Review of Richard Dawkins’ The God Delusion

Abstract

Richard Dawkins has been described as ‘materialistic, reductionist and overtly antireligious.’1 Nevertheless, The God Delusion – which is descended by design from the two-part television series The Root of all Evil? 2 - is his first book written to make a direct attack upon religion. As a Christian philosopher I find plenty with which to take issue in The God Delusion; primarily because this rhetorical tour de force relies upon setting up and knocking down straw men: ‘reading it can feel like watching a Michael Moore movie. There are lots of good, hard-hitting stuff about the imbecilities of religious fanatics and frauds of all stripes, but the tone is smug and the logic occasionally sloppy.’3