The first few chapters make a case that there almost certainly is no God, while the rest discuss religion and morality.

Dawkins writes that The God Delusion contains four "consciousness-raising" messages:

1. Atheists can be happy, balanced, moral, and intellectually fulfilled.
2. Natural selection and similar scientific theories are superior to a "God hypothesis"—the illusion of intelligent design—in explaining the living world and the cosmos.
3. Children should not be labelled by their parents' religion. Terms like "Catholic child" or "Muslim child" should make people cringe.
4. Atheists should be proud, not apologetic, because atheism is evidence of a healthy, independent mind.^[1]

"God hypothesis"

Chapter one, "A deeply religious non-believer", seeks to clarify the difference between what Dawkins terms "Einsteinian religion" and "supernatural religion". He notes that the former includes quasi-mystical and pantheistic references to God in the work of physicists like Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking, and describes such pantheism as "sexed up atheism". Dawkins instead takes issue with the theism present in religions like Christianity, Islam, and Hinduism. The proposed existence of this interventionist God, which Dawkins calls the "God Hypothesis", becomes an important theme in the book. He maintains that the existence or non-existence of God is a scientific fact about the universe, which is discoverable in principle if not in practice.

The book argues against the Five Ways. According to Dawkins, "[t]he five 'proofs' asserted by Thomas Aquinas in the thirteenth century don't prove anything, and are easily [...] exposed as vacuous."

Dawkins summarises the main philosophical arguments on God's existence, singling out the argument from design for longer consideration. Dawkins concludes that evolution by natural selection can explain apparent design in nature.

He writes that one of the greatest challenges to the human intellect has been to explain "how the complex, improbable design in the universe arises", and suggests that there are two competing explanations:

1. A hypothesis involving a designer, that is, a complex being to account for the complexity that we see.
2. A hypothesis, with supporting theories, that explains how, from simple origins and principles, something more complex can emerge.

This is the basic set-up of his argument against the existence of God, the Ultimate Boeing 747 gambit, where he argues that the first attempt is self-refuting, and the second approach is the way forward.^[9]

At the end of chapter 4 ("Why there almost certainly is no God"), Dawkins sums up his argument and states, "The temptation [to attribute the appearance of design to actual design itself] is a false one, because the designer hypothesis immediately raises the larger problem of who designed the designer. The whole problem we started out with was the problem of explaining statistical improbability. It is obviously no solution to postulate something even more improbable". In addition, chapter 4 asserts that the alternative to the designer hypothesis is not chance, but natural selection.

He dedicates a chapter of his book to criticism of the God-of-the-gaps argument. He noted that:

Dawkins does not claim to disprove God with absolute certainty. Instead, he suggests as a general principle that simpler explanations are preferable (see Occam's razor) and that an omniscient or omnipotent God must be extremely complex (Dawkins argues that it is logically impossible for a God to be simultaneously omniscient and omnipotent). As such he argues that the theory of a universe without a God is preferable to the theory of a universe with a God.

Religion and morality

The second half of the book begins by exploring the roots of religion and seeking an explanation for its ubiquity across human cultures. Dawkins advocates the "theory of religion as an accidental by-product – a misfiring of something useful"^[10] as for example the mind's employment of intentional stance. Dawkins suggests that the theory of memes, and human susceptibility to religious memes in particular, can explain how religions might spread like "mind viruses" across societies.^[11]

He then turns to the subject of morality, maintaining that we do not need religion to be good. Instead, our morality has a Darwinian explanation: altruistic genes, selected through the process of evolution, give people natural empathy. He asks, "would you commit murder, rape or robbery if you knew that no God existed?" He argues that very few people would answer "yes", undermining the claim that religion is needed to make us behave morally. In support of this view, he surveys the history of morality, arguing that there is a moral Zeitgeist that continually evolves in society, generally progressing toward liberalism. As it progresses, this moral consensus influences how religious leaders interpret their holy writings. Thus, Dawkins states, morality does not originate from the Bible, rather our moral progress informs what parts of the Bible Christians accept and what they now dismiss.^[12]

Other themes

The God Delusion is not just a defence of atheism, but also goes on the offensive against religion. Dawkins sees religion as subverting science, fostering fanaticism, encouraging bigotry against homosexuals, and influencing society in other negative ways.^[13] Dawkins regards religion as a "divisive force" and as a "label for in-group/out-group enmity and vendetta".^[14]

He is most outraged about the teaching of religion in schools, which he considers to be an indoctrination process. He equates the religious teaching of children by parents and teachers in faith schools to a form of mental abuse. Dawkins considers the labels "Muslim child" and "Catholic child" equally misapplied as the descriptions "Marxist child" and "Tory child", as he wonders how a young child can be considered developed enough to have such independent views on the cosmos and humanity's place within it.

