At last, I have finished reading the God Delusion by Richard Dawkins. It had been 3 weeks since I have taken up this book. I do not take up multiple projects ( reading some of these books are like projects, they need so much dedication and attention from you) at the same time and had very interrupted reading thanks to my travels and domestic schedules. Now that I have finished reading this let us get to the matters.
I do not want to get into another review of this book as it has been reviewed by many able people at various places. This book has already caused so much debate and I would not get into the debate of GOD affairs. However, Dawkins has done a courageous attempt to take the discussion of God hypothesis from the academics and theologist to the people. What used to remain a discussion among few is not have a wider audience.
While the book is about the GOD Delusion, I find the discussion and his 'anger' is less towards the concept of God but more towards the religion and rightly so. It is the religion and the religious community who vehemently protect their religion by violent means is under the discussion. He also points out that every war / fights in the ancient and moder worlds are always between religions or sects. ( While I prefer to look at them from an economic angle, I find this a strong enough point).
The other interesting discussion which I liked was on the morality. As a practice, morality is always linked to the religions beliefs and he proves the non existing relation between morality and religion.
Personally, I do not believe in 'God as an answer to anything unknown'. I believe that there are many phenomenon in the nature yet to be known to us and our constant effort to bring lights to these will lead us into many more discoveries.
However, I find this quote very interesting.
"You'd better believe in God, because if you are right you stand to gain eternal bliss and if you are wrong it wont make any difference anyway. On the other hand, if you don't believe in God and you turned out to be wrong, you get eternal damnation, where if you are right it makes no difference" - Blaise Pascal
In case you want to find out where do you stand, check this and decide..
I do not want to get into another review of this book as it has been reviewed by many able people at various places. This book has already caused so much debate and I would not get into the debate of GOD affairs. However, Dawkins has done a courageous attempt to take the discussion of God hypothesis from the academics and theologist to the people. What used to remain a discussion among few is not have a wider audience.
While the book is about the GOD Delusion, I find the discussion and his 'anger' is less towards the concept of God but more towards the religion and rightly so. It is the religion and the religious community who vehemently protect their religion by violent means is under the discussion. He also points out that every war / fights in the ancient and moder worlds are always between religions or sects. ( While I prefer to look at them from an economic angle, I find this a strong enough point).
The other interesting discussion which I liked was on the morality. As a practice, morality is always linked to the religions beliefs and he proves the non existing relation between morality and religion.
Personally, I do not believe in 'God as an answer to anything unknown'. I believe that there are many phenomenon in the nature yet to be known to us and our constant effort to bring lights to these will lead us into many more discoveries.
However, I find this quote very interesting.
"You'd better believe in God, because if you are right you stand to gain eternal bliss and if you are wrong it wont make any difference anyway. On the other hand, if you don't believe in God and you turned out to be wrong, you get eternal damnation, where if you are right it makes no difference" - Blaise Pascal
In case you want to find out where do you stand, check this and decide..
1. Strong theist : 100% probability of God. I dont believe, I know.
2. Very high probability but short of 100% : De facto theist. "I can not know for certain, but I strongly believe in God and live my life on the assumption that HE is there"
3. Higher than 50% but not very high : Technically agnostic but leaning towards theism. "I am very uncertain, but I'm inclined to believe in God".
4. Exact 50% : Completely impartial agnostic. "God's existence and non-existence are exactly equiprobable".
5. Lower than 50% but not very low. Technically agnostic but leaning towards atheism. " I do not know whether God exists but I'm inclined to be sceptical".
6. Very low probability, but not zero: De Facto atheist. "I can not for certain but I think God id very improbable, and I live my life on the ssumption that he is not there".
7. Strong atheist. "I know there is no God, with the same conviction
---------------
The God Delusion - Richard Dawkins
Bantam Press
405 Pages
Dont remember how much I paid !!
No comments:
Post a Comment