Converts' Corner

Sept 18th 2007 - Richard Dawkins writes: I just received, through the British Humanist Association, the following appeal from Isobel Cook of Channel Four. If any of our readers would like to share their story of how they escaped from religion, please contact Isobel Cook directly, at the e-mail address given.

Richard

I'm a television director developing a documentary for Channel 4. The programme will follow one or more people as they take the brave step of leaving their religion. I'm keen to talk to people who've been through or are going through this difficult process. It would be a very sensitive programme - led by the people who take part - and will, I hope, not only help those involved but be an inspiration to others going through 'deconversion'. I would really like to hear your story. Please be assured that you will be contacting me in complete confidence and by doing so you will in no way be committing yourself to take part in the programme. Please contact me at leavingmyreligion@yahoo.co.uk.

Isobel Cook

“And I thought and thought and thought. But I just didn’t have enough to go on, so I didn’t really come to any resolution. I was extremely doubtful about the idea of god, but I just didn’t know enough about anything to have a good working model of any other explanation for, well, life, the universe, and everything to put in its place. But I kept at it, and I kept reading and I kept thinking. Sometime around my early thirties I stumbled upon evolutionary biology, particularly in the form of Richard Dawkins’s books The Selfish Gene and then The Blind Watchmaker, and suddenly (on, I think the second reading of The Selfish Gene) it all fell into place. It was a concept of such stunning simplicity, but it gave rise, naturally, to all of the infinite and baffling complexity of life. The awe it inspired in me made the awe that people talk about in respect of religious experience seem, frankly, silly beside it. I’d take the awe of understanding over the awe of ignorance any day.”

Douglas Adams The Salmon of Doubt, p 99.

“Douglas, I miss you. You are my cleverest, funniest, most open-minded, wittiest, tallest, and possibly only convert. I hope this book might have made you laugh – though not as much as you made me. . . Douglas’s conversion by my earlier books – which did not set out to convert anyone – inspired me to dedicate to his memory this book – which does!”

Richard Dawkins The God Delusion, p 117

Is Douglas Adams Richard’s only convert? Or is he just the first of many? Please write in to Converts' Corner if you have lost your religion (or have been encouraged to come out of the closet) as a result of reading The God Delusion or other Dawkins books.

Email

1

Dear Richard,

I must begin by stating that I had a nominal christian upbringing, I was not interested in anything religious until I got to my late teens. With me it all started in about the early 1980's with a book on creation by the Jehovah Witnesses. After 2 or 3 years I was heavily influenced by an old lady that me and my grandmother used to help who told me many stories about Jesus which gripped my imagination, and the main thing I remember about this old lady was her enthusiasm and keenness in trying to convert me. This lead me on to read religious books and later I would go through a conversion after reading a book by Billy Graham. From then on I would become a committed member of the evangelical baptist church, keen to spread the Jesus message!!

I started off spreading the jesus message throughout pembrokeshire on beach missions, door to door work, street preaching and even night time evangelism outside pubs and clubs. Then I became interested in world missions through a group called OM, this group's aim was in reaching muslims for christ as well as going to places were the gospel was not being spread, establishing fellowships when local people got converted as well as bible translation in minor languages like uighyr, kazakh, turkmen, Kyrgyz, tadjik, evenki and the list goes on and on (such is the drive of groups like the evangelical church and the jehovah witnesses, that continues unabated day and night in translating the bible into minority languages in order that everyone hears the good news). I first worked with OM evangelising in northern England, then I got a bit bolder and went for a summer to Grenoble in the south of France. I was keen to go somewhere outside of Europe, like Central Asia or Mongolia. Then in 1993 I got the opportunity to go to Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan to spread the gospel. When we first got there we intensively learnt Kazakh and the Russian language, witnessing bible translation work in lots of central asian languages (if only "the origin of species" or "the greatest show on earth" was translated in Uighur, kazak, turkmen, Uzbek, Evenki, Mongolian, russian, etc!!!) as well as the establishing of small fellowships of christians, nurturing them to become stronger which was not easy in a communist/Muslim culture.

During this time I started to have strong doubts about my faith, and I found people who lived in Kazakhstan where very well educated, very seldom religious, very friendly and kind, the kazaks having a culture of hospitality and kindness, and for me this was a time of reflection of why did I come to try to convert them. I was always amazed at the high standard of education in former soviet union countries, especially in science and maths; I know I'm detracting from the subject but when my wife was a interpreter for a Russian girl in a local school in Haverfordwest, she said that the gcse questions in science was so easy that she had already done them by the time she was 11 in Kazakhstan.

While I was in Kazakhstan I met my soon to be wife, while on holiday in Kyrgyzstan. We fell in love and met secretly for a couple of months for fear of me being kicked out of the missionary organisation. After two or three months I decided to tell the missionary in charge of our relationship, and he became very disappointed with me, told me this would make or break me and promptly sent me back home to Wales. I later went back to Kazakhstan to arrange to bring my wife to Wales and later that year she arrived heavily pregnant with our first son. After years of giving away all my money, trying to be as anti-materialistic as possible, we settled down with �40 between us. Those first 2 years where the hardest of my life, I was working all the hours I could on very small money, just getting by while my wife was looking after our new born son. I feel this is an important point, but when I left the evangelical church it was very hard because they were like an extended family, we helped each other through difficulties and doubts and now I was out on my own, that ten years of support was just pulled from underneath me. I have no doubt that other people like me have gone through equally difficult times when they have left their religious organisation and this is a vulnerable time for ex-believers.

I didn't come out of the evangelical church because I'd read a book on evolution, or atheism or anything else for that matter, it was a case of becoming more moderate over time, marrying an atheist from Kazakhstan (even though her grandparents are muslim, she and her parents where educated under communism so they were not religiously indoctrinated in school) and the influence she had on me as well as her science background in educating me in my ignorance.

These early years of me leaving my faith where testing times for my wife, I turned to heavy drinking for a while, invited Jehovah witnesses around my house to argue through the night about the bible and wondering whether I did the right thing by coming out of the church.

Living in Kazakhstan had left its mark on me though, now I was leaning towards socialist/communist ideals and this is what I turned my attention to. I read books on Russian history and the history of the soviet union. Sometimes I would try to have religious conversations with my wife but my wife would always reply that she was an atheist and that when she went to school in the soviet union they where not taught any religion. My wife had excelled in school and university and had gone on to get a degree in bio-chemistry and this is where she had learned about evolution by natural selection. Through the influence of my wife's scientific background, I started reading books ranging from Stephen hawking and quantum mechanics to Susan greenfield on the brain. This train of thought and reading material later lead me to reading "the God delusion" by Mr Dawkins. The first time I read this book was very difficult for me, the message was totally foreign but kind of made sense and it was not until reading it the second time did I get to grip with the message.

When I see my friends from the church these days, they say things like "have you read some of the books in reply to the god delusion?" and my answer to that is that I have read my share of creation books. Christian reading matter runs into the hundreds of thousands of books, the propaganda machine is working day and night, we are taught that we are in a war, that as a christian we must have a vigilant mindset, always ready to witness, always ready to give out literature and being as poor as possible like jesus. The sacrifice some people give is huge, bible studies being ways of suppressing any doubt that creep in and being taught to challenge anything thing which is contrary to our interpretation of scripture.

After reading "the greatest show on earth" my opinion is that this is a great book but the people who need to read it won't, they are taught not to read it, that it is misguided. I feel Richard Dawkins latest book preaches to the converted and the people who really need to read it are already being warned against reading it and are taught how to argue and to criticise. We cannot get away from the fact that religion is taught as a fact and lots of young minds are being shaped by it. Let's teach evolution and also good morals.

When I look back and why I was drawn into religion, there seems to be a couple of factors for my conversion; (1). I did not know about evolution by natural selection (2) My knowledge of science was extremely small (3) ignorant of a counter argument, critical thinking skills (4) giving religious people too much respect and a deep down respect to agree with everything they say.