The book concludes with the question of whether religion, despite its alleged problems, fills a "much needed gap", giving consolation and inspiration to people who need it. According to Dawkins, these needs are much better filled by non-religious means such as philosophy and science. He suggests that an atheistic worldview is life-affirming in a way that religion, with its unsatisfying "answers" to life's mysteries, could never be. An appendix gives addresses for those "needing support in escaping religion".

Critical reception

The book generated a range of responses, both positive and negative. Metacritic reported that the book had a weighted average score of 59 out of 100.^[15] The book was nominated for Best Book at the British Book Awards, where Richard Dawkins was named Author of the Year.^[16] Nevertheless, the book received mixed reviews from critics, including both religious and atheist commentators.^[17] In the London Review of Books, Terry Eagleton accused Richard Dawkins of not doing proper research into the topic of his work, religion, and further agreed with critics who accused Dawkins of committing straw man fallacies against theists.^[18]

Oxford theologian Alister McGrath (author of The Dawkins Delusion? and Dawkins' God) argues that Dawkins is ignorant of Christian theology, and therefore unable to engage religion and faith intelligently.^[19] Dawkins had an extended debate with McGrath at the 2007 Sunday Times Literary Festival.^[20]

In Why there almost certainly is a God: Doubting Dawkins, philosopher Keith Ward claims that Dawkins mis-stated the five ways, and thus responds with a straw man. For example, for the fifth Way, Dawkins places it in the same position for his criticism as the Watchmaker analogy- when in fact, according to Ward, they are vastly different arguments. Ward defended the utility of the five ways (for instance, on the fourth argument he states that all possible smells must pre-exist in the mind of God, but that God, being by his nature non-physical, does not himself stink) whilst pointing out that they only constitute a proof of God if one first begins with a proposition that the universe can be rationally understood. Nevertheless, he argues that they are useful in allowing us to understand what God will be like given this initial presupposition.^[21]

Eastern Orthodox theologian David Bentley Hart says that Dawkins "devoted several pages of The God Delusion to a discussion of the 'Five Ways' of Thomas Aquinas but never thought to avail himself of the services of some scholar of ancient and mediaeval thought who might have explained them to him ... As a result, he not only mistook the Five Ways for Thomas's comprehensive statement on why we should believe in God, which they most definitely are not, but ended up completely misrepresenting the logic of every single one of them, and at the most basic levels."^[22]

Christian philosopher Keith Ward, in his 2006 book Is Religion Dangerous?, argues against the view of Dawkins and others that religion is socially dangerous.

Ethicist Margaret Somerville^[23] suggested that Dawkins "overstates the case against religion",^[24] particularly its role in human conflict.

Many of Dawkins' defenders claim that critics generally misunderstand his real point. During a debate on Radio 3 Hong Kong, David Nicholls, writer and president of the Atheist Foundation of Australia, reiterated Dawkins' sentiments that religion is an "unnecessary" aspect of global problems.^[25] Dawkins argues that "the existence of God is a scientific hypothesis like any other". He disagrees with Stephen Jay Gould's principle of nonoverlapping magisteria (NOMA). In an interview with the Time magazine, Dawkins said:

I think that Gould's separate compartments was a purely political ploy to win middle-of-the-road religious people to the science camp. But it's a very empty idea. There are plenty of places where religion does not keep off the scientific turf. Any belief in miracles is flat contradictory not just to the facts of science but to the spirit of science.^[26]

Astrophysicist Martin Rees has suggested that Dawkins' attack on mainstream religion is unhelpful.^[27] Regarding Rees' claim in his book Our Cosmic Habitat that "such questions lie beyond science; however, they are the province of philosophers and theologians", Dawkins asks "what expertise can theologians bring to deep cosmological questions that scientists cannot?"^[28] Elsewhere, Dawkins has written that "there's all the difference in the world between a belief that one is prepared to defend by quoting evidence and logic, and a belief that is supported by nothing more than tradition, authority or revelation."^[29]

