Outgrowing God
Books | Religion / Atheism
3.8
Richard Dawkins
Should we believe in God? In this brisk introduction to modern atheism, one of the world’s greatest science writers tells us why we shouldn’t.Richard Dawkins was fifteen when he stopped believing in God. Deeply impressed by the beauty and complexity of living things, he’d felt certain they must have had a designer. Learning about evolution changed his mind. Now one of the world’s best and bestselling science communicators, Dawkins has given readers, young and old, the same opportunity to rethink the big questions. In twelve fiercely funny, mind-expanding chapters, Dawkins explains how the natural world arose without a designer—the improbability and beauty of the “bottom-up programming” that engineers an embryo or a flock of starlings—and challenges head-on some of the most basic assumptions made by the world’s religions: Do you believe in God? Which one? Is the Bible a “Good Book”? Is adhering to a religion necessary, or even likely, to make people good to one another? Dissecting everything from Abraham’s abuse of Isaac to the construction of a snowflake, Outgrowing God is a concise, provocative guide to thinking for yourself.Praise for Outgrowing God“My son came home from his first day in the sixth grade with arms outstretched plaintively demanding to know: ‘Have you ever heard of Jesus?’ We burst out laughing. Maybe not our finest parenting moment, given that he was genuinely distraught. He felt that he had woken up one day to a world in which his peers were expressing beliefs he found frighteningly unreasonable. He began devouring books like The God Delusion, books that helped him formulate his own arguments and helped him stand his ground. Dawkins’s new book is special in the terrain of atheists’ pleas for humanism and rationalism precisely since it speaks to those most vulnerable to the coercive tactics of religion. As Dawkins himself says in the dedication, this book is for ‘all young people when they’re old enough to decide for themselves.’ It is also, I must add, for their parents.”—Janna Levin, author of Black Hole Blues “When someone is considering atheism I tell them to read the Bible first and then Dawkins. Outgrowing God—second only to the Bible!”—Penn Jillette, author of God, No!
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Author
Richard Dawkins
Pages
304
Publisher
Random House Publishing Group
Published Date
2019-10-08
ISBN
1984853910 9781984853912
Community ReviewsSee all
"The first half of the book was honestly quite a slog to get through. It is not because of the writing style, but because of the analysis of the different religious texts and the lores of each religion; how they overlap in various ways (not by accident I might add), which for a person who has not read either the Bible or the Quran was a challenge to comprehend to say the least. <br/><br/>The second half was much stronger in my opinion, which felt like the main event/attraction to the warm-up act of the first half of the book. The second half was written about more of the science and biology side of the argument about religions not being based on fact, whereas the first half was written about the inconsistencies of religions as a whole. I loved all of the various examples the author demonstrated with natural selection being the true reason for evolutionary changes in various species (i.e. Cheetah versus Gazelle in the African Savannah). Overall this was a good read if you are interested in both religion and science, as well as a fan of the author himself, Richard Dawkins.<br/><br/>These are a collection of my favourite quotes from this book:<br/><br/>"And far more often than it is bewildering or frightening, scientific truth is wonderful, beautiful. You need courage to face the frightening, bewildering conclusions of science; and with the courage comes the opportunity to experience all that wonder and beauty. The courage to cut yourself adrift from comforting, tame apparent certainties and embrace the wild truth."- p. 263<br/><br/>"Isn't science wonderful? If you think you've found a gap in our understanding, which you hope might be filled by God, my advice is: 'Look back through history and never bet against science.' "-p. 275<br/><br/>"Natural selection simply builds into the child brain the rule 'Believe whatever your parents tell you.' And that rule will come into force even when 'what your parents tell you' is actually silly or untrue. Or just based on a pigeon-like superstition."- p. 236 (Basically saying everything your parents tell you you believe because you are too young/inexperienced of danger to distinguish good advice from bad advice)."
Erin Smith