Dawkins, Richard, 2006- The God Delusion

Introduction for the 10th anniversary edition

Preface to the paperback edition

Preface to the first edition

1. A deeply religious non-believer
   • Deserved respect
   • Undeserved respect
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
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
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
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
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?
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?
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
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
10. A much needed gap?
    • Binker
    • Consolation
    • Inspiration
    • The mother of all burkas

Afterword by Daniel Dennett

Appendix: A partial list of friendly addresses, for individuals needing support in escaping from religion

Books cited or recommended

Notes

Index