Debate

On 3 October 2007, John Lennox, Professor of Mathematics at the University of Oxford, publicly debated Richard Dawkins at the University of Alabama at Birmingham on Dawkins' views as expressed in The God Delusion, and their validity over and against the Christian faith.^{[30] [31] [32]} "The God Delusion Debate" marked Dawkins' first visit to the Old South and the first significant discussion on this issue in the "Bible Belt".^[33] The event was sold out, and The Wall Street Journal called it "a revelation: in Alabama, a civil debate over God's existence."^{[34] [35]} Dawkins debated Lennox for the second time at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History in October 2008. The debate was titled "Has Science Buried God?", in which Dawkins used a form of an Eddington concession in saying that, although he would not accept it, a reasonably respectable case could be made for "a deistic god, a sort of god of the physicist, a god of somebody like Paul Davies, who devised the laws of physics, god the mathematician, god who put together the cosmos in the first place and then sat back and watched everything happen" but not for a theistic god.^{[36] [37] [38] [39]} Several days later, in a public debate in Inverness, Scotland, John Lennox used this part of Dawkins' speech out of context claiming that "Dawkins now believes that a good case can be made for deism", which Dawkins refuted in his conference in Atlanta, describing Lennox as insincere.^{[40] [41]}

Reviews and responses

• Alvin Plantinga: The Dawkins Confusion^[42]
• Anthony Kenny: Knowledge Belief and Faith^[43]
• Thomas Nagel: The Fear of Religion^[44]
• Michael Ruse: Chicago Journals Review^[45]
• Richard Swinburne: Response to Richard Dawkins^[46]
• Alister McGrath and Joanna Collicutt McGrath: The Dawkins Delusion?^[47]
• H. Allen Orr: A Mission to Convert^[48]
• Terry Eagleton: London Review of Books, Lunging, Flailing, Mispunching^[49]
• Antony Flew: The God Delusion Review^[50] – Dawkins response^[51]
• Murrough O'Brien of The Independent: Our Teapot which art in heaven^[52] – Dawkins responds: Do you have to read up on leprechology before disbelieving in them?^[53]
• Marilynne Robinson: The God Delusion Review, Harper's Magazine 2006^[54]
• Simon Watson: "Richard Dawkins' The God Delusion and Atheist Fundamentalism," in Anthropoetics: The Journal of Generative Anthropology (Spring 2010)^[55]
• William Lane Craig: "Dawkins' Delusion", web article excerpted from Contending with Christianity's Critics^[56]

Sales

The book was ranked second on the Amazon best-sellers' list in November 2006.^[57] The God Delusion has been translated into 35 languages.^[58]

Awards

For The God Delusion, Dawkins was named Author of the Year at the 2007 British Book Awards. The Giordano Bruno Foundation awarded the 2007 Deschner Prize to Dawkins for the "outstanding contribution to strengthen secular, scientific, and humanistic thinking" in his book.^[59]

Responding books

Many books have been written in response to The God Delusion.^[60] For example:

• Atheist Delusions, by David Bentley Hart
• The Devil's Delusion, by David Berlinski
• Darwin's Angel, by John Cornwell
• God's Undertaker: Has Science Buried God?, by John Lennox (Oxford: Lion, 2009)
• The Dawkins Delusion?, by Alister McGrath and Joanna Collicutt McGrath

Legal repercussions in Turkey

In Turkey, where the book had sold at least 6,000 copies,^[61] a prosecutor launched a probe into whether The God Delusion was "an attack on holy values", following a complaint in November 2007. If convicted, the Turkish publisher and translator, Erol Karaaslan, would have faced a prison sentence of inciting religious hatred and insulting religious values.^[62] In April 2008, the court acquitted the defendant. In ruling out the need to confiscate copies of the book, the presiding judge stated that banning it "would fundamentally limit the freedom of thought".^[63]

Dawkins' website, richarddawkins.net, was banned in Turkey later that year after complaints from Islamic creationist Adnan Oktar (Harun Yahya) for alleged defamation.^[64] By July 2011, the ban had been lifted.^[65]

Editions

English

List of editions in English:

• The God Delusion, hardcover edition, Bantam Press, 2006.
  • The God Delusion, paperback edition (with new preface by Richard Dawkins), Black Swan, 2007.
  • The God Delusion, 10th anniversary edition (with new introduction by Richard Dawkins and afterword by Daniel Dennett), Black Swan, 2016.

