The God Delusion

"I am against religion because it teaches us to be satisfied with not understanding the world." --Richard Dawkins

Clinton Richard Dawkins (born 26 March 1941) is a British ethologist, evolutionary biologist, and author. He is an emeritus fellow of New College, Oxford, and was the University of Oxford's Professor for Public Understanding of Science from 1995 until 2008.

Dawkins is an atheist and humanist, a Vice President of the British Humanist Association and supporter of the Brights movement. He is well known for his criticism of creationism and intelligent design. In his 1986 book The Blind Watchmaker, he argued against the watchmaker analogy, an argument for the existence of a supernatural creator based upon the complexity of living organisms. Instead, he described evolutionary processes as analogous to a blind watchmaker. He has since written several popular science books, and makes regular television and radio appearances, predominantly discussing these topics. He has been referred to in the media as "Darwin's Rottweiler," a reference to English biologist T. H. Huxley, who was known as "Darwin's Bulldog" for his advocacy of Charles Darwin's evolutionary ideas. In his 2006 book The God Delusion, Dawkins contends that a supernatural creator almost certainly does not exist and that religious faith is a delusion -- a fixed false belief. As of January 2010, the English-language version had sold more than two million copies and had been translated into 31 languages, making it his most popular book to date.

"When one person suffers from a delusion it is called insanity. When many people suffer from a delusion it is called religion."
--Robert Pirsig

From the moment of its publication, The God Delusion has gained widespread attention from all arenas of religious and anti religious beliefs. In the book, Richard Dawkins contends that a supernatural creator almost certainly does not exist and that belief in a personal god qualifies as a delusion.

As of January 2010, the English version of The God Delusion had sold over 2 million copies. It was ranked #2 on the Amazon.com bestsellers' list in November 2006. In early December 2006, it reached #4 in the New York Times Hardcover Nonfiction Best Seller list after nine weeks on the list. It remained on the list for 51 weeks until 30 September 2007. The German version, entitled Der Gotteswahn, had sold over 260,000 copies as of January 28, 2010.

The book has attracted widespread commentary, with many books written in response.

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In a time when atheism, agnosticism, and rational thinking is on the rise, there have been four men leading the way: Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, Sam Harris and Daniel Dennett. They have duly been given the title of The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.