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Average Rating:  out of 1286 Reviews
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Price: $15.95
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Sale: $4.50
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Manufacturer: Mariner Books
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EAN (European Article Number): 9780618918249
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Number of Items: 1
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Binding: Paperback
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Author: Richard Dawkins
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Publisher: Mariner Books
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Edition: 1
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Dewey Decimal Number: 211
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Publication Date: 2008-01-16
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Reading Level: 464
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Description: In his sensational international bestseller, the preeminent scientist and outspoken atheist Richard Dawkins delivers a hard-hitting, impassioned, but humorous rebuttal of religious belief. With rigor and wit, Dawkins eviscerates the arguments for religion and demonstrates the supreme improbability of the existence of a supreme being. He makes a compelling case that faith is not just irrational, but potentially deadly. In a preface written for the paperback edition, Dawkins responds to some of the controversies the book has incited. This brilliantly argued, provocative book challenges all of us to test our beliefs, no matter what beliefs we hold.
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Customer Reviews
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Review Summary: You are a sad excuse for a human being |
Date: 2008-11-21 |
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Details: You have deluded many with your senseless hype and may have caused many to lose touch with their Creator. God DOES exist, you fool, and I will pray that you regain your sanity before it is too late! |
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Review Summary: Yet Just Another Opinion - Nothing More |
Date: 2008-11-21 |
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Details: What is important to remember is that this is a book of opinions. Surprisingly, mostly ranting opinions that verge on savage intolerance. The book is all about self-arrogance and grand opinion... not much else. Regardless of the rhetoric, if the author can explain where or how the Big Bang came about, then I may lend him an ounce of credibility. Until then - none at all. He simply does not know anything for sure. |
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Review Summary: 95 percent of humanity has the same delusion! |
Date: 2008-11-20 |
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Details: Richard Dawkins is a modern day "Ebenezer Scrooge" who can't even admit that people sometimes operate from altruistic motives. Why? Because it would actually show that over 3,700 years of moral discourse (much of it, certainly not all, as a result of beliefs about God) have had some effect. Perhaps this is why even the great philosopher Emmanuel Kant was unwilling to dismiss the idea of God from the scheme of things. Maybe Dawkins should go back and read Kant and see why many educated people believe that humanity's "moral impulse" gives credence to a belief in God. Pointing out the past and current shortcomings of organized religion is certainly valid, but as 95 percent of humnity believes in God in some form, to simply label this belief as a delusion is ludicrous. |
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Review Summary: A Waving Banner of Human Thought |
Date: 2008-11-16 |
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Details: Richard Dawkins carries the banner for Human Thinkingness. As the sciences and social sciences unearth more information about humans, biology, and life, Richard Dawkins uses his penetrating and creative mind to structure a series of arguments against legacy religiousness. Dawkin's arguments are persuasive, humorous, and illuminating to the human condition. Atheism has found its backbone. |
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Review Summary: Not for a light reading |
Date: 2008-11-16 |
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Details: After reading the first couple of chapters, I thought to myself: "Wow, looks like this will be the first 5-star rating I ever give on Amazon!"
Incredibly funny, yet serious and compelling at the same time, organized, smart, well written, and, most of all, well reasoned. "God as the ultimate stinker" argument was just as brilliant as it was hilarious.
But then it got progressively worse. The humor tuned down to sparse jokes and sometimes by the last third of the book disappeared completely.
The arguments, at first so logical and substantiated, became less so. Gallup poles were replaced by anecdotal testimonies, scientific studies turned to personal opinions as to what studies could show had they been conducted, which is not an argument at all. And the final chapter, describing some scientific principles, was outright boring, but that may be because as a science major I found nothing there I didn't know already.
One last complaint is the language. Every page contains at least a dozen words that you'd normally find on a SAT or GRE or something. At times I had to read a paragraph two or three times to understand what was written there (and I actually scored high on GRE). And I could see no reason for using such complicated language. Surely it serves no purpose to make such an important book less comprehensible to the general public.
Despite all that, first impression is first impression, and the book did contain a lot of interesting facts and compelling arguments to warrant 4 stars. |
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