Translations

The book has been officially translated into many different languages, such as Spanish, German, Italian, and Turkish. Dawkins has also promoted unofficial translations of the book in languages such as Arabic^[66] and Bengali.^[67] There are also Telugu and Tamil translations of the book. The Richard Dawkins Foundation offers free translations in Arabic, Urdu, Farsi, and Indonesian.^[68]

Non-exhaustive list of international editions:

• Η περί Θεού αυταπάτη, translated by Maria Giatroudaki, Panagiotis Delivorias, Alekos Mamalis, Nikos Ntaikos, Kostas Simos, Vasilis Sakellariou, 2007 .
• Deus, um Delírio, translated by Fernanda Ravagnani, São Paulo: Companhia das Letras, 2007 .
• A desilusão de Deus, translated by Lígia Rodrigues and Maria João Camilo, Lisbon: Casa das Letras, 2007 .
• Illusionen om Gud, translated by Margareta Eklöf, Stockholm: Leopard, 2007 .
• Jumalharha, translated by Kimmo Pietiläinen, Helsinki: Terra Cognita, 2007 .
• Tanri Yanilgisi, translated by Tnc Bilgin, Kuzey Yayinlari, 2007 .
• Iluzija o Bogu, translated by Žarko Vodinelić, Zagreb: Izvori, 2007 .
• Isteni téveszme, translated by János Kepes, Budapest: Nyitott Könyvműhely, 2007 .
• Der Gotteswahn, translated by Sebastian Vogel, Ullstein Taschenbuch, 2008 .
• Pour en finir avec Dieu, translated by Marie-France Desjeux-Lefort, 2008 .
• L'illusione di Dio, translated by Laura Serra, Milan: Arnoldo Mondadori Editore, 2008 .
• Gud – en vrangforestilling translated by Finn B. Larsen and Ingrid Sande Larsen, 2007 .
• Бог как иллюзия, 2008 .
• கடவுள் ஒரு பொய் நம்பிக்கை, translated by G. V. K. Aasaan, Cen̲n̲ai, 2009 .^[69]
• El espejismo de Dios, translated by Natalia Pérez-Galdós, Madrid: Espasa, 2013 .
• Dieva delūzija, translated by Aldis Lauzis, Riga: Jumava, 2014 .
• Boží blud, translated by Jana Lenzová, Bratislava: Citadella, 2016 .
• Bog kot zabloda, translated by Maja Novak, Ljubljana: Modrijan 2016 .
• Boží blud, translated by Zuzana Gabajová, Prague: Citadella, 2016 .

Interviews

• "The flying spaghetti monster", interview with Steve Paulson, Salon.com, 13 October 2006
• "God vs. Science", discussion with Francis Collins, TIME, 13 November 2006
• "The God Delusion", interview with George Stroumboulopoulos, The Hour, 5 May 2007
• "God . . . in other words", interview with Ruth Gledhill, The Times, 10 May 2007
• "Richard Dawkins: An Argument for Atheism", interview with Terry Gross, Fresh Air, 7 March 2008

Further reading

Chronological order of publication (oldest first)

• Joan Bakewell: "Judgment Day", The Guardian, 23 September 2006
• Stephen D. Unwin: "Dawkins needs to show some doubt", The Guardian, 29 September 2006
• Crispin Tickell: "Heaven can wait", Financial Times (requires subscription). 30 September 2006
• Paul Riddell: "Did Man really create God?", The Scotsman, 6 October 2006
• Mary Midgley: "review", New Scientist (requires subscription). 7 October 2006
• Troy Jollimore: "Better Living Without God?", San Francisco Chronicle, 15 October 2006
• PZ Myers: "Bad Religion", Seed magazine, 22 October 2006
• Jim Holt: "Beyond belief", The New York Times, 22 October 2006
• Terry Eagleton: "Lunging, Flailing, Mispunching", London Review of Books, Vol.28, No.20,19 October 2006
• Marilynne Robinson: "The God Delusion ", Harper's Magazine, November 2006
• Eric W. Lin: "Dawkins Says God Is Not Dead, But He Should Be", The Harvard Crimson, 1 November 2006
• James Wood: "The Celestial Teapot ", The New Republic, December 2006
• Michael Fitzpatrick: "The Dawkins delusion", Spiked, 18 December 2006
• Bill Muehlenberg: "A Review of The God Delusion": Part 1, Part 2, on the Australian commentator's CultureWatch blog
• Robert Stewart: "A detailed summary and review of The God Delusion", The Journal of Evolutionary Philosophy. 2006
• H. Allen Orr: "A Mission to Convert", The New York Review of Books, 11 January 2007
• Steven Weinberg: "A deadly certitude", The Times Literary Supplement (requires subscription), 17 January 2007
• Alister McGrath: The Dawkins Delusion, 15 February 2007
• Scott Hahn: Answering the New Atheism: Dismantling Dawkins' Case Against God, Emmaus Road Publishing, 2008.