These days I try to teach my children as much science as I can, hoping they won't go down the same road that I went down. Just because I've left the church, I haven't become immoral, I still believe in helping people, being kind to homeless people, using time effectively and trying not to waste it knowing that I'll be a long time dead!! Not everything I learned from the likes of mother teresa was bad eg. having an open home, being hospitable, always being ready to help somebody less fortunate.

One of the things that struck me when I lived as a missionary in the villages of Kazakhstan was the hospitality of kazakh people, which blew me away! There I was, trying to be helpful only to witness such openness into peoples homes, the Kazakhs always cooked a meal for you when you came into their home, the sincerity and genuineness of the local people and the warmth was something which will always stay with me. Because life has been so hard for the traditional nomadic Kazakh, these people have a custom where if you a hungry stranger they will take you in for 3 days, no strings attached. In Kazakh culture, the guest is King!!!

I hope my story serves as a warning that we must be diligent in teaching science and not being afraid to be critical.

2

Dearest Mr. Dawkins,

I am an Egyptian. Born and raised in Egypt, the notion of no god was unimaginable to me. Science class did not include anything that might remotely cause any doubt in a young mind. When I was about 4-5 years old my father (a fundamentalist Muslim, that's redundant) left Egypt for The States, to provide us with a better life. I was raised by my mother ( also a fundamentalist) and she would read the Koran to us on almost a daily bases. When I was very young, I always had a question in the back of my mind as she read and explained to us, if god made everything, then who made god? I used to think that when I got older I would understand, I mean all the adults in my life seemed to believe it, and I surely didn't know more than they. I have never been able to understand, and am now puzzled by the fact that they believe such things, and that I once did.

I wasn't however always puzzled by it. Come to think of it, I stopped thinking about it and just assumed it was true for the next several years. The beliefs included things like: "women are inferior to men, homosexuals will burn in hell, all men who did not worship god and accept "Mohammed" as his prophet were to burn in hell, that every one who did not submit to the former was my enemy and the enemy of god, and that I should fight for "islam" if ever I was given a chance". It does not sound much different from "Christian" principles, but for a young kid it was quite an impression. Throughout the rest of the years in Egypt, I was subjected to religion class and bad science classes. I remember talk of injustice in Palestine and elsewhere in the Arabic world, brought on as a sign of "the nearing apocalypse". I remember thinking that I would be honored to die and kill, other men and women for god. Scary stuff, I know, I thought that way.

At 11 years old my mother, brother, and I moved to America to be reunited with my father. Happy times, right? When finally we did come here, I found that my father had become more religious. I did not understand it then, but free society scared him. He saw normal things like, uncovered women and homosexuals as a threat to his faith. He fought back by becoming immersed in his faith. I later found out that one of the reasons it took so long for us to follow him to America, was to indoctrinate us enough before we came. Well, needless to say it didn't work on me, but unfortunately I can't say the same for my younger sibling.

The first two years I was here, the constant religious bombardment continued. I was having a hard time adjusting to the new society and learning a new language, and didn't have time question much. I did however notice one thing, when I first moved, a lot of people, "Christians" and others, helped for no other reason then helping their fellow human. I just remember thinking "how could they go to hell?". Then came high school, I started to have American friends, I had my first girlfriend, had my first bacon cheese burger, and I started to doubt.

By the end of high school I still believed, or so I thought, but I was getting closer and closer to the truth. I started to examine things like, why should I go to hell for eating bacon? It did not make sense to me, and I kept ignoring it. The first real below to faith came in my freshman year at a community college, that's right, my first encounter with philosophy. In that class I came to realize that I wasn't the only person to think of these things. I went on, playing along, pretending to believe, and not knowing what had happened. I started to make excuses as to why I couldn't make it to prayer, and making things up to keep my parents "off my back" about it. I even lied to them at one point, I said I had married one of my girlfriends in the mosque, so they would let her move in with me.

I started fighting with my dad more and more. He wanted me to become "a better "muslim"", and I wanted nothing to do with it. It went on like that for a while and finally things came to a crashing halt in September of 2008. My father hit my mother, I remember I was sleeping and when I woke up because of the commotion, I lost it. I told you earlier that my mother is a fundi, but I love my mother, she did everything she could with the capabilities she had for me and my brother. Long story short I left the house after my mother, being "a good muslim" let him back in the house. This is the time when i started to move away from all my ties with "islam"(family mostly), I became isolated, and that helped.

One day while at work, I was looking up something along the lines of "the bad effects of religion", and that's when I came across the book that changed my life. In January of 2009, and shortly after my 22nd birthday, I read "The God Delusion". As I read that book I finally realized what I was, I had been an atheist for a long long time and just didn't know it. Your book made me realize that god had no place in my life. It made me realize how beautiful life really was. I have since fallen in love with science and the romance of the human story. It's because of your book I will take physics next year, and while I am ashamed to say that I haven't told my mother yet, for fear of losing her, I have told almost everyone I know "that I am an atheist". I have tried to convince my brother to accept the fact of evolution and am sad to say, its too late for him. I have however convinced one of my cousins to read your book and think he may also apostasies.

Since reading your book, I have read many works of philosophy and science. I have read your "Greatest Show on Earth", what a wonderful and fitting title, and actively use it in debates with the religious. I just wanted to let you know that you have changed my life for the better, and that your courage and tenacity makes a difference. I think your style and wit is great and is much needed. I cant express my gratitude enough for your work, your honesty, and attitude.

Yours Truly,
Ali.

I apologize, but I refuse to capitalize the names of the religions and god.

3

Dear Professor Dawkins,



I would like to give you full credit for my de-conversion, but in truth your "The Blind Watchmaker" was only one of a number of books on the syllabus of my metaphysics class at Marquette University, a Jesuit school. I was raised Catholic, eventually entering the seminary to train to become a priest, immediately after leaving high school (U.S. Secondary education). These were intense years of searching for "truth" and "right" and I longed for nothing more than to know I was being the best person I could be; to have the most positive impact on those around me.



My first year in the seminary in Dublin, Ireland (Catholic hotbed) made it clear to me that clinging to the Catholic Church would certainly not lead me where I wanted to go, and this was long before any priestly scandals were made public. There was just such a complete denial of thought and intellect, along with a pervasive misogyny, that I knew the institution was bankrupt long before I would even begin to consider questioning my belief in God. So, after leaving the seminary I continued to seek God and truth and meaning. While I knew I was no longer a fully "loyal" Catholic, Marquette is a Catholic school. My continuing search remained steeped in the Church, if only as a member and not as a pretender to positions of power within it. Marquette's required 12 credits of theology and 9 credits of philosophy guaranteed me plenty of opportunity to ask questions, and further solidify my break from the Church.



Imagine my surprise, sophomore year, to find out my metaphysics course was being taught by an atheist. A tenured atheist, so he could not be fired. All I knew of Atheists is what the Irish nuns taught me in grade school. They were evil and to be avoided, especially that awful Madelyn Murray O'Hair. :-) Many of the books I had been reading were leading me closer and closer to admitting I, like LaPlace, had no need of the God hypothesis. Along with "The Blind Watchmaker" we also read a brief philosophical paper that said basically, "If a Christian views an atheist's position about how the universe exists, he will scoff. "You mean to tell me that the universe either sprang into being out of nothingness, or it was always there. How absurd." Turn the argument on the believer and the same problem presents itself, "You either believe God sprang into being out of nothingness, or was always there." So here we sit, the believer and the atheist with exactly the same level of unknowability at the root of our quest. What is different? What is different is the hypotheses presented to explain what we DO know. Scientific, Humanistic, Secular Materialism, while incomplete, at least provides a consistent platform. Proposing a God to explain it all made no sense any longer.



