The God Delusion

CONTENTS

Preface

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

Appendix:

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

Books cited or recommended

Notes