Cover of The God Delusion

Book · 2011 · History

The God Delusion

by Richard Dawkins · Recommended by 17 people on 12 podcasts

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Why people recommend it

Richard Dawkins's 'The God Delusion' is a prominent work of popular science and non-fiction that critically examines religion, the concept of a creator, and the irrationality of belief in God. Steve Levitt praised the work on People I (Mostly) Admire as one of the most influential popular science books of all time while previewing an interview with the author. Derren Brown shared on The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett that reading the book coincided with the period he mentally transitioned away from his previous beliefs and gave structure to his lack of faith. Jordan Peterson mentioned reading the text at the start of a lecture on The Jordan B. Peterson Podcast. Neil deGrasse Tyson brought up the book on The Diary Of A CEO while discussing prominent atheist writers, and Brian Keating referenced it on The Shawn Ryan Show in a conversation about atheist intellectuals. Additionally, Alex O'Connor noted on On Purpose with Jay Shetty that Dawkins directly addresses Thomas Aquinas in the text, and Tim Ferriss questioned Derren Brown on The Tim Ferriss Show about whether reading the book caused him to lose his Christian faith.

Who recommended it

Neil deGrasse Tyson — 5 mentions
Discussed
“Richard Dawkins is among them. Uh he wrote a book called The God Delusion. That's fighting words if there ever was one.”
Discussed
“Here's one we all saw and know about whether or not we read it, The God Delusion.”
Discussed
“Here's one we all saw and know about whether or not we read it – The God Delusion; that put you on a plateau to be identified as one of the Four Horsemen. Oh right, yes, okay, not a phrase that any of us actually, it was bestowed upon you.”
Discussed
“i've read the blind watchmaker i've read the god delusion”
Discussed
“is it true that of all of your books the biggest selling among them is the god delusion”
Steve Levitt — 4 mentions
Discussed
“this is in some sense a leading to talking to you and the reactions you've gotten when you've argued against religion in books like The God Delusion you have this enormous amount of research and you've done around natural selection”
Discussed
“This is, in some sense, leading to talking to you about the reactions you've gotten when you've argued against religion in books like The God Delusion.”
Discussed
“It seems, as one reads The God Delusion or your other books and writings on the topic, it's really difficult or even impossible to argue with you.”
Recommended
“In two weeks, we have an exciting new episode featuring Richard Dawkins, famed author of 'The Selfish Gene' and 'The God Delusion,' amongst others. His name frequently emerges in our discussions, including today’s episode, and I've yearned to meet him for quite some time, which will finally happen in two weeks!”
Joe Rogan — 4 mentions
Discussed
“last week I think I read The God Delusion in in preparation for this”
Discussed
“but one of the things that I really enjoyed about The God Delusion is that you you kind of outlined every single possible argument against atheism”
Discussed
“one of the things that I really enjoyed about your book was when you explain to people that everyone who practices a religion is an atheist”
Discussed
“one of the things you brought up in The God Delusion was the willingness of people to vote for a gay candidate for president”
Derren Brown — 2 mentions
Recommended
“and it took a little while to properly come out of it in fact that the Richard Dawkins book The The God Delusion came out around the time that I had sort of mentally made that step but didn't quite”
Discussed
“the Richard Dawkins book The The God Delusion came out around the time that I had sort of mentally made that step but didn't quite maybe have the sort of proper language for it so that was if that was a helpful book actually I'm sure it was for many people in terms of giving that lack of belief a”
Jordan Peterson — 1 mention
Discussed
“I was reading The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins today.”
Brian Keating — 1 mention
Discussed
“Wrote the, you know, the God Delusion and and just incredible intellect, but incredible atheists.”
Alex O’Connor — 1 mention
Discussed
“Richard Dawkins does so in the God delusion. He he sort of responds to Thomas Aquinus directly.”
Tim Ferriss — 1 mention
Discussed
“is it true that you were Christian until reading The God Delusion is that an accurate statement”
Michael Shermer — 1 mention
Discussed
“then there was Dawkins book um The God Delusion became besteller in 2006 and there was kind of a split in the atheist and and humanist”
Dave Rubin — 1 mention
Discussed
“Just to be clear, he's had that position since The God Delusion about a Christian nation.”
Peter Boghossian — 1 mention
Discussed
“I did; just to be clear, he's had that position since The God Delusion about a Christian nation.”
Mohammed Hijab — 1 mention
Critiqued
“If you read the The God Delusion, he literally spends five pages of hundreds talking about the cosmological argument.”
Alfie Brown — 1 mention
Critiqued
“i have suspicions with some non-fiction books like i don't think the god delusion needed to be that long that you just wanted to sell a big book just didn't need as a vanity thing”
Alan Lightman — 1 mention
Discussed
“this is one of the objections that I have to to people like Richard Dawkins who very famous biologist wrote a book called the God illusion and I think that that he has a very condescending attitude towards believers”
Lex Fridman — 1 mention
Discussed
“so that's a really clean idea and you've articulate that in your new book and and I'll grow God and in God Delusion is the early indoctrination”
Andrew Doyle — 1 mention
Discussed
“and and Richard Dawkins address that point in his book The God Delusion”
Douglas Murray — 1 mention
Discussed
“he read out the bit from the god delusion about uh you know there's a great bit of rhetoric about the most the god describes god as something like the most appalling narcissistic murderous blah blah blah character in all of fiction”

Also mentioned in the same episodes

Other mentions (6: passing, ad reads, own books)
Passing
“Richard Dawkins is both a distinguished scholar of zoology and evolutionary biology and a remarkably successful popularizer of scientific ideas through his bestselling books, including The Selfish Gene and The God Delusion.”
Passing
“he's the author of The Selfish Gene and The God Delusion as well as many other influential books”
Passing
“he's the author of The Selfish genan and The God Delusion as well as many other influential books”
Passing
“the following is a conversation with Richard Dawkins an evolutionary biologist and author of The Selfish Gene the blind watchmaker The God Delusion the magic of reality and the greatest show of Earth and his latest Al growing God”
Own book
“downloading free of charge as pdfs several of my books including The God Delusion and we'll be outgrowing God as well”
Passing
“he showed me Christopher Hitchens and and Richard Dawkins and I thought it would be a good English lesson to to read those those books like God Is Not Great”