I left class that day and vividly recall the moment I had to admit to myself, "I don't believe in God." It was a shock, to say the least, and thus began my long quest of trying to re-stack all of the knowledge of my life under these new terms. The foundation on which I had been set, or landed by birth, were gone, and it was up to me to refashion a stable worldview. Along the way, your writings including "The Selfish Gene," "The God Delusion," and most recently "The Greatest Show on Earth" have contributed to my foundation, and confirmed that I came to the right conclusion 22 years ago, walking home from metaphysics class. I, my wife of 18 years, and our two children say heartily, "Thank you!"



Robert Schneider

Brookfield, Wisconsin, USA

4

f you see a ghost, then pray to Jehovah because it's a demon that might try to possess you. Don't worry about your dead cousin; we'll see her once we are all resurrected in the New System of Things. Don't have any children in this system, because you never know when Armageddon will start.

Those are some of the main tenets of the Jehovah's Witnesses, and if any of it sounded like total baseless, delusional drivel, then you are most likely a fully functional, sane member of society. If what you read made nothing but sense to you, then I would seriously suggest that you reevaluate your perception of reality. This kind of fundamentalist nonsense is what I had to listen to and speak about day-by-day throughout most of my childhood. Every action and goal was done and set with these core beliefs (among several others of varying lunacy) in mind. The Bible was a book that had to be taken literally and wholly as the inherent word of the one almighty creator, Jehovah God. That meant that for the greater part of my development, every person I knew and formed any kind of relationship with believed that: we were divinely created with a purpose, our mortal bodies would one day be resurrected, there is a malicious being composed of pure evil who tries
to tempt us with his demonic minions, God's son was born of a virgin and came back from the dead three days after his crucifixion, there was a Great Flood that engulfed the entire earth, and that the entire Universe is no greater than six thousand years old. And this isn't even the tip of the iceberg; it's the paroxysmal quark within a molecule of dihydrogen monoxide floating just centimeters above.

There are an innumerable amount of facts that one must deny in order to believe such fanatical absurdities. But for most of my life I didn't have much of a choice. I had to mindlessly regurgitate everything that I was taught to accept as truth. And for a long time I thought, "my parents know best, and the elders know best, so they must be right". There was no questioning any detail of any part of the doctrine, and frequently I would hear about how "outside research" was discouraged. Much to my surprise, I found that outside research was any means of looking into the religion from outside of the community. We had to blindly follow everything from inside of the box, and we could never step out to see the big picture. If it weren't for the formal and loving behavior of everyone within the congregations I was a part of, the dogma alone would have lead me to reject any and all forms of theistic and supernatural belief.

Both of my parents brought me up to be skeptical of anything I was ever told. Of course, they only taught me this to be weary of the dangers that could come along by interacting with strangers. They never meant for this kind of behavior to lead me to questioning my beliefs, "our" beliefs. But naturally, I grew suspicious. It became more and more apparent that the validity (or lack, thereof) of my religion was equal to that of every other existing faith. I noticed how the heads of the Kingdom Hall (the meeting place for Jehovah's Witnesses) would often teach that every other religion was false and somehow put into motion by the Devil himself. I kept hearing the what, but never the why. Why were these other religions false? Give me a few logically sound reasons. Give me evidence. And no matter where I looked or whom I asked I received the same responses, all of which lacked any sort of concrete basis in observable or demonstrable fact.

I can remember several points in my life where I would just be sitting in the thin-aired, painfully still, unnervingly silent space that was the Kingdom Hall. The voices of the elders giving talks were so low and monotonous that, when combined with the utter dullness of the entire grey room, I couldn't help but flutter my eyelids and watch the blurred figure at the front of the stage as I drifted in and out of consciousness. I was of course delighted when I found that my tenth grade biology class was a totally different, active, and highly social environment. School was always a place where I could actually learn and be satisfied with all of the knowledge I had accumulated by the end of the day. Everything was hands-on, and every question that I had would be answered in a well founded, no bullshit fashion.

Before long, I found that my education would constantly direct me to concepts contradictory to several of the claims made in the Bible: claims that played a central role in my indoctrination. It became obvious that the world wasn't nearly as young as I was originally led to believe. We have lead from uranium in rock minerals, among other elements, that enable us to use radiometric dating, so we know that the Earth is at least 4.5 billion years old. Background radiation experiments have demonstrated that the Universe is at least 13.5 billion years of age, and that it has been expanding since its very beginning. We know that light has a fixed speed, and we can measure the vast distances between celestial bodies. We know that Andromeda is the nearest spiral galaxy to our own Milky Way, and we are separated by approximately 2,500,000 light years. These are undisputable, scientific facts that one even learns in high school. How could anyone ever think that
the entire existence of everything has been only for no more than a few short millennia? Did God speed up the photons so they could reach our eyes in time for us to appreciate the stars? Was radioactive decay invented to trick us, better yet, to test our faith?

I soon discovered that the very root of my religious views were based on nothing more than childish mystic tradition and lies from a severely gender-biased compilation of ancient texts that had been edited to the point of disfigurement by scribes, who would in most cases be considered illiterate in today's standards, throughout history. I found that the very literature that I was once forced to consider as being holy or "divine word" was infested with a positive view on genocide, infanticide, and rape. While doing independent research, true, yet horrifying information was revealed to me. Not only was it Christianity that brought about such atrocities as the Crusades and the Reconquista, but also most, if not every major religion has resorted to physical violence, and in many cases hindered the progression of society. Not only did I decide that I never wanted to be a part of this madness, but I realized that I had never truly believed any of the
insanity theistic belief had to offer.

I was now free to live in a world of clear, coherent thought. I could unapologetically accept reality, be pro-choice, pro-stem cell research, pro-gay marriage, and pro-science. I was no longer burdened by a book that told me to be sexist, homophobic, and generally ignorant. I was free to live out my dreams of being an optimistic influence and, one day, help to steer humanity in a positive direction. Never again would I be encased in a box of unenlightenment. I could finally escape into the cosmos and soar through the fluid dust of a dark nebula, bathe in the emissions of a pulsar while chasing around its beam of light, watch generations of organisms evolve and diversify with time, and gaze into the soul of an event horizon. The imagination was my playground, and forever knowledge was bliss. I was an atheist.

5

Mr. Dawkins,

I have to tell you that you were right in saying that reading the God Delusion will convert some people. Me and my wife were nervous about reading this book at first. We discussed it for about two weeks and then again for a week. We said "If we really have the 'truth' then this book will help us to show people the reasons for that truth!"
To give some background about my family I will have to tell you that we were extreme fundamentalist, we were Jehovah's Witnesses. Technically we still are, but since our family is still trapped in this religion, we cannot even say that we do not "believe" openly for all to know. You see, in the JW religion they are told that anyone teaching or rejecting biblical teachings should not even be considered as adequate enough to eat with. We would be shunned by our family and any "friends" aquired in the Kingdom Hall, as it is called. In this state anything that we would say to them would be immediately rejected as teachings of the devil. We would be called "apostate" and would not be able to get close enough, even to our immediate family, to reason with them.
Speaking for my family, we are all grateful to you for your lifes work. You "saved" us as they say, but only you really did save us! I now see why you do what you do. I now cannot see how I actually believed all of this time without questioning anything.
From reading The Selfish Gene, The God Delusion, and now reading The Greatest Show on Earth you have given me the same motivation as you, to "elevate consciousness".
For some good news, from talking to my sister and brothers (4) they seem to be on the right track now. I still need to work on my mother, and my wifes family I am not too confident about, but we will see. I know that your teachings as both the mouthpiece of Darwin and destroyer of the fallacies of religion (sounded cool) future generations will benefit from your hard work. Thank you very much!

B. Ruggiero and Family

6

Professor Dawkins,

In the recent past my cousin came to me claiming he was an atheist. In the past few years he has dabbled with religion and different spiritual beliefs in order to try and find something that worked for him. To say the least I was skeptical of his determination in aethism as his beliefs in the past were rather fickle. He seemed very excited about his new belief and eagerly recommended me some literature. Notable among the names of authors/philosophers he gave me were those of Bertrand Russell and yourself.