External links

• Newsnight Book Club – Extracts from The God Delusion
• Richard Dawkins interviewed by Laurie Taylor in New Humanist magazine
• The God Delusion Debate (Dawkins – Lennox) (10/03/2007)
• Free Urdu language translation of The God Delusion
• Richard Dawkins‘ God Delusion (online reading)

Notes and References

1. Book: Dawkins, Richard . The God Delusion . registration . Houghton Mifflin . Boston . 2006 . 0-618-68000-4 . Richard Dawkins . 406.

   Web site: Preface on-line . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20080228072308/http://www.randomhouse.com.au/Downloads/News/GodDelusion_extract_revised.pdf . 28 February 2008 .

2. News: Hardcover Nonfiction – New York Times . 2 December 2006 . The New York Times . 3 December 2006 . 12 May 2013 . https://web.archive.org/web/20130512223744/http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/03/books/bestseller/1203besthardnonfiction.html?_r=1&oref=slogin . live .
3. Web site: Richard Dawkins and Matt Dillahunty in Conversation . YouTube . 2012-02-04 . 2018-04-16 . 21 November 2020 . https://web.archive.org/web/20201121060448/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNCzd6_ce0I . live .
4. The God Delusion, page 51.
5. [Richard Dawkins]
6. Web site: Richard . Dawkins . Richard Dawkins . Richard Dawkins explains his latest book . RichardDawkins.net . 14 September 2007 . https://web.archive.org/web/20071013220047/http://richarddawkins.net/mainPage.php?bodyPage=article_body.php&id=170 . 13 October 2007.
7. News: Robert . Weitzel . Hitchens, Dawkins, Harris: The Unholy Trinity... Thank God . Atlantic Free Press . 14 September 2007 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20070915142352/http://www.atlanticfreepress.com/content/view/2112/1/ . 15 September 2007 .
8. News: David . Smith . David Smith (journalist) . Believe it or not: the sceptics beat God in bestseller battle . The Observer . 5 October 2007 . London . 12 August 2007 . 21 November 2020 . https://web.archive.org/web/20201121060519/https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2007/aug/12/religion.books . live .
9. This interpretation of the argument is based on the reviews by Daniel Dennett and PZ Myers.

10. "The general theory of religion as an accidental by-product – a misfiring of something useful – is the one I wish to advocate"

11. "the purpose of this section is to ask whether meme theory might work for the special case of religion" (italics in original, referring to one of the five sections of Chapter 5)

