I have always been a fan of Richard Dawkins, we share a lot of common beliefs which is ironic when you consider that Dakwins’s book is all about getting rid of beliefs. That’s not strictly true of course, the books aim is to help the reader realise that all beliefs should be based on scientific and logical information rather than myths, hearsay, religion or whatever you want to call it.

As an atheist myself this book did not change my opinion in any way, but it did a good job of informing me about many aspects of religion and the biological and sociological desire to believe in such things. I kind of wondered why Dawkins was writing this book, as although it touched on biology which is his field, the book was more about the psychology of man and the history of religion. However after delving into the book further and thinking about the issue as a whole I began to think: “Why shouldn’t Dawkins write about such a thing?” Why shouldn’t anyone write such things since religion itself is is a self-qualified subject. I could make up my own religion right now if I wanted to, and I would be the worlds leading expert in my chosen faith.

The book provides some powerful arguments, from all different angles. This is a massive body of work that I feel should be read by everyone – atheists and theists alike. I have two main criticisms regarding this book. Firstly, that the book loses a little bit of credibility in my mind by being overly biased. You can tell Richard Dawkins is passionate about his subject, but as I know from my own discussions and arguments about contentious subjects, too much passion can come across as being fanatical. My second criticism is the the final chapters feel a little bit weak, but only in contrast to the rest of the book. I guess a book should slow down near the end, but it just didn’t feel quite right in this case.

Another issue I have is that I think Dawkins missed out an important argument. Saying that, I can see why he may have chosen to do this. I have no issue with good people believing in God, generally their thoughts do me no harm. My biggest issue is that established religions are an infrastructure for power. The simple fact is that give a man the power to control millions of people, he is likely to use it for his own gain, regardless of any personal belief systems. Power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely.

The Christian church has always commanded power, indeed it has been telling people what to do and killing people in the name of “Our Lord” for tens of centuries. People are driven by fear and if they do wrong according to the people that control this power, which is not God but rather the Church of any particular religion then they are punished. I say this because Churches do change the rules and laws that are written in scriptures. In the Christian faith not many people follow the Old Testament, so who are we to pick and choose the words of God? (Dawkins does touch on this point, but omits to mention the damage done by the people in charge of any given religion, but as mentioned earlier, I can see why he may have done this.) Similarly Henry the VIII changed the Church of England for his own reasons – these changes were not the word of God but rather that of an obese, power hungry monarch. He set himself up as Supreme head of the Church of England in place of the Pope and dissolved the monasteries and confiscated their wealth. Today the church of England has around 15 million followers. [source]

To control people, a governing power usually tries to limit the knowledge and intelligence of the people that empower it. This is why when America attacks countries in the Middle East the first targets are television stations, and leaflets are dropped by air, and also why Fox news backs the Republican party with such vigour. Look at the censoring of the media in China. Knowledge is power. The Bible states that’s eating the fruit of knowledge is an evil sin, and it is only in relatively recent years that the Bible has been freely available in English – before that priests, popes and religious leaders could leave the interpretation of the written work up to themselves. This is my problem with religion, its not the faith or the belief in God that I don’t like, its the people in control of that belief system.

One fascinating fact brought to my attention in the God Delusion is that many people consider Jews the murderer of Christ. They seem to forget that Jesus was a Jew himself – after all were he to be a Christian, he would be the ultimate narcissist. The book is filled full of other interesting facts, opinions and beliefs that really do get you thinking about the issue regardless of your personal beliefs. Like me you wont agree with many of them but atleast you will think about the subject in more detail than you could have imagined before.

Every book has its faults (yes, even that book), including this one, but I think Richard Dawkins is a brave man a deserves a medal for writing this important piece or work.