My cousin new that I was presently an agnostic (or at least called myself one) who had formerly been a Methodist Christian. He also knew that I had been struggling with my own beliefs, that I was searching for something concrete and rational. I must say he could not have recommended better. After reading your book The God Delusion I realized that I had been an atheist for a while, I simply did not realize it. Your aforementioned book and others of Bertrand Russell have provided me with the knowledge neccessary to support my views and to discuss them intelligenty with the theists and Christians that surround me. (I attend a college in the United States of America that is affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Christian Association.) Armed with this knowledge I now have the courage to challenge my peers' beliefs when brought up in conversation. Every day I grow more and more suprised that many of these people have never had their beliefs challenged. Many of the challenged can respond with little more than childish arguments easily overcome with logic and reason, or at worst a gaping mouth and confused expression.

I simply would like to thank you Professor Dawkins for your admirable work presenting delusional masses with fierce wit, admirable courage, and reason.

Aaron Wood

Decorah, Iowa U.S.A.

7

Dear Professor Dawkins,

I wish to thank you for your works, especially The God Delusion, which was pivotal in my shift to atheism. I have been following not only yours books, but also your lectures and debates, and also had the great pleasure of being able to attend your recent lecture in Philadelphia on 22 October 2009.

I am a 19 year old native of Philadelphia, PA, USA, and was raised in a relatively moderate Roman Catholic family, with an atheist father and Catholic mother. Due to the poor state of public education in this city, I was sent to Catholic school from Kindergarten through my high school years. I become deist as opposed to Catholic relatively early on, but never made that final move into atheism. Surprisingly, it was not the issue of the origin of existence that brought me to review my stance on religion, but rather it was my interest in the French Revolution and Napoleon (my area of interest as a young historian) which from eighth grade onwards made me start to really think about and better understand my view of the world. My research brought me into contact with fascinating philosophy such as Rousseau's Social Contract, human rights, politics, and alternate views on religion. As peculiar as it might sound, it was actually a very short work by the Marquis de Sade, Dialogue between a Priest and a Dying Man, that originally raised in me the thought that atheism, contrary to my teaching in Catholic school, was a real potential, and that religion was not necessary. Even though my own father was atheist, we never discussed religion or atheism, so it never truly dawned on me earlier that I had an example in my own life for a "good atheist."

What I want to emphasize is that for people like I had been, the bigger issue was and is not so much what the origins of life or humanity is, although the large scale acceptance of creationism is disgusting and revolting, but rather the origins and basis of morality. For me, the problem had been accepting that morality could exist independently of a god or higher power, and this is why I had been content for years to remain a deist.

Outside of the personal example of my own father along with my growing number of established historian friends who I learned were atheists, it was in particular your work, The God Delusion, which fully convinced me to drop the burdensome weight of deism from my shoulders and become an atheist. Your meticulous and brilliantly written deconstruction and honest evaluation of religion and god(s) was an invigorating breath of fresh air. I never was opposed to openly discussing religion, but due to "proper social etiquette" few people I knew were willing to return the favor and discuss, which is where you came in. Your willingness to discuss the topic seriously would have by itself made the book worthwhile. Since reading your book, I have formed my own world view independent of religion or a "celestial North Korea" (to borrow a great phrase from Christopher Hitchens), and am most grateful and appreciative to you for your help. To settle any curiosity you might have, yes, I still have a perfectly outstanding sense of morality now as an atheist, so obviously my original concerns were for naught. Thank you again for your brilliant work, and I encourage you to continue the good fight, as I am now doing myself in my own life and community.

yours sincerely and most gratefully,
Nicholas Stark, FINS

8

Dear Richard,

I first read The God Delusion a couple of years ago and just wanted to say thank you for writing the book. My dad has been a Christian pastor since I was too young to remember. He was mentally and physically abusive in the name of god. It led to me refusing to stay at his house by the age of 15 (he and my mom split up when I was young). I never even went back to get my things from his house. From then until last year, I lived only with my mom, who is not religious at all. Even after 3 years of living with her exclusively (I was 18 by then) it was hard to let go of all the things he had taught me. I still prayed and sometimes read a little of the bible. I held on out of fear. But I had doubts. I always had doubts, and anyone who says they don't is lying or brainwashed. I never liked the idea that I'd go to heaven only to constantly worship some man I'd never even seen before. I was also interested in science and history.

The first major blow to my fearfully held "beliefs" was learning that the bible was fiction. If you actually read it, really read it, it does not make sense and I couldn't find any historical evidence to support it. Next was science, which made me throw out my bibles (yes more than one). I did well in science in school and did some reading of my own outside of school (I took human anatomy and physiology and microbiology in college). So at this point I was agnostic. I really didn't think there was a god but I was too afraid to say there wasn't. Then I found your book. It gave me the courage to finally say what I knew was true. There is no god. It was such a relief. A weight lifted. No more fear. Then my dad called. He didn't call often but when he did he usually brought up religion. I don't remember exactly how it came about but I told him I didn't believe in god. It probably wasn't the best way to go about things but I didn't care. He never let me be myself or voice my opinions. After telling him, he said I was going to hell and we didn't speak for over a year. Now that we are talking again, I feel like I'd rather not. It's the same old struggle.

I'm now 22 and happy to call myself an atheist. It makes everything so much clearer. Anyway, I had to say thank you because your book has enriched my life! Last night I watched The Genius of Darwin, which was great. I haven't read On the Origin of Species, but it is at the top of my list now. Thank you again, I appreciate and admire your work. I'm sure it isn't easy to constantly be attacked by the religious!

Patricia Harris
North Carolina, USA

9

Professor Dawkins,

My shelves are filled with your books and many others about science. I am a science teacher, head of science in fact, at a local comprehensive school. Science has played a huge role in my life. I met my wife "across the test tubes" as it were during an Open University chemistry summer school. She too was a huge fan. We saw you once at a lecture/book signing when The Ancestors Tale had just come out. At that time I was not practicing religion but I had been brought up (brainwashed) as a catholic so probably still had a latent tendency to think God might be involved somewhere. However after my wife and I read The God Delusion it crystallised, for me at least, thoughts/doubts that I now realise were lurking under the surface. Your clear writing style helped bring these ideas to the surface and helped me begin to accept that religion is a harmful agent in the world. I now feel much more confident in challenging people that base their lives on blind faith. My wife probably had already decided she was an atheist long ago but again the book helped her confidence in asserting this to the world.

I have been referring to my wife in the past tense because she died in May this year after a battle with breast cancer. She was only 38. People we knew, and some we didn't, offered to pray for her and one even came round with healing crystals. They could not understand why she rejected all of their offers. They thought she would be desperate to try anything but her attitude was that life was too short to waste even a few minutes thinking about such nonsense. We put our "faith" in science. We were both scientists and knew that miracle cures were not on the cards. Our atheism also allowed us to explain to our children that they should not expect to see Mummy again in heaven or any kind of afterlife and that they needed to say their goodbyes while she was still living. I made sure that there was nothing left unsaid as well and now feel comforted that she died knowing just how much she was loved. The children were able to understand that her body will decay and add nutrients to the soil. That microbes will convert the elements in her tissues into new combinations of compounds and in this way she will still be part of the earth. They also know that she is part of them, they carry her genes in themselves and, of course we carry her memory in our minds. This seems enough, even during our grief.

Jane was buried in a woodland burial ground in a lovely wicker basket. As was her express wish there was no religion at her funeral. A humanist officiant and members of the family conducted her funeral service. Many people, most of them with some kind of religious faith, told me that it was one of the most beautiful and touching funerals they ever attended. Some even said it had made them rethink what they wanted to mark their own passing from life. A few months before Jane died we attended her Grandmothers cremation. Meaningless hymns were sung and a vicar that had never met the woman spoke about her and recited prayers that meant very little to most of the people in attendance. The contrast was striking. The easy platitudes of religion versus heartfelt words focused on Jane's one life and only that.

