Dawkin's God Delusion

[Antonio_022]

I never read this book nor do I plan to in fear of losing my faith but I DO know that some brave Catholics read this book and lived to tell the tale. I need help considering whether to read this or not or to read another book that somehow debunks this?

 

[McCartney]

I never read this book nor do I plan to in fear of losing my faith but I DO know that some brave Catholics read this book and lived to tell the tale. I need help considering whether to read this or not or to read another book that somehow debunks this?

That depends on how strong your faith is. Only you know that.

I have watched videos of Anton Levy the creator of the church of Satan. I found some of his work rather funny. I have watched debates of Christopher Hitchens who is an atheist. I am still a catholic and will always be one.

 

[Petaro]

Why read a book you know tries to debunk your faith. I would concentrate on reading good books on the Catholic Faith that abound in every bookshop. I don’t try to challenge my faith in areas that are beyond my expertise. I don’t like this form of aggressive atheism founded on pride and self aggrandizement. Agnosticism is the more humble position of accepted ignorance.

 

[landon13]

I have read Dr. Dawkin’s book. I would have to say that there are no good arguments in the book to get anyone to loose their faith. He makes a mockery of religion especially the religious experiences of Christians and literally makes fun of our beliefs. I find no grounding in any of his arguments besides they are so illogical like the tale of the giant 747 by random or whatever.

I would advise you to just read good Catholic books. Read Trent Horn’s Answering Atheism or Dr. Kevin Vost From Atheism to Catholicism. Read good Catholic books and get strong in your faith before even trying to read other beliefs, even if they are very common place.

God bless

 

[Nacho45]

I wouldn’t waste my time if I were you. The only thing Dawkins ever debunked was the idea he was an intellectual. Focus on solid Catholic books. Toss in something fun on occasion. Ignore the angry rants of the anti-Christians.

 

[heidi_storage]

I think it can be useful to see what the atheists are saying; I do, occasionally, and it just reinforces the intellectual absurdity of atheism. If one book is all it takes to argue you out of your faith, then it wasn’t a strong, vibrant faith to begin with. However, most of your reading ought to be good, reliable sources–starting with the Bible!

 

[josh987654321]

I never read this book nor do I plan to in fear of losing my faith but I DO know that some brave Catholics read this book and lived to tell the tale. I need help considering whether to read this or not or to read another book that somehow debunks this?

I bought his book and later regretted it, not because of what was in the book as many of his arguments are logicaly fallacious and many of them are severly exagerated misinterpretations and even outright lies, especially on the historical accuracy of Jesus.

I regretted it, because Dawkins brags about his sales, about his book selling over 2 million copies and I regret that I would now be a part of that number.

There are many books that will basically give most of his arguments while they refute them really well anyway, so I don’t believe there is a great need to get his book, you can watch all the arguments expressed in their books on youtube debates anyway.

I would recommend the following books -

Has science burried God? - John Lennox
Gunning for God - John Lennox
There is A God, How the worlds most notorious atheist changed his mind - Anthony Flew
Resonable Faith - Willam Lane Craig
Jesus among other God’s - Ravi Zacharias
Mere Christianity - C.S. Lewis

And also this debate on ‘The God Delusion’ with John Lennox is very good I believe.

The God Delusion Debate: Richard Dawkins and Dr. John Lennox

Also this one is fantastic by John lennox, but I would skip the Q&A section at the end as there isn’t much in that I believe, maybe for protestants but not so much for Catholics.

youtube.com/watch?v=srSLd6ZeR54

God Bless

Thank you for reading
Josh

 

[josh987654321]

I would recommend the following books -

Has science burried God? - John Lennox
Gunning for God - John Lennox
There is A God, How the worlds most notorious atheist changed his mind - Anthony Flew
Resonable Faith - Willam Lane Craig
Jesus among other God’s - Ravi Zacharias
Mere Christianity - C.S. Lewis

I forgot to add ‘Reason for Belief’ by Timothy Keller is really good too.

 

[RPRPsych]

Why read a book you know tries to debunk your faith. I would concentrate on reading good books on the Catholic Faith that abound in every bookshop. I don’t try to challenge my faith in areas that are beyond my expertise. I don’t like this form of aggressive atheism founded on pride and self aggrandizement. Agnosticism is the more humble position of accepted ignorance.

I’ve read the book, and even in my more “liberal” days, I realized it was full of holes.

All it proves is that:

• “science” (or rather, conjectures and polemics wedded to scientific theories) can be a religion for some, and Dawkins has set himself up as a prophet for it
• Biblical exegesis really should be left to the experts
• if you can’t come up with a good argument, mock and point.

It’s a useful read if you’re doing apologetics, otherwise it’s eminently skippable.

 

[RPRPsych]

I never read this book nor do I plan to in fear of losing my faith but I DO know that some brave Catholics read this book and lived to tell the tale. I need help considering whether to read this or not or to read another book that somehow debunks this?

