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Outstanding
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Kirkus Reviews
Dawkins's passionate disavowal of religion and his "I can no other answer make" statement that he is an atheist--and why you should be, too.
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Outstanding
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San Francisco Chronicle Troy Jollimore
"The God Delusion" is a fine and significant book, and this is largely due to Dawkins' willingness to employ the sharp edges of his intellect to cut through a paralyzing propriety whose main effect is to stifle conversations--about religion, about intellectual responsibility, about politics--that we very much need, at this particular moment in our history, to be having.
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Outstanding
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The Guardian Joan Bakewell
Dawkins is right to be not only angry but alarmed. Religions have the secular world running scared. This book is a clarion call to cower no longer. Primed by anger, redeemed by humour, it will, I trust, offend many.
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Favorable
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The Independent Marek Kohn
[Dawkins] disregards the risk that attacking a people's religion may amount to an attack on them as a group. Some comments and quotes in this respect are reckless. The most shocking quotes, though, are all from the Bible. His greatest polemical asset is having that particular God on his side.
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Favorable
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The Economist
Mr Dawkins dreams of a day when atheists are as well organised and influential as Christian conservatives have become. If nothing else, his book should help bring the atheists out of the closet.
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Favorable
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The Globe And Mail [Toronto] Patrick Watson
The God Delusion is a good, strong argumentative challenge to any thoughtful believer with the courage to read it with care and try to dispute it. It has a couple of flaws. [14 Oct 2006]
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Favorable
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Los Angeles Times Robert Lee Hotz
Dawkins properly gives the promoters of... false doctrines about the science of human origins a dose of their own overheated rhetoric.
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Favorable
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New York Observer Emily Bobrow
[Dawkins] has marshaled his full case against the existence of God, and the result is compelling, fairly familiar and often entertaining.
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Favorable
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Houston Chronicle James Cortese
While it's true that large percentages of Americans believe in such things as the virgin birth (as well as UFOs), most of the smart people -- those with advanced degrees, professors, scientists, etc. -- tend not to take religion seriously or are outright atheists and agnostics. This book is their comfort food.
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Mixed
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The Onion A.V. Club Donna Bowman
In his latest and perhaps most combative book, The God Delusion, the British zoologist and evolution-popularizer tries to show not only that God doesn't exist, but that even the most private and well-meaning belief in God opens the door to terrible consequences for the individual and society.
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Mixed
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TLS: The Times Literary Supplement Steven Weinberg
Richard Dawkins’s even-handedness is well-intentioned, but it is misplaced. I share his lack of respect for all religions, but in our times it is folly to disrespect them all equally.
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Mixed
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Publishers Weekly
For a scientist who criticizes religion for its intolerance, Dawkins has written a surprisingly intolerant book.
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Mixed
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Boston Globe Rich Barlow
Believers should read "The God Delusion." Once the spasms of outrage over its caustic tone pass, sophisticated folks will find much of its critique rigorously argued.
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Mixed
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Daily Telegraph Kenan Malik
Dawkins's polemic against the need for religion is compelling, even if the arguments are not particularly new. Less persuasive is his attempt to explain what faith is and why people continue to believe. So great is his loathing for religion that it sometimes overwhelms his reasoned argument.
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Mixed
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Daily Telegraph Mary Wakefield
I'm in awe of Dawkins, and of the ease with which he makes tricky science clear, but I'll eat my Sunday hat if this book persuades even the most hesitant half-believer to renounce religion
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Mixed
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Sydney Morning Herald Jon Casimir
The God Delusion is unevenly weighted, often repetitive and less eloquent than Dawkins's previous works. But that doesn't mean it fails. It takes flight when he moves beyond the yes/no argument about God to explain why evolution has created an abundance of religion.
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Mixed
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The Independent Murrough O'Brien
You don't agree or disagree with Dawkins's attempted refutation of theism; you cheer or you boo. That I must give a howling boo to much of The God Delusion is a recommendation. Again and again, it forces the reader to ardent thought.
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Mixed
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The New York Times Book Review Jim Holt
Despite the many flashes of brilliance in this book, Dawkins’s failure to appreciate just how hard philosophical questions about religion can be makes reading it an intellectually frustrating experience.
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Unfavorable
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The Spectator Charles Moore
If Dawkins really wants readers like myself to check into the atheist equivalent of the Priory for what he calls 'recovery', he must first of all understand the condition which he seeks to relieve. He doesn't. [7 Oct 2006]
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Unfavorable
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Boston Globe Anthony Doerr
"The God Delusion" is much more about deflating a hypothesis than crystallizing an enthralling viewpoint. It's not a paean to atheism; it's a diatribe against religion.
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Unfavorable
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London Review Of Books Terry Eagleton
Dawkins could have told us all this without being so appallingly bitchy about those of his scientific colleagues who disagree with him, and without being so theologically illiterate.
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Unfavorable
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New York Review Of Books H. Allen Orr
None of Dawkins's loud pronouncements on God follows from any experiment or piece of data. It's just Dawkins talking.
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