So reading your book came at the right time for me. Allowing me to finally reject the Pope's God and all the other Gods. I knew I was a real atheist while Jane was terminally ill. I thought I would, in desperation, pray or ask God for help, I never did. When that day never came I knew, for me at least, God no longer existed.

I will go on reading your books and think of Jane when I do, imagining the conversations we had and could have had about them.


Regards

David Marrs

10

Dear Professor Dawkins,

Thank you so much for The God Delusion; I had a hard time putting it down, I found it so fascinating. I agreed with you before reading it but had never considered many of the facts in it. I have only read small parts of the Bible, for example. I have heard many Bible readings in church but they, as you mention, are selected. I was "christened" in the United Church of Canada, a very loose Protestant church, that does not believe in transubstantiation but has communion four times a year "just in case", I should think. I have never been confirmed in any church and I thank my parents for allowing me to make up my own mind, even though I was a baby Protestant.

I have a short story to tell. You mention "preaching to the choir." Is the original term not "preaching to the converted?" Because the "choir" is mostly made up of mercenaries and people who like the music or the choir director. I spent many years as one of the paid singers and became more and more ill at ease in church services. My real conversion, as it were, came at the end of one summer. I sang at the Anglican cathedral in Montreal and often sang solo verses in the psalms . We had a boys choir at the cathedral and there were a couple of other Anglican churches in Montreal with boys choirs. Each summer they had a choir camp for the boys where they sang and studied church music. One summer they invited a guest choir director from the UK and they prepared his set of responses which were quite difficult. The week culminated in a service at the cathedral. Unfortunately there was nobody in the clergy who could sing these responses and the two lay clerks who often sang such things were on holiday. It fell to me to sing them, including the collects. The vicar then preached a sermon condemning the practice of allowing the unconfirmed to take part in the service! I suddenly realized that he was talking about me! So, although I don't have as many sermons about me as Satan or the Serpent, I do have one. So, at least, I'm "on the score board!"

Thank you again for such a great book. I have ordered "The Root of all Evil?" and it should arrive in a few days. I'm looking forward to seeing it.

With best wishes,

Winston Purdy, Montreal

11

Professor Dawkins,
First off, I want to say Thank you!
I was raised Catholic and when it came time to make my confirmation I told my parents I wasn't sure I believed in God and didn't think it would be right to go through with it. They were not happy and claimed my grandparents (who were very religious) would be so disappointed. So, I did it for them.
After the fact I didn't think much about God and went on being a teenager filling my life with fun, not having the time to wonder. I went to church for Easter, Christmas, holidays when my parents asked me to, but never cared for listening about the stories I heard there. Years later, one day all of a sudden I thought about dying and it really scared me. I'd thought about it before and it never bothered me, but that day I felt cold and terrified of not existing. That made me think that I really don't believe in god. I mean, I didn't even consider an afterlife. From that day on I thought about dying everyday. I was hoping deep down that I would find some evidence for god existing, but when I tried to think it, I felt silly and started to wonder how anyone could truly believe it. A few days later is when a friend of mine was reading your book, The God Delusion, at work. I saw the title and got excited and asked her what it was. The next day I went out and bought it, along with Hitchens book God is not Great. (which I have now started)
Your book truly changed my life. I thought I was the odd one out. When I mentioned to my family that I thought I didn't believe in God they thought I was the crazy one. All I could think was that I knew there was nothing and instead of it scaring me this time, I felt comforted in the fact that I could understand now, why I didn't believe. You explained it in a way so I could grasp the truth about what religion really is, how it affects people and that it's ok to think realistic, in fact, it's them who are quite silly. Now, although the idea of death is still not appealing, I feel much more "okay" with it. I have turned my fear into wanting to learn more about the religion in the world and evolution. I find it sad, but fascinating that so much of the world believes this joke. It's become my new interest and I just ordered The Blind Watchmaker and The Selfish Gene. I'm halfway through your book The Greatest Show on Earth and I am amazed by this also. I've learned so much from you. I love how you explain what the religious believers say about evolution and then u defend it so easily, as it is hard evidence. I am so thankful that I discovered your work. It has really made me feel like I finally found a word for how I have been feeling all these years. I am an atheist, and I am proud to say it. I found comfort in understanding this now. This is the only life we get and I want to make it worthwhile.

Thank you again,
Jessica B.

12

I would like to begin at the beginning; I consider myself remarkably fortunate not to have had the same experiences with childhood indoctrination as so many other people have had. I was lucky enough to be raised by a family of 'secret Christians'- that is, members of the Eastern Orthodox Church who had to hide their faith while living in the Soviet Union, who therefore do not preach from soap boxes with megaphones the way American fundamentalists do. This, coupled with my parents' busy life, ensured that they never had adequate time to pound fairy-tales into my head.

I grew up an atheist by default; I loved science and the answers it gave me 'clicked' more logically than religious dogma ever could. What I knew of religion I learned from horror movies, the History Channel, and, eventually from reading the Bible (for high school English class). I never myself contemplated a personal god for more than five seconds at a time.

In my miserable teenage years, however, two things happened that changed my life. Firstly, I informally converted to Wicca, which I saw as a nondestructive, individualistic alternative to the Abrahamic faiths. And frankly, I enjoyed it while it lasted.

And then I read 'The God Delusion', and it wasn't so much a blast but a sharp rapping on the door, with my rational voice speaking in the background: "Are you seriously on board with this idea of a compassionate force guiding your life? Since when have you ever believed that? Since when have you ever needed to believe in that?"

I renounced Wicca the next day, after approximately six months, because I realized that no matter how much fun it was, it was only ever a game, which led me to conclude that if I can't even have faith in a religion that I LIKE, then there's no hope for my ever becoming religious, not even spiritual.

I have since rekindled my love of science (biology and astronomy in particular) and plan to pursue a career in this field. So, I have been inspired by Prof. Dawkins in many more ways than one, and hope that I get to attend one of his lectures, or even meet him someday in the near future.

Svitlana

13

Dear Professor Dawkins,

I was born in India and moved to America at 3, and raised in a Hindu household. My parents weren't fundamentalist or even particularly religious, especially my Dad. However, at the same time, they, my mother in particular, tried to indoctrinate in me the idea that Hinduism is part of my culture, and for that reason I should stay Hindu, because I should not leave my culture behind. For a time, it worked very well.

In America, we moved quite a bit in the Northeast, since my parents were both doctors, and were constantly trying to find better jobs for them so that me and my sister could lead better lives. During that time, we lived in West Virginia for a year. At the time, I was maybe 8 or 9.

There, my parents, in order to make sure they and I had friends and were somewhat part of the community, decided to join the Church, knowing it would only be for a short while. Along with joining the Church, they enrolled me in the Sunday school there. At the Sunday school, not only we did we learn about the Bible, but also about why what science says is supposedly not true. There was one 'experiment' we did in particular that I remember had a large effect on my thoughts about science and religion. We were told to put confetti in a balloon, blow it up, and then pop it up. This was meant to simulate the Big Bang; the point was to show that an explosion could not create the order in the Universe.

This rather bothered me. I did not know much about physics or cosmology at that age, but I wondered at the time how valid that experiment was. I knew at least that the Big Bang was not an explosion, but an expansion, and that there were things that we hadn't put in the experiment that would effect the outcome. The experiment motivated me to learn more about science and figure out whether what I had learned then was true.

During the Summer there, my parents, unable to find any other place for me to stay as they worked, since we lived in a rural town, decided to enroll me in a Christian Light of the World day camp. There, I got to interact with other kids my age, and also had to study the Bible. I didn't mind, as I found religion even then to be rather interesting, especially Christianity, from the Sunday school. I went there twice that Summer, both times winning trophies in a Bible Studies competition they had (the first time I got first place, the second I got second place). Due partly to that stint in WV, I toyed for a while with the idea of converting to Christianity, putting it aside due to the effect of my household - something I'm very happy for.

