Finished The God Delusion, by Richard Dawkins, last week, and have to say that, overall, I was disappointed. I thought that he made some interesting points (given both my current and past careers, I found the discussion of religion as a form of child abuse very interesting), and additionally argued well for the acceptance of atheists as normal, healthy people, rather than wicked heathens who should be outcasts.But what struck me throughout the book, and really turned me off, was the smugness with which the author made many of his points. It seems odd to try and make the point that atheists are not all intellectual snobs, looking down their noses at religious people as ignorant, but then basically prove that same point by looking down his nose at religious people and portray them as ignorant (or worse). I guess I was hoping for a more clear-cut "here is why I am an atheist and why atheism is okay" book, rather than a manifesto. To be fair, Dawkins makes it clear early in the book that he is out to convert, so I was not necessarily surprised by the tone of the book. However, part of what I dislike about religion is its attempt to make me a believer; trying to make that aspect of religion work for the anti-religious comes off as insincere and ugly.
I'll give this book a nice, agnostic C.
(btw, if you look to the right, you will see that, with my next book, I have decided to take a little break from philosophy and heavy literature, and read something that is just fun. I'm only a few pages in, but so far, so good!)
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