The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins

When Richard's wife, Lalla Ward, was young, she hated school and wished she didn't have to be there. When, as an adult, she told her parents this story, they said, "Why didn't you tell us? We would have done anything to make you happy? And she replied. "I didn't know I could change it."

Sadly, many people feel the same way about religion. Raised to a certain faith or church, they never knew, never realized, that they could walk away from religion and just not try to force themselves to believe. Some of them don't know there is an alternative to blind or forced or lukewarm faith.

But there is an alternative to faith- lack of faith, or atheism. And it's not unthinkable. Dawkins explains why lack of faith is growing, both in the United States and around the world, and talks about the God Hypothesis and why it fails. To make a long story short, there are thousands of apologetics for the Bible. But if it was really the word of an omnipotent God, would they be needed to explain things? And the spologetics really fly in the face of reason and common sense.

He explains his view on the roots of religion and where it came from, and points out how theists say religion and science are non-overlapping magisteria- until science seems to support their faith, and suddenly, that's all out the window and they'll seize onto and hold it with a deathgrip.

He finishes up with an overlook about why religion is *not* good for people- and the dark side of religion- plus how Hitler was Christian and Stalin was an atheist. And Stalin didn't murder people for atheism, but for political reasons- so Atheism hasn't killed people on the order that religion and religious causes have- and it's the fundamentalist viewpoint that leads to many people's deaths when Religion Brand A decides to go to war with Religion Brand B or Religion Brand A1- the smallest doctrinal differences seem to inspire as much hatred and violence as the larger ones, and that's just not healthy.

You may not be persuaded that atheism is right by this book, but it does make a very strong case for the lack of God and why it's better to be an unbeliever than a believer. And I've seen myself how divisive religion is- there are protestants who don't believe Catholics are real Christians, and it seems every sect (with the possible exception of the AA's) would like to wipe out the others have their version of the truth be the only one preached.

I started out as a Roman Catholic, abandoned that for Wicca in High School, then drifted into Agnosticism and am now an Atheist. I don't slam others for believing, but despite apparently hundreds of people praying for me to find faith in the Christian God (and lots of people badgering me to do just that), I remain unconvinced that God or Gods even exist. I guess you could say I just don't care anymore- the question of faith means nothing to me, and the prospect of me changing my mind? Well, Snowball, meet the modern conception of the Christian Hell. I wouldn't say there is no chance, but it is vanishingly small, approaching zero.

For those struggling to believe, this book might be a (pun intended) Godsend, allowing readers to see beyond the horizons as they believe them set and opening themselves up to the realization that one doesn't need God to be good, and that you don't have to obey any restrictions supposedly set down by an omnipotent God to be good and do good. I'd recommend this book for everyone. Who knows, you may even find your faith shaken if you do.