Outgrowing God A Beginner's Guide
Reviews
A great choice for anyone trying to understand the whole religion and god business. Dawkins serves a non-religious perspective on belief. The writing is not sarcastic, not poking fun at religion, but based on facts and hard science. Whether you choose to believe or choose not to, the essential message is: "We do not need a god to be good."
Highlights
What do you think of people who threaten their children with eternal fire after they are dead?
Both sides were given similar oders to kill their enemies. Both sides thought God was egging them on, which inspired the poet J.C. Squire to write: God heard the embattled nations sing and shout "Gott strafe England" and "God save the King!" God this, God that, and God the other thing — "Good God!" said God, "I've got my work cut out!"
Who's winning when both sides are equipped with the blessing of the same god.
There's a billion things you can imagine and nobody can disprove. [...] But failure to disprove something is not a good reason to believe it.
When people say they are atheists they don't mean they can prove that there are no gods. Strictly speaking, it's impossible to prove that something does not exist.
One of my pet peeves is the habit of labelling young children with the religion of their parents:"Catholic child", "Protestant child", "Muslim child". Such phrases can be heard used of children too young to talk, let alone to hold religious opinions. It seems to me as absurd as talking about a "Socialist Child" or "Conservative Child", and nobody would ever use a phrase like that. I don't think we should talk about "atheist children" either.
People in different countries copy their parents and believe in the god or gods of their own country. These beliefs contradict each other, so they can't all be right. If one of them is right, why should it be the belief that you happen to have inherited in the country where you were born?