The God Delusion is a 2006 bestselling non-fiction book by English biologist Richard Dawkins, professorial fellow of New College, Oxford, and former holder of the Charles Simonyi Chair for the Public Understanding of Science at the University of Oxford.
In The God Delusion, Dawkins contends that a supernatural creator almost certainly does not exist and that belief in a personal god qualifies as a delusion, which he defines as a persistent false belief held in the face of strong contradictory evidence. He is sympathetic to Robert Pirsig's statement in Lila that "when one person suffers from a delusion it is called insanity. When many people suffer from a delusion it is called religion".
As of January 2010, the English version of The God Delusion had sold over 2 million copies. It was ranked No.2 on the Amazon.com bestsellers' list in November 2006. In early December 2006, it reached No.4 in the New York Times Hardcover Nonfiction Best Seller list after nine weeks on the list. It remained on the list for 51 weeks until 30 September 2007. The German version, entitled Der Gotteswahn, had sold over 260,000 copies as of 28 January 2010 (2010-01-28).
The book has attracted widespread commentary, with many books written in response.
Read more about The God Delusion: Background, Synopsis, Critical Reception, Legal Repercussions in Turkey, See Also
Famous quotes containing the words god and/or delusion:
“Men may conseile a womman to be oon,
But conseiling nis no comandement.
He putte it in oure owene juggement.
For hadde God comanded maidenhede,
Thanne hadde he dampned wedding with the deede;”
—Geoffrey Chaucer (1340?1400)
“There exists a black kingdom which the eyes of man avoid because its landscape fails signally to flatter them. This darkness, which he imagines he can dispense with in describing the light, is error with its unknown characteristics.... Error is certaintys constant companion. Error is the corollary of evidence. And anything said about truth may equally well be said about error: the delusion will be no greater.”
—Louis Aragon (18971982)