12. Having given some examples of what he considers to be the brutish morality of the Old Testament, Dawkins writes, "Of course, irritated theologians will protest that we don't take the book of Genesis literally any more. But that is my whole point! We pick and choose which bits of scripture to believe, which bits to write off as symbols and allegories."
13. He gives examples of cases where blasphemy laws have been used to sentence people to death, and when funerals of gays or gay sympathisers have been picketed. Dawkins states preachers in the southern portions of the United States used the Bible to justify slavery by claiming Africans were descendants of Noah's sinful son Ham. During the Crusades, pagans and heretics who would not convert to Christianity were murdered. In an extreme example from modern times, he cites the case of Reverend Paul Hill, who revelled in his self-styled martyrdom: "I expect a great reward in heaven... I am looking forward to glory," he announced as he faced execution for murdering a doctor who performed abortions in Florida, US.
14. [Richard Dawkins]
15. Web site: The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins: Reviews . 13 March 2008 . Metacritic. https://web.archive.org/web/20080218061427/http://www.metacritic.com/books/authors/dawkinsrichard/goddelusion . 18 February 2008.
16. Web site: Winners & Shortlists 2007 . Galaxy British Book Awards . 12 September 2007 . https://web.archive.org/web/20080424105746/http://www.britishbookawards.co.uk/pnbb_winners2007.asp . 24 April 2008.
17. Web site: Atheist Delusions: The Christian Revolution and Its Fashionable Enemies . David Bentley Hart . 24 July 2009 . New Haven, CT: Yale University Press 2009 . David Bentley Hart . 6 June 2011 . https://web.archive.org/web/20110606222214/http://yalepress.yale.edu/yupbooks/book.asp?isbn=9780300111903 . live .
18. Lunging, Flailing, Mispunching: The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins . London Review of Books . 19 October 2006 . 28 . 20 . 7 March 2010 . 10 March 2010 . https://web.archive.org/web/20100310145648/http://www.lrb.co.uk/v28/n20/terry-eagleton/lunging-flailing-mispunching . live . Eagleton . Terry .
19. Book: McGrath, Alister . Alister McGrath . Dawkins' God: Genes, Memes, and the Meaning of Life . 2004 . Blackwell Publishing . Oxford, England . 1-4051-2538-1 . 81 .
20. News: Richard Dawkins at The Sunday Times Oxford Literary Festival . 4 March 2008 . Cole, Judith . 26 March 2007 . The Times . London . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20070406182850/http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/audio_video/podcasts/books/article1570989.ece . 6 April 2007 .
21. Book: Ward, Keith. Why there almost certainly is a God: Doubting Dawkins. Lion Hudson. Oxford. 2008. 978-0-7459-5330-4.
22. [David Bentley Hart]
23. News: Aiming for knockout blow in god wars . 27 May 2007 . Huxley, John . 24 May 2007 . The Sydney Morning Herald . 26 May 2007 . https://web.archive.org/web/20070526123859/http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/aiming-for-knockout-blow-in-god-wars/2007/05/24/1179601500045.html . live .
24. Web site: Does God Believe in Richard Dawkins? . Easterbrook, Gregg . Beliefnet . 26 May 2007 . 9 May 2007 . https://web.archive.org/web/20070509071943/http://www.beliefnet.com/story/202/story_20279_1.html . live .
25. Web site: Is God a Delusion?. Radio 3, Hong Kong. 4 April 2007. 8 February 2011. 30 April 2008. https://web.archive.org/web/20080430003341/http://www.rthk.org.hk/rthk/radio3/backchat/20070404.html. live.
26. News: God vs. Science (3) . 3 April 2008 . 5 November 2006 . Van Biema, David . . 11 February 2012 . https://web.archive.org/web/20120211180034/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1555132-3,00.html . dead .
27. News: Scientists divided over alliance with religion . 17 March 2008 . Jha, Alok . 29 May 2007 . The Guardian . UK . 19 July 2008 . https://web.archive.org/web/20080719103328/http://books.guardian.co.uk/hay2007/story/0,,2089947,00.html . live .
28. Web site: When Religion Steps on Science's Turf . 3 April 2008 . Dawkins, Richard . 2006 . Free Inquiry magazine . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20080419125549/http://www.secularhumanism.org/library/fi/dawkins_18_2.html . 19 April 2008 .
29. Web site: Dawkins, Richard . January–February 1997 . Is Science a Religion? . 15 March 2008 . American Humanist Association . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20121030144700/http://www.thehumanist.org/humanist/articles/dawkins.html . 30 October 2012 .
