The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins

If you are unfamiliar with Richard Dawkins, he is a fairly famous evolutionary biologist and an even more famous atheist. The God Delusion is his complex inquiry into the existence of God.

I was drawn to this book after hearing an interview with Dawkins on NPR and, for the most part, found the it compelling. There were, however much I hate to admit it, sections of the book that were a bit over my head or at least more complex than what I signed on for. I'm sure that the author felt like he was explaining Darwin's theories of evolution as if speaking to a child but, he still managed to lose me a few times.

Overall though, the book was an interesting read and I'd have to say that I recommend to anyone who has ever seriously contemplated the existence of God. My personal feeling on the issue has always been that it really doesn't matter whether there's a God or not. The existence or lack of an "after life" holds no motivation for me in my behavior. In this book, Dawkins makes a good case that the tendency of human beings to "be good" if you will, is rooted in Darwin's theories of evolution.

No matter what your religious beliefs, I think anyone with an open mind could learn something from reading this book. Will it make believers into atheists? I doubt it, but it does late out a compelling argument that any believer should be willing to see and respond to.