The knowledge I accumulated in WV piqued my interest quite a bit, and over the next few years, as my family kept hopping from place to place, I kept trying to take in as much information as I possibly could about religion, and thus 'stumbled' on the idea of atheism. Atheism automatically appealed to me - what I had learned about other religions appalled me. Yet, I felt as if there was nothing wrong with a metaphorical acceptance of Hinduism, as I had, and so put that aside. However, the knowledge I acquired led me to accept modern science as fact, something which my family does as well.

From there, as I became a teenager, I continued to toy with the idea of atheism and Hinduism, yet found no reason to personally disregard atheism. Then, on the internet, one day I read an article about you. I don't remember the article, as that was a few years ago now. But I read up on you and your beliefs. I never checked out any of your books, I'm sad to say, as I felt I was too young to understand it. However, my continuing disgust with the hypocrisies of religion and your own writings and beliefs led me down a path to atheism.

Around 2006, I joined a site that divided itself into multiple 'Heavens', each devoted to a different videogame. The site was not Christian, despite the name. There, I delved into the community forums at a few 'Heavens', where I could talk about anything. In one of those in particular, there were some people who were fundamentalist Christian, some people who were more moderate and liberal in their beliefs, some people who were agnostic, and at least one who was an atheist. It was a small community of maybe 14 or 16 people, and we were all friends. Debates, however, erupted every now and then, due to the differences in belief, and often they were about religion. Luckily, no harm was ever meant in any word and we all remained friends. However, there, the member who was an atheist, suggested I read The God Delusion.

With eagerness, I picked up the book, remembering your name. The book quite wonderfully dissected my beliefs, and hardened my dislike for Christianity, especially the fundamentalist denominations. By the end of the book, I made my choice and converted to atheism. My parents did not mind too much.

Since then, despite a few protests from my Mother, I'm a more reasonable and critical person. Due to The God Delusion, rather than simply accepting Hinduism, I can lead a fuller life and seek knowledge more effectively. And for that gift, I can never be more thankful to you, sir.

For that book, and for the effect you have had on my life, thank you, Professor, with all my heart.

Ashwin

14

Dear Professor Dawkins,
I used to be an atheist but now I believe in evolution.
Jim

15

As a result of reading The God Delusion I became an atheist. Having sampled a number of religions including Buddhism, reading 'The God Delusion' for me has been the nearest thing to enlightenment I have ever experienced. I am no longer afraid and now have peace of mind. I am sad however that I will never truly see deceased friends and loved ones again in 'the after life' when all the mysteries of life would have been revealed, because there is no such thing. Instead I will have to discover as much as I can in this one and only life.

Sean Casey

16

Professor Dawkins,

I was raised Methodist my whole life and eventually made a part of the church. Despite all that though, I was a rather reluctant member. I tended to be the annoying child in Sunday School who tended to pick apart all the lovely stories until they rather flatly told me to relax and not take it so literally. It wasn't so much with the factual contradictions (although there were plenty) but also the confusing morality at the core of it. It doesn't take Sherlock Holmes to point out the 180 degree shift we get in morality from the Old Testament to the New Testament. Larry Holmes could figure it out.

But I must confess (bad choice of word I suppose) that religion also did a great deal of damage psychologically with some of its "sins". Those sins being what Chistopher Hitchens would classify as "thought crimes". I was given the impossible task of policing what I thought and that if I didn't do that and give myself 100% over to the Methodist God I would spend an eternity being tortured in the eternal fires of hell. What a horrible concept for a child than having an invisible police officer watching over your uncontrollable thoughts and judging you and heaping vast amounts of guilt on you at the same time. I am still trying to work through all the pain that caused me as a child (although I don't think I will ever 100% get over it).

I also could not get over the fact that it did not matter how good a person was in action if he did not believe in the same invisible entity as everyone else he would go to hell.

I could go on for pages but it all made me a rather bitter agnostic by my teenage years. I felt I was in a minority that did not believe but could not take the next logical step and say flat out I was atheist. After all, I could not 100% disprove god therefore I must be classified as agnostic. And for the most part I kept my mouth shut and kind of silently suffered as the religious majority tried to preach to me what was right through their holy book.

After reading your book though it put a lot of things in perspective and made all those arguments that I never even thought of. Suddenly all those rebuttals from the religious which were built on faulty logic and reasoning I saw them for what they were. I also realized the problem in being that silent minority. I have to speak out for what I believe in. While I still have some trouble (especially when most of my co-workers are devout and vocal Christians who believe homosexuality for example is still a sin) debating with some of them, I am at least now debating them instead of being a silent and meek closet atheist.

So while it may not have been a complete conversion from Methodist to Atheist, I feel you have helped me more than I could ever say. My mind feels free and I can focus on living my life and appreciating my life instead of feeling guilt and shame from religion. I am free to live. A simple thank you will never be enough for what you've done but its all I can offer now.

Thank you sir. Thank you.

Miles, 26, USA

17

Professor Dawkins;

I was raised Protestant. I took it for granted that everything the Bible says was true. For me, Christianity felt so natural that I couldn't "not believe in God". But as I grew older, and learned more about the details of my religion, I started wondering. If the Bible is the word of God, how can we know God's always telling us the truth? And how do we know it is the word of God? If God would have people he loves burn and suffer in Hell forever, what would he do with someone he hated? Why does the Bible contradict itself?
And when I realized that scientists take pride in using proof, while religion takes pride in "faith", that is, voluntarily believing something that evidently isn't true, that didn't help. Neither did the realization that most "proof that God is real" was actually "proof that MAYBE God doesn't HAVE to be a figment of our imagination."

After a while, in the middle of a mental debate with myself, I asked the most important question: What was it that originally made me decide that Christianity is true? The answer was: Because my mum said it is. Apart from that, I hadn't had any reason to believe in God. I drew the conclusion that as far as I know, God isn't real. But it was your book The God Delusion which made me realize that God almost certainly isn't real.

Becoming an atheist was very strange and very enjoyable. I've found myself doing things I only thought happened in newspaper funnies. I've exclaimed "Jeez!", thought to myself that I shouldn't misuse the name of the saviour, and thought "That's right, I don't believe in him anymore, so I can say Jeez as much as I like!" I can finally go to a synagogue and see what it's like, because it's not sacrilege anymore! No, wait - it never was sacrilege in the first place!

I'm much happier now that I know I don't have to do things I find dumb, boring, or even immoral, just because of the bizarre idea that you have to agree with God in every way. My motto used to be "The laws of God and Jesus are great!" but now it's "No good law would need to be justified by the authority of God; no bad law can be justified by the authority of God." It sounds much better.

I've gone from reading the Bible to reading your books, because unlike the Bible, they use evidence and cite their sources.

Thank you.

/Michael, 21, Sweden

18

Dear Professor Dawkins,

When I was 16, I made the sudden realization that God doesn't exist. It came out of nowhere. I was just thinking, and it happened. It wasn't like I hadn't thought about it before. I don't know of any Theist who doesn't doubt, and I had gone even further. I had been pretty sure that God didn't exist but on this day, I KNEW that he wasn't there.

To say the least, it scared me. Scratch that. It didn't scare me. It disturbed me. Deeply. The realization that there wasn't a loving God watching over me nor was there somewhere to go after I die, that life just ends, was the single most terrifying thing that had ever crossed my mind.

I fell into a deep depression. I talked to my mom about it, and that went well. My mom is an "agnostic" who grew up in a religious family, so she understood what I was going through. But the problems don't go away just because you know someone who's been through it. I was still paralyzed with existential dread, so I tried to talk to my Rabbi about it, and to a certain extent, it helped. He told me that the Jews dont actually have much to work with in terms of an afterlife. It just isn't mentioned all that much in the Torah. But my session with him ended with him just trying to reinforce the idea that God exists and that he loved me. (God, not the rabbi.)

