Dawkins is Britain's most famous atheist and in The GodDelusion he gives eloquent vent to his uncompromising views...if you want an understanding of evolution or an argumentfor atheism, there are few better guides than Richard Dawkins'Sunday Telegraph

The God Delusion in the hardback edition was widely describedas the surprise bestseller of 2006. It was warmly received by thegreat majority of those who sent in their personal reviews toAmazon (more than 1,000 at the time of writing). Approval wasless overwhelming in the printed reviews, however. A cynicmight put this down to an unimaginative reflex of reviews edi-tors: It has 'God' in the title, so send it to a known faith-head.That would be too cynical, however. Several unfavourablereviews began with the phrase, which I long ago learned to treatas ominous, 'I'm an atheist BUT...

Preface to the paperback edition

Preface

Chapter 1 A deeply religious non-believer

       Deserved respect

       Undeserved respect

Chapter 2 The God Hypothesis

       Polytheism

       Monotheism

       Secularism, the Founding Fathers

         and the religion of America

       The poverty of agnosticism

       NOMA

       The Great Prayer Experiment

       The Neville Chamberlain school

         of evolutionists

       Little green men

Chapter 3 Arguments for God's existence

       Thomas Aquinas' proofs'

       The ontological argument and other

         a priori arguments

       The argument from beauty

       The argument from personal

         'experience'

       The argument from scripture

       The argument from admired

         religious scientists

       Pascal's Wager

       Bayesian arguments

Chapter 4 Why there almost certainly is

         no God

       The Ultimate Boeing 747

       Natural selection as a

         consciousness-raiser

       Irreducible complexity

       The worship of gaps

       The anthropic principle:

         planetary version

       The anthropic principle:

         cosmological version

       An interlude at Cambridge

Chapter 5 The roots of religion

       The Darwinian imperative

       Direct advantages of religion

       Group selection

       Religion as a by-product of

         something else

       Psychologically primed for religion

       Tread softly, because you tread

         on my memes

       Cargo cults

Chapter 6 The roots of morality: why are

         we good?

       Does our moral sense have a

         Darwinian origin?

       A case study in the roots of

         morality

       If there is no God, why be good?

Chapter 7 The 'Good' Book and the changing

         moral Zeitgeist

       The Old Testament

        Is the New Testament any better?

        Love thy neighbour

        The moral Zeitgeist

       What about Hitler and Stalin?

         Weren't they atheists?

Chapter 8 What's wrong with religion?

         Why be so hostile?

        Fundamentalism and the

         subversion of science

        The dark side of absolutism

        Faith and homosexuality

        Faith and the sanctity of human

         life

        The Great Beethoven Fallacy

        How 'moderation' in faith fosters

         fanaticism

Chapter 9 Childhood, abuse and the escape

          from religion

         Physical and mental abuse

         In defence of children

        An educational scandal

         Consciousness-raising again

         Religious education as a part of

          literary culture

Chapter 10 A much needed gap?

         Binker

         Consolation

         Inspiration

         The mother of all burkas

Appendix: a partial list of friendly addresses, for

     individuals needing support in escaping

     from religion

Books cited or recommended

Notes

Index