30. Web site: The God Delusion Debate (Dawkins-Lennox). https://web.archive.org/web/20090817002138/http://www.fixed-point.org/index.php/video/35-full-length/164-the-dawkins-lennox-debate. dead. 17 August 2009. Fixed Point Foundation. 10 November 2009.
31. News: Richard Dawkins Debates in the Bible Belt. Joanna Sugden. The Times. UK. 4 October 2007. 10 November 2009. 29 April 2011. https://web.archive.org/web/20110429093533/http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article2588509.ece. live.
32. Web site: Scholars match wits over God's existence. Kristen Record. The Birmingham News. 4 October 2007. 10 November 2009. 25 June 2009. https://web.archive.org/web/20090625110229/http://blog.al.com/spotnews/2007/10/scholars_match_wits_over_gods.html. live.
33. Web site: Debate between Richard Dawkins and John Lennox . RichardDawkins.net . 10 November 2009 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20090823045702/http://richarddawkins.net/article,1707,Debate-between-Richard-Dawkins-and-John-Lennox,Richard-Dawkins-John-Lennox . 23 August 2009 .
34. Web site: A Revelation: In Alabama, A Civil Debate Over God's Existence . Naomi Schaefer Riley . The Wall Street Journal . 12 October 2007 . 10 November 2009 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20100121101003/http://www.opinionjournal.com/forms/printThis.html?id=110010724 . 21 January 2010 .
35. https://web.archive.org/web/20090817002138/http://www.fixed-point.org/index.php/video/35-full-length/164-the-dawkins-lennox-debate Video of The God Delusion Debate (Dawkins – Lennox).
36. Web site: Has Science Buried God?. https://web.archive.org/web/20091230135546/http://www.fixed-point.org/index.php/events/1-latest/5-has-science-buried-god. dead. 30 December 2009. Fixed Point Foundation. 1 February 2010.
37. Web site: Is Richard Dawkins Still Evolving?. Melanie Phillips. The Spectator. UK. 23 October 2008. 1 February 2010. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20100404034633/http://www.spectator.co.uk/melaniephillips/2543431/is-richard-dawkins-still-evolving.thtml. 4 April 2010.
38. Web site: Has Science Buried God?. BBC Oxford. 15 October 2008. 1 February 2010. 9 January 2017. https://web.archive.org/web/20170109233519/http://www.bbc.co.uk/oxford/content/articles/2008/10/15/lennox_dawkins.shtml. live.
39. Web site: video of 11 minutes of the "Has Science Buried God?" debate . YouTube . 2009-10-22 . 2018-04-16 . 21 November 2020 . https://web.archive.org/web/20201121060449/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxD-HPMpTto . live .
40. Web site: "Lying for Jesus" – Richard Dawkins at American Atheist (AA) Conference in Atlanta . YouTube . 2009-05-02 . 2022-01-28 . 18 January 2022 . https://web.archive.org/web/20220118044537/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDWjX7vIAlg . live .
41. Web site: Richard Dawkins: On The God Delusion in retrospect . YouTube . 2021-12-02 . 2022-01-28 . 16 December 2021 . https://web.archive.org/web/20211216090113/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NhgNHEzKxcI . live .
42. Web site: The Dawkins Confusion – Naturalism ad absurdum . Alvin Plantinga . 2007 . 5 November 2015 . Alvin Plantinga . 11 December 2015 . https://web.archive.org/web/20151211012617/http://www.philvaz.com/apologetics/DawkinsGodDelusionPlantingaReview.pdf . live .
43. Anthony . Kenny . Anthony Kenny . Knowledge, Belief, and Faith . Philosophy . 82 . 3 . 381–397 . July 2007 . 10.1017/S0031819107000010. 171028155 .
44. Thomas . Nagel . Thomas Nagel . The Fear of Religion . . 23 October 2006 . 12 September 2007 . 20 December 2009 . https://web.archive.org/web/20091220051516/http://www.tnr.com/article/the-fear-religion . live .
45. Richard Dawkins: The God Delusion . Isis . Michael Ruse . December 2007 . 10.1086/529280 . 98 . 4 . 814–816. Michael Ruse.
46. Web site: Response to Richard Dawkins' comments on my writings in his book The God Delusion. 10 March 2010. Swinburne. Richard.
47. Book: McGrath, Alister . Alister McGrath . The Dawkins Delusion? . . 2007 . 20. The Dawkins Delusion? . Also expressed in his review "The Dawkins Delusion".
48. A Mission to Convert . H. Allen Orr . 1 . January 2007 . The New York Review of Books . 54 . 3 March 2007 . 3 March 2007 . https://web.archive.org/web/20070303011533/http://www.nybooks.com/articles/19775 . live .
49. Lunging, Flailing, Mispunching . Terry Eagleton . London Review of Books . 28 . 20 . 19 October 2006 . 26 November 2006 . 21 February 2012 . https://web.archive.org/web/20120221224518/http://www.discorsi.de/terry_eagleton_ueber_richard_dawkins_gotteswahn.html . live .