I decided to finally confront the man who brought me up as a Jew; my dad. Dont get me wrong, he's a really nice guy. He's liberal-minded, intelligent, he works in the film industry, and he even teaches a film class for students at Boston University for their exchange program in Los Angeles. He's also religious. Not in the "there's a big guy in the sky who's gonna smite you," kind of way. He's more in the school of thought where you can make your own interpretation for what God may be. It could be nature, it could be your conscience, etc. Nonetheless, my anouncement to him that "I renounce my faith!" didnt fly too smoothly with him. He took it personally. I didn't blame him. He's on the temple's board of directors and so he's extremely involved in Judaism. It's his "thing." Long story short, he was dissapointed in me. It made things awkward to say the least.

A few months later, I was coming to terms with my newfound Atheism. I wasn't enjoying it though. It still scared me.

My dad attends the TED conference every year, and I always get exited for the TEDtalks DVDs he brings home. I was watching one of the discs when I came across your talk which I believe was titled "An Atheist's Call To Arms." It changed my life. I heard you turned a few heads with that one, and you certainly did with me. The idea that here was a guy who was standing up for my beliefs when I thought that I was alone was more comforting than any belief in an afterlife.

I picked up The God Delusion soon after and at this point, all I can say is thank you. Thank you so much for teaching me that it's alright to disbelieve, that it's actually more rational than the God-fearing alternative. The answer was right in front of me, but you lit the path towards it. Thank you so, so very much.

It's two years later, and I'm starting college now. I'm now well equipped to argue for Atheism and evolution at the behest of my Christian collegues. I couldn't be happier.

Atheism for me wasn't a choice. It was a harsh reality that I had to accept, and you helped me come to terms and eventually start what I know will be a life-long friendship with it.

For that, I truly thank you.

19

Hi Professor Dawkins

I was raised in a nominally Christian family. My parents were both Church of England, but like a lot of C of E families religion wasn't really a major part of our daily life. We all went to church every Sunday, I attended Sunday school, and round about the age of 9 or 10 I sung in the church choir. At about the age of 14 I was Confirmed , which then meant I could partake of the bread & wine. However I always remember specific moments in church, when the vicar said "Let us pray" and everyone put their heads down and there was silence, and I sat there with my head down hearing an feeling nothing but the silence. The same thing happened when I took the Communion. I would wonder why nothing happened, why there was no amazing explosion of "Godness" in my head. I would furtively look around at everyone else with their heads bowed and wonder if they could "feel" something that I couldn't. In short I began to feel guilty, as if I was in church under false pretences.

I eventually told my parents I didn't want to go to church anymore. They were disappointed but they let me stay at home, and from then on I more or less drifted away from religion. If questioned I would still say I believed in God, but as time went by I began to change this to "who knows?", although I still maintained that religion was a personal choice and that if you wanted to believe in God or Allah or Vishnu or whoever then it was up to you.

It wasn't until about 10 years ago (I'm 47 now) that I started to get annoyed about what I increasingly saw as the negative aspects of religious belief - the way Blasphemy still appeared to be an offence in what I'd always considered to be an enlightened country (England), the increase in religion-led terroism and generally the offences of Man against Man that have been perpetrated in the name of religion for almost all of Human history. At that point I began to swiftly slide towards definite atheism (which is where I stand now).

I have an 11-year old son, and about 4 years ago he started asking the usual child questions like "what is Heaven like", "what happens when we die" and "what does God look like". I was very conscious of the fact that I couldn't go barging straight in and telling him what I saw as the truth - There's no God, and when you die, that's it. On the other hand I was determined not to lie to him. What to do? The answer was to discuss it with him. When he asked what Heaven was like, I told him that honestly no-one knew, because as far as I knew no-one ever came back from the dead. When he asked what happened when we died, I told him again that no-one really knew. I told him that a lot of people thought there was an afterlife, and a God, but that there were lots of different religions, and each had different ideas about what happened. I explained to him that the Muslim idea of Heaven was different from the Christian idea, and that Buddhists and Hindus even believed that you didn't go to Heaven but just got reincarnated. I was lucky that he is an intelligent child and continued to ask more questions as time went by. I was still careful not to implicitly state that there was no God, as I realise that young children start getting scared of dying as they realise their own mortality (my 6-year old daughter went through that phase a few months ago) and I didn't want to upset him.

However now he is 11 and although I tried to be impartial, I appear to have turned him into a full-blown atheist as well! We have discussions about evolution & the universe (he's very into Science subjects) and when I ask him what he thinks happens when you die, he seems quite accepting that you just stop and that's the end.

Have I created a monster? Or an intelligent enlightened human being? I hope the latter.

I would also like to say that although I have been aware of your work for several years, it was only a couple of years ago that I read "The God Delusion" and only this year that I read "The Blind Watchmaker", which I really wish I'd read sooner.

All the best & thanks for bringing "non-belief" out of the ghetto and onto the centre stage.

Dave Brown

20

Prof. Dawkins,

I, like too many other young people in America, was brought up sheltered from secular society in faith schools and homeschool. I had never been a pious believer, as I dreaded church and prayer, but still managed to convince myself I was certain that Yahwe was real. Shortly before my deconversion, I was a radical bible conspiracy theorist, and that was the only time I had any large amount of blind belief.

In spring of 2007, I got high speed internet. In fall of 2007, I began to try to justify my Christian beliefs rationally. I wasn't satisfied with faith any more now that I knew people online who completely rejected Christianity. I began to do research into proof of creationism.

Needless to say, I was completely unable to rationalize my beliefs after seeing both sides of the argument. I had a traumatic day of begging for proof in prayer. The next day I was a deist. The third day, I was an atheist.

About a week after deconversion, I broke the news to my parents. They took it fairly well, and while they were pretty shocked and upset, they never did anything about it. Time goes on, and this fall 2009 my dad identifies as an atheist and my mom is interested in your new book, The Greatest Show on Earth.

I have you to thank directly for helping me see the truth, as the first (and strongest) counter-arguments that I heard on internet video were from your Liberty University speech. Strong words from a brilliant man.

Regards,
Sean, age 19.

21

I am a 19 year old from Brooklyn, NY but I currently live in Florida and I am now officially converted. I was as a child very religious, and never entertained the idea of becoming atheist. I went to Catholic school for 12 years, but I must admit although I did take religion classes, I was never taught the nonsense that is creationism. I honestly remember the first time I began to doubt. I was 15 years old and I learned of the big bang, which made me wonder about the story of Adam and Eve and the whole "earth was made in six days and god rested on the seventh day". Then I leaned of evolution which completely blew my mind! How could we have evolved?Did god not create humans?. Almost every single memorable story I knew in the bible had contradictions to scientific facts, after looking further into my religion I realized(due to things like Darwin's law of evolution) that Christianity was probably false.

But I was still a reluctant believer, because I was scared. If god does exist and he sees me doubt my religion I might end up in hell. I was even more worried about my family not respecting me for being an atheist. For me it was safer to believe then to look at fact. That all changed about a year ago as I started to take a big interest into politics. The primaries had just ended and the main elections were starting. (at this point I was unsure what party I wanted to belong to). I knew I disliked bush and his policies, but the worst thing he ever did was use god as a scapegoat for his failures.


Then I realized I cannot stay idle, because although it is safer to stand by and not say anything, I know now that it is my obligation as an intelligent human being to spread truth among ignorance. Religion is dangerous, especially when it is in the hands of idiots, and especially when those idiots are the ones in charge. I know now Richard, thanks to people like you, Bill Maher, Christopher Hitchens, and others that it is not wrong to look at religion in a realistic view and judge it accordingly, although I have not read your book yet it is people like you who give me the strength to be an atheist. Thank you Richard Dawkins, for helping me see the world clearly, Keep fighting the good fight.

