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Outgrowing God

By: Richard Dawkins
Narrated by: Richard Dawkins
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Publisher's Summary

Brought to you by Penguin.

Should we believe in God? In this new book, written for a new generation, the brilliant science writer and author of The God Delusion, explains why we shouldn’t.

Should we believe in God? Do we need God in order to explain the existence of the universe? Do we need God in order to be good? In twelve chapters that address some of the most profound questions human beings confront, Dawkins marshals science, philosophy and comparative religion to interrogate the hypocrisies of all the religious systems and explain to readers of all ages how life emerged without a Creator, how evolution works and how our world came into being.

For anyone hoping to grapple with the meaning of life and what to believe, Outgrowing God is a challenging, thrilling and revelatory listen.

Includes a supplementary PDF.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2019 Richard Dawkins (P)2019 Penguin Audio

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Wonderful

Another addition to Dawkin's wonderful book collection. My own book, "The Curse of God- Why I left Islam" was inspired by Dawkin's books and I felt quite honoured when Dawkins made the same points in chapter 5 as I made in chapter 2. I don't think Dawkins has read my book and he obviously came up with these points independently but still its a great compliment to me that our minds think alike to a large degree.

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I do not have enough faith to be an atheist

My brother suggested that I go through this book to become educated and enlightened and to abandon my archaic Christian beliefs. Being a truth seeker; I obliged and went through the book (twice).
I did get “educated”, but not in the way he imagined.

Many of the statements in the book I agree with:
1) There are many false religions.
2) Many religions contain stupid traditions and practices
3) There is amazing design in nature. Dawkins’ detailed description of the incredible design in cheetahs was awesome.
4) Many myths and legends have been created throughout history
5) Some things about Christianity are hard to understand and accept.
I also agree with Dawkins’ statement that we should believe things based on “evidence”,
the problem I have is that he summarily ignores the evidence for an intelligent designer (some people call God) and arrogantly assumes that if you disagree with him that you are “anti science”.
He conveniently ignores the fact that the majority of notable scientist of the past (Newton, Pascal, Galileo etc.)were believing Christians.

There are many logical fallacies in the book, here are just a few:
1) Many false gods does NOT mean that a real God does not exist.
The key purpose of the book is to convince the reader that there is no supernatural being (that God does not exist).
However Dawkins makes a fatal flaw in logic and reason by proposing that because there are many false religions – that this somehow proves that God does not exist.
This is logically inconsistent as both proposition could be true at the same time.
Indeed, Biblical Christianity condemns false “religion” as mans flawed attempt to find God – whereas Christianity is God entering His creation to save mankind.

2) An intelligent design without an intelligent designer is logically impossible.
Dawkins spends the whole of chapter 7 explaining the absolutely amazing designs we observe in nature.
He posits the suggestion that most reasonable people would conclude that they were indeed “designed” – then backflips and says “wrong”. Rather he invokes the magic genie of natural selection and macro evolution as the non-intelligent “designer”
Macro evolution can be stated as an equation:
Simple beginning (e.g. simple cell, or bacterium)
+ lots of time
+ lots of natural selection
+ many mutations
+ natural forces (rain, wind, gravity, etc.)
=============
Equals an extremely complex organism
(i.e. human with a brain and blood circulatory system etc.)

The problem is that this has NEVER been observed, it is only BELIEVED.
Indeed Dr John Sanford (Geneticist and inventor of the Gene Gun) who is an EX-evolutionist said :
“The bottom line
is that the primary axiom [of Darwinian/Macro evolution]
is categorically false,
you can't create information with misspellings,
not even if you use natural selection.”

3) Was Jesus real and true or wasn’t he?
Dawkins’ equivocates about this issue and tries to get the reader to discard Christianity on the basis that it is hard to understand and accept. But he avoids the key question of “Is it true?”.
He would have you believe that the followers of Jesus willingly went to their deaths KNOWING that Jesus was nothing more than a man. Does this make sense? – I don’t think so.

4) Do we need God to be good?
Dawkins confidently concludes that we don’t need God for moral guidance, but he is very elusive as to how we decide what “good” even means in the absence of a creator God.
From the atheistic foundation, why is telling the truth better than lying?
Why is love better that hate?
Why is selflessness better than self-preservation

5) Dawkins transitioning between, facts, speculation and imagination is disturbing and laughable.
Dawkins is meant to be a “scientist” and in science we make clear distinctions between an observable fact and suggestions, hypothesis, speculation, imagination. However, Dawkins must not be aware of this because he frequently transitions between them without a hint of realising what he is doing. He states his imaginations with confidence and couches them in scientific jargon; so that the average person will accept them as “gospel” – no pun intended.

CONCLUSION
Dawkins pretends that he is writing in the genre of science, but in reality this book belongs in the fiction section.
His reasoning would appeal to those who want to be free of accountability to a creator God, but it lacks scientific rigour and logical consistency.
Atheists BELIEVE that nothing exploded without a cause and created everything.
They also BELIEVE that our original parent was a simple cell like (eg bacterium).
NONE of this is observed it is just BELIEVED.
When Dawkins scolds people of faith – he is being monumentally HYPOCRITICAL because he is truly a man of great faith.
I don’t have that much faith – that is why I am not an atheist.

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Wonderful

Amazing, well written book. They only let down was that the accompanying PDF was missing sections. There occasions where Dawkins mentions something in the PDF and then it is missing.

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Perfect for the next generation

Outgrowing God is the perfect book for the new generation. Anyone who was intimidated by The God Delusion or who has not read it yet should read Outgrowing God. Dawkings once again completely dismantles the dogmas of religion, and shows a clear and understandable path towards science and reason.

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wonderful

i learned so much and really enjoyed listening to Richard Dawkins reading his own work

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all Dawkins best ideas distilled into one book

written and read beautifully and accessible to all ages.
I love Dawkins way of explaining complicated concepts

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Amazing book a must read really enjoyed it

Amazing book a must read
really enjoyed it if you interested check it out thanks

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A logical breakdown of mysticism.

Thoroughly enjoyed this audio book. A great explanation of evolution. Well read by the author.

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Incredibly insightful and enlightening

As someone who has grown up in a religious household and recently having to challenge those beliefs, I've found your book so incredibly useful in confirming a lot of my suspicions and thoughts and has helped me begin down the road to understanding what it means to live without the superstitions and beliefs that tho once helped our ancestors to survive has now proven to be one of the biggest obstacles to scientific and the general process of progress and evolution of the human species.

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seems aimed at tweens.

Richard Dawkins delivery came across as a little condescending towards the books target age group

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