Also, if you want a good book on Christianity by an evolutionary biologist, I recommend Francis S. Collins, “The Language of God”. Collins was nominated to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences for his work on the Human Genome Project.

 

[josh987654321]

Also, if you want a good book on Christianity by an evolutionary biologist, I recommend Francis S. Collins, “The Language of God”. Collins was nominated to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences for his work on the Human Genome Project.

I read the ‘Look inside’ bit on amazon and it looks good, I just bought it thank you for recommending it

 

[Dave_B]

I forgot to add ‘Reason for Belief’ by Timothy Keller is really good too.

+1. I really enjoyed reading that book too.

 

[RPRPsych]

I read the ‘Look inside’ bit on amazon and it looks good, I just bought it thank you for recommending it

Hope you like it! The author is Evangelical, not Catholic, but it’s still a very good read.

 

[RPRPsych]

+1. I really enjoyed reading that book too.

Now I’m curious! I must check it out.

 

[Arizona_Mike]

Scott Hahn’s “Answering the New Atheism: Dismantling Dawkin’s Case Against God” and Patrick Madrid’s “The Godless Delusion” both do an excellent job of dismantling Dawkin’s claims from a Catholic perspective. Prof. Edward Feser’s “The Last Superstition: A Refutation of the New Atheism” also does so from a Catholic Thomistic viewpoint.

If you are going to read Dawkins, I would recommend reading one of the above works first so you can read Dawkin’s claims from a skeptical perspective.

David Berlinski’s “The Devil’s Delusion” is also quite good, although he is not Catholic - it’s pretty snarky (also quite funny, admittedly) so it’s kind of a guilty pleasure.

 

[Gorgias]

I bought his book and later regretted it, not because of what was in the book as many of his arguments are logicaly fallacious and many of them are severly exagerated misinterpretations and even outright lies, especially on the historical accuracy of Jesus.

Yep… I was interested in reading his arguments, and was vastly disappointed; I only got through a chapter or so, because his logic was so pitifully constructed, that it was frustrating to read!

I regretted it, because Dawkins brags about his sales, about his book selling over 2 million copies and I regret that I would now be a part of that number.

I was thinking about the same thing… so I bought my copy at a used book store…

 

[Peter_Plato]

I never read this book nor do I plan to in fear of losing my faith but I DO know that some brave Catholics read this book and lived to tell the tale. I need help considering whether to read this or not or to read another book that somehow debunks this?

The difficulty with your position is that if you don’t tackle books like these you might get the bug in your brain that they actually say something meaningful that ‘might’ challenge your faith because they might have in them some piece of evidence that you never considered. That niggling doubt might create issues for you until it is faced head on.

On the other hand, perhaps you don’t know the substance of Catholicism well enough and might be persuaded by what is contained in the ‘arguments’ simply because of lacks in your own understanding.

I would suggest that you listen to this talk by David Bentley Hart on the 'new atheists."

youtu.be/qYWEYuhiWzE

He does a very nice job of simplifying the arguments from the point of view of a professional philosopher to show, precisely, where they fail. If you have the capacity to follow the train of Hart’s logic, you are probably ready to take on one of the atheist authors.

On the other hand, after listening to Hart, you might completely lose any inclination for wanting to read such books since they are so lacking in redeeming quality.

Another book that often gets missed is one written by a computer programmer by the name of Vox Day. The book is called The Irrational Atheist. It is available as a free PDF or ePub at
goodreads.com/ebooks/download/1142464.The_Irrational_Atheist. He takes on the atheist books of Dawkins, Harris, Hitchens and Dennett from the perspective of their “facts” about Christianity. He is very meticulous about issues such as the role of religion as a catalyst for war, crime statistics involving believers and atheists, and the role of atheism in genocide, among other topics.

His precision, for one thing, points out how woefully inadequate the new atheists are in terms of securing the kind of evidence they purport to be so interested in basing their ‘knowledge’ upon.

 

[mdisse]

I never read this book nor do I plan to in fear of losing my faith but I DO know that some brave Catholics read this book and lived to tell the tale. I need help considering whether to read this or not or to read another book that somehow debunks this?

I don’t consider Dawkins an intelligent man when it comes to religion. But you should watch the debate between him and Professor John Lennox where as far as I’m concerned Dawkins lost.

 

[Brendan]

I read it.

I was torn between laughing at the so called ‘arguments’, and pity for Dawkins and his followers.

In addition to all the other recommendations, I would recommend

Patrick Madrid’s “The God-less delusion”. It not only addresses some of the faults in Dawkins’ work, but give a clear, ‘layman’ outline of the Thomistic proofs.

Good book

 

[Peter_Plato]

I enjoyed this book very much and felt it was very thought-provoking.
I hope you lose your fear to read it.

.

Filling a book with provocative ideas would not seem that difficult. The question is whether we have any reason or warrant to believe the ideas even vaguely represent the truth.