22

Hello Professor Dawkins,

I am 39 and was born into the house of a preacher and fundamentalist ideas. As a former creationist, I too believed in god (note the decapitalization), young earth, and bible literalism. In elementary school I was introduced to science and fell in love with it. However, when biology was forced upon my religious ideals in high school I failed my exams and would not take part in class because "evolution is evil" and so forth. I went on to fail and drop biology 4 more times until I finally passed it and then went on to college and earned a degree in biology. Of course, during that time my views on fundamentalism were in a state of decay and I had fully accepted evolution. Always under the assumption that there was a god, I struggled with philisophical problems with how certain phenomenon in nature could be true... and how the bible could also be true. For instance, when god put the rainbow as a promise to Noah that there would never be a flood (which day did god actually change the laws of optical physics?) or why would god deceive us by putting stars several millions or billions of light years away (yet the world is only 6,000 yrs old so how did the light reach us already?)

About and a half ago, I went to a church seeking honest answers. I went to bible studies and challenged the principles and belief system, and at the same time read The God Delusion. At that point, I felt satisfied that there is almost certainly no god.

I would like to thank you for writing a clearly stated, well defined, and literature supported book that helped to open my eyes. I am now a full athiest. Furthermore, I am now a high school science teacher and full heartedly appreciate your support and defence of my profession as well as equipping us with the tools to fight locally. Your new book "The Greatest Show on Earth" is fantastic!

Best Regards,
Merlyn

23

Richard,

I'm 19 years of age and from Ireland, I've grown up atheist so I can't really claim to be a convert. I went to church when I was growing up but from the age of about five I never really swallowed the Christian medicine and I don't think my parents really did either. My message to you is that I'm a person who thinks relentlessly about issues and formulate arguments in my head constantly about all types of moral questions until I can come up with a stance on them (something I'm pretty sure all rationalists do) but I have never really been able to convey my beliefs to people who have asked me about them, that's until I read 'The God Delusion'. It rounded my ideas and helped convince me of the arguments I have been making for years in debate and I want to thank you for that. We have the privilege of being European, where it isn't a social crime to identify yourself as atheist or agnostic and that's because of the great thinkers who were given the chance to make their arguments over the past two hundred years -I see you as one of them and I think that you may be able to start the ball of rationalism rolling in America with your arguments, you've helped me have so many great conversations.

Thank-you

24

For the vast majority of my life, I was a non denominational Christian. I was indoctrinated early, went to a private Christian School which heavily incorporated Biblical verses and stories into the curriculum, and required two survey courses on the Old and New testaments. Once a week the entire school congregated for a chapel period, in which the Bible was studied more in depth. I received an award for the depth of the notes I had taken, which was given by the Church's pastor in front of the entire school and faculty. My faith was absolute. If I came across a stray animal while driving, I would immediately pray that the luckless creature would be guided back to it's home.

My father was the inspiration for my faith; he was a great man, my mentor, hero, and idol. When I was seventeen, the cancer he had acquired from exposure to agent orange in Vietnam began to surface. The doctors estimated he had a year to live. He lived four months. During the slow, humiliating process of his body shutting down and decaying, he was faced with the inevitable glimpse into the void that we all must take; he was forced to come to terms with his own mortality. His faith, great as it was, was no comfort at death's door. I noticed a slow regression back to a child like state during the final days, in which he would whisper childrens' hymns for comfort. This was, I believe, where my doubt began to form.

I have always in the back of my mind felt that the limitations of human understanding are so vast, and that humans - especially Christians - attribute to themselves far too much credit for being born human. The self serving nature of organized religion and the hypocrisy therein drove me to stop attending Church; but always I would cling desperately to the idea of a benevolent creator who watched over me, and cared for me. Yet, as time passed, and as I began to evaluate the nature of our world, and our place within from a scientific perspective, I found myself growing more and more dispassionate. I stopped praying, and nothing in my life changed.

Uncertainty is perhaps the most grim fate any of us can be condemned to. I began to research, with particular interest in the unfathomable vastness of the cosmos, and our insignificant, inconsequential place therein. Dawkins (in particular, his documentary The Genius of Charles Darwin), along with his colleagues, made me come to the most important revelation of my life. Our world is imperfect. The universe is chaotic. We have taken pictures of galaxies colliding; such destruction an event would bring about cannot even be quantified by us. Such reality could not possibly be the product of a perfect engineer.

Know that I have always had doubt; for if there was a god, they would not want blind faith. However, I am still young in my pursuit of truth. As such, it is extremely difficult for me to grasp the meaning of existence and our role in the universe. Life, it seems, is ridiculous. It has been a very trying and emotional journey, and truly this knowledge is a burden. I loved my father with all of my heart; I still do. The hardest thing for me to accept is this: I cannot carry out his dying wish- which was for me to hold true to my faith. I understand that, in choosing to reject religion, the folly of my father, I do so for the benefit of future generations. Is this not the very meaning of evolution? To surpass the weakness of your parents and pass on what you have gained to the next generation. It is little comfort to me at this point. But I have no doubt, in time, the burden of this knowledge will be lessened.

Thank you, Richard, for being a beacon of reason in an otherwise ignorant world.

Benjamin, age 23.

25

While you seem to have accrued plenty of testimonials already, I'm so
overjoyed about my own conversion that I'd like add it to the list anyway!

I was raised in a conservative Christian home that was a strange mixture
of blind faith and critical thought--both of my parents are highly
intelligent people who have somehow managed to blind themselves to
religion's shortcomings. I was homeschooled until high school with nearly
the most conservative curriculum available(the lineup included a few gems
from the Bob Jones University Press). I was then handed off to a private
Christian high school, where I was spoon-fed the same worldview. I
believed it the whole while through: I attended church at least once a
week, prayed regularly, and felt assured that the Bible was the inerrant
word of God. Looking back, I'm surprised that I ever saw the light, let
alone turned out to be socially well-adjusted.

Then, in a pivotal moment, I chose to attend an academically rigorous yet
liberal school (Berkeley, horror of horrors) over a private Christian
school that offered me a huge bundle of money to attend.

It is not until now, in my fourth and final year in college, that I
finally can say (at least to myself) that I do not believe in God, and
feel blissfully relieved. I tried everything in the first three years to
revive my faltering faith--church attendance, on-campus groups, even a
brief stint in church leadership. But my mind would not be satisfied with
vague reassurances that "God works in mysterious ways," and after
extensive research that included reading "The God Delusion," my eyes are
finally opened. I know that my parents will be heartbroken when they hear
the news, but I can no longer pretend to believe something that I now
realize is so patently false.

I would like to extend a very personal thank-you to you, Richard, for
saving me from throwing away any more of my precious time on superstition.
Life is too wonderful to waste.

26

I was raised Jewish. When I was 16, I participated in a ceremony at my temple that celebrated the fact that we had chosen to continue our Jewish education for three years beyond our Bar/Bat Mitzvahs (many students chose not to). As part of the ceremony, we had to write essays discussing an aspect of what it meant to us to be Jewish. My essay started with, “I do not believe in a personal G-d.” [Dash included in the original] I felt connected (and I still do) to Judaism through tradition, but there was no part of me that believed that God came down and dictated the Torah to Moses. But I equivocated – I ended the essay with a vague presentation of God as the “force that makes the whole of humanity greater than the sum of its parts.” I didn’t write that because I believed it. I wrote that because here I was, trying to give my honest opinion to community members, and I feared what they would think about me. At 16, I was scared that people would judge me negatively based on my lack of belief. At 20, I’m still scared, but the only way that we can live in a world without that fear if people start to speak up. With some inspiration (and some reassuring arguments) from Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, Daniel Dennett, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, PZ Myers, and Sam Harris, I feel confident telling people that I'm an atheist. It ought not to be as radical a label as it tends to be - all it means is that I don't believe in a god. And I intend to show the world around me that there shouldn't be a negative connotation attached to that.

Thank you,
Ben

27

Richard,

I had not been to church regularly for 10 years, so I thought I was over the whole "God" idea until I read "The God Delusion." Now I remember I held on to the possibility of some energy in the air that responds to prayer. Now, I see clearly and have better arguments if someone asks me about my views on religion.

I guess I was always skeptical because when I was a teenager