The God Delusion Book Summary - The God Delusion Book explained in key points

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The God Delusion summary

Name: The God Delusion
Rating: 4.1 (285 reviews)
Author: Richard Dawkins

Richard Dawkins

The Science behind Atheism

4.1 (285 ratings)

26 mins

What is The God Delusion about?

The God Delusion (2006) deconstructs the most popular arguments and reasoning for the existence of God to show the statistical and logical improbability of a higher being’s actual existence. These blinks explain why religion shouldn’t be the foundation for society’s morals and how it can actually be harmful to our ethical standards.

Table of Contents

The God Delusion
summarized in 11 key ideas

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Key idea 1 of 11

What’s in it for me? Look at religion from a more critical perspective.

Is there a higher power? Regardless of whether we call it God, Allah or Vishnu, the question of whether a divine being truly exists has been with humankind for a very long time – and we continue to have no clear answer.

But, of course, all the valuable lessons that we can take from the Bible and other scripture are essential in guiding us when it comes to morality and how to live our lives. Or are they? While the moral benefits of religion and religious scriptures might be clear at first glance, taking a closer look can provide you with a whole different perspective on life.

These blinks take a closer look at the idea of God, primarily from a Christian perspective, to see if any of the ideas usually associated with religion can really hold water.

In these blinks, you’ll discover

how the Bible’s gospels don’t agree on where Jesus was born;
why religion could be an evolutionary byproduct; and
how the story of Lot in the Bible shows the amorality of scripture.

The most widely known and accepted arguments for God’s existence are simply not persuasive.

It’s a task that humanity has struggled with throughout the ages: proving the existence of God. In the past, people have tried to do so through logical reasoning and cosmological proofs, which assume that God was the First Cause – the force that made everything else.

But what does this kind of proof look like?

Well, cosmological proofs of God start by saying that an external force must have produced the universe. The most famous one was postulated by the medieval theologian and philosopher Thomas Aquinas, who took First Cause as the fundamental premise of all his proofs.

In what the author calls the Cosmological Argument, Aquinas says that there must have once been a time when nothing physical existed. The fact that physical things now exist proves the existence of God – the Unmoved Mover who created them.

So, cosmological proofs assume that everything, the existence of humans and the universe included, must have a cause, and that this cause must be God.

What they don’t say is how God, the so-called First Cause, could have come into existence without a cause himself.

Another common argument for God’s existence are ontological proofs, but these justifications are mere wordplay.

Unlike cosmological arguments, ontological proofs construct reason with words. The first and most famous proof comes from Anselm of Canterbury in 1078. He argued that we can imagine a perfect being, but that this being could then only exist in our minds. To be truly perfect it would need to exist in the physical world.

However, he says that since we can picture this perfect being, it must also exist; if it didn’t, there would be a logical error. He uses this assertion to prove that God exists as a perfect being.

But there are some problems with his proof: first, it doesn’t prove the existence of God; and second, it’s logically flawed. Anselm assumes that existing is more perfect than not existing. But according to philosophers like David Hume and Immanuel Kant, existence isn’t a quality. Therefore, a perfect being doesn’t necessarily need to exist.

The scriptures can’t prove that God exists because they’re full of gaps and contradictions.

Did you know that the Bible is the best-selling and most distributed book in the world? Surely this widely read piece of literature must contain evidence of God’s existence. But are the scriptures a trustworthy source on this subject?

Not necessarily. The Bible has changed over time and is loaded with contradictions.

Natural selection and evolution offer a more probable explanation for life on earth than the existence of God does.

OK, so the Bible is fallible. But something as complex as all the species on earth must have had a creator, right?

Well, actually, the opposite is true.

Religion is an evolutionary by-product and serves no purpose in and of itself.

Maybe you’re wondering, “If there’s no God, then where did religion come from?” Since worshipping God doesn’t offer a direct evolutionary benefit, how can religion have been created during the process of evolution?

Well, evolution sometimes leads to undesired and unhelpful by-products. While the behavior of living beings doesn’t always appear logical at first glance, evolution can explain such irrational actions.

Being good is an evolutionary by-product with self-serving motivations, not divine origins.

Now you know how religion can be chalked up to evolution; but did you know that our predisposition to do good is also a product of natural selection?

While the compulsion to survive can easily explain hunger or lust, uncovering the evolutionary roots of sympathy and altruism actually requires a bit of digging.

Our morals shouldn’t come from the Bible, as its values contradict those of our modern society.

Would you consider it ethical to hand a woman over to an angry mob so they can rape and kill her? Obviously not. But this act, committed by a Levite religious man, is portrayed in the Bible as an commendable deed.

If the “good book” praises behavior like this, what else does its moral code justify?

Morals are a product of the times, and shift as society does.

If our morals can’t come from the Bible, then how do we decide what’s right and wrong? Well, every society actually maintains a broad consensus about morality that has developed over decades.

In fact, our morals shift all the time, but these changes are only apparent with the hindsight of history. People living at different times have viewed morality differently, and changes in morals have been influenced by the shifting zeitgeist.

When taken literally, the scriptures have a negative effect on society’s moral values.

Turn on the news on any given day and you’ll hear about religious fundamentalists in one country or another. There are still many people who take the scriptures literally, leading to morally questionable ideas and actions.

Just think of attitudes toward homosexuality, something that, as a direct result of scriptural decrees, is still not fully accepted. When Afghanistan was under Taliban rule, for example, the country’s official punishment for homosexuality was to be buried alive. The justification for this extreme sentence was the fact that God and the scriptures condemn homosexuality.

Children involuntarily assigned a religion often suffer mental and physical abuse.

Would it be reasonable for someone to register their infant as a member of a political party? The question seems silly, but why then does it seem justifiable to enlist newborns into a belief system as domineering as religion?

It’s a fact that parents choose religions for their children before the kids are old enough to make such decisions themselves. And it’s easy for parents to do so.

Religious beliefs are more heavily protected than other ones, even if they are discriminatory.

Everyone should be free to practice their religion, and many countries have entrenched this freedom in the law. But how does society view religious beliefs relative to others?

Generally, religious ideas are given more respect and protection than other beliefs, since many people consider religion particularly vulnerable to attack and worthy of protection. A great example of the weight given to religious freedoms are the exemptions offered for military service.

Science is a better source of creative inspiration than religion, and finding consolation in religion is hypocritical.

Regardless of whether you believe in God, religion at least gives inspiration for great works of art and offers a respite from our harsh world, right?

Well, science has actually proven to be more inspirational than religion. For instance, while many of the great works of art and architecture were inspired by God or religion, the Church was a major employer and often represented the only means by which artists could pursue their passions while making a living. As a result, much of the religiously themed art that exists today is nothing more than commissioned work.

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Best quote from The God Delusion

There is little historical evidence that Jesus claimed to be divine at all.

—Richard Dawkins

About the Author

Born in Kenya in 1941, Richard Dawkins is an English ethologist, evolutionary biologist and writer. In addition to being a fellow of both the Royal Society and the Royal Society of Literature, he has received numerous awards and honors, including the Royal Society of Literature Award and the Michael Faraday Award of the Royal Society.

Who should read The God Delusion?

Anyone interested in religion or philosophy
Agnostics and atheists who want solid arguments to back up their beliefs

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Science Philosophy Religion & Spirituality

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