50. Web site: Flew Speaks Out: Professor Antony Flew reviews The God Delusion . bethinking.org . Antony Flew . 25 December 2008 . 11 October 2008 . https://web.archive.org/web/20081011104813/http://www.bethinking.org/science-christianity/intermediate/flew-speaks-out-professor-antony-flew-reviews-the-god-delusion.htm . live .
51. News: Richard Dawkins branded 'secularist bigot' by veteran philosopher . The Daily Telegraph . UK . Martin Beckford . 29 December 2008 . 2 August 2008 . 14 April 2015 . https://web.archive.org/web/20150414195341/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/science-news/3348563/Richard-Dawkins-branded-secularist-bigot-by-veteran-philosopher.html . live .
52. Murrough O'Brien, "Our Teapot, which art in heaven," The Independent, 26 November 2006
53. Web site: Do you have to read up on leprechology before disbelieving in them? . 14 November 2007 . Dawkins . Richard . 17 September 2007 . RichardDawkins.net . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20140106194926/http://old.richarddawkins.net/articles/1647 . 6 January 2014 .
54. Web site: The God Delusion. solutions.synearth.net. Marilynne Robinson. 4 April 2010. 12 March 2010. https://web.archive.org/web/20100312033819/http://solutions.synearth.net/2006/10/20/. live.
55. Web site: Richard Dawkins' The God Delusion and Atheist Fundamentalism . Anthropoetics: The Journal of Generative Anthropology 15, no. 2 . Simon Watson . Spring 2010 . 14 August 2010 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20100707022409/http://www.anthropoetics.ucla.edu/ap1502/1502Watson.htm . 7 July 2010 .
56. Web site: Dawkins' Delusion . William Lane Craig . 22 August 2014 . William Lane Craig . 26 August 2014 . https://web.archive.org/web/20140826115750/http://www.reasonablefaith.org/dawkins-delusion . live .
57. News: Atheists top book charts by deconstructing God . Jamie Doward . The Observer . 29 October 2006 . 25 November 2006 . London . 8 December 2006 . https://web.archive.org/web/20061208005542/http://books.guardian.co.uk/news/articles/0,,1934353,00.html . live .
58. [Richard Dawkins]
59. Web site: Deschner Prize to Richard Dawkins. 2020-09-22. giordano-bruno-stiftung.de. June 2007. 21 November 2020. https://web.archive.org/web/20201121060451/https://www.giordano-bruno-stiftung.de/en/news/deschner-prize-richard-dawkins. live.
60. Web site: Two new fleas are discovered!. 5 October 2008. The Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science. 21 December 2012. 12 May 2015. https://web.archive.org/web/20150512050010/http://old.richarddawkins.net/articles/3216-two-new-fleas-are-discovered. live.
61. News: Sylvia . Tiryaki . The God Delusion in Turkey . 3 December 2007 . . 18 February 2008 . 21 November 2020 . https://web.archive.org/web/20201121015218/https://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/ . live .
62. News: Turkey probes atheist's 'God' book . 28 November 2007 . Associated Press, CNN . 28 November 2007 . https://web.archive.org/web/20071129222236/http://edition.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/europe/11/28/dawkins.turkey.ap/index.html . 29 November 2007.
63. News: 'Tanrı Yanılgısı' kitabı beraat etti . 2 April 2008 . AA . 2 April 2008 . tr . 5 April 2008 . https://web.archive.org/web/20080405153938/http://www.ntvmsnbc.com/news/441428.asp . live .
64. Web site: Turkey bans biologist Richard Dawkins' website – Monsters and Critics. 27 October 2009. 18 September 2009. https://web.archive.org/web/20090918003024/http://www.monstersandcritics.com/science/news/article_1431422.php/Turkey_bans_biologist_Richard_Dawkins_website. live.
65. Web site: RD.net no longer banned in Turkey!. RichardDawkins.net. July 2011. 6 August 2011. 5 November 2011. https://web.archive.org/web/20111105060322/http://richarddawkins.net/articles/642074-rd-net-no-longer-banned-in-turkey. live.
66. Web site: Rachael Black . The God Delusion | Richard Dawkins Foundation . 10 November 2014 . Richarddawkins.net . 2018-04-16 . 22 December 2015 . https://web.archive.org/web/20151222142919/https://richarddawkins.net/2014/11/the-god-delusion/ . live .
67. Web site: Stephanie . The God Delusion (Bengali Translation) | Richard Dawkins Foundation . 27 July 2015 . Richarddawkins.net . 2018-04-16 . 22 December 2015 . https://web.archive.org/web/20151222121828/https://richarddawkins.net/2015/07/the-god-delusion-bengali-translation/ . live .
68. Web site: The Translation Project . 18 May 2020. 30 May 2020 . https://web.archive.org/web/20200530053503/https://translationsproject.org/ . live .
69. Web site: The God Delusion. modernrationalist.com. 2015-11-01. 13 January 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20160113074530/http://www.modernrationalist.com/2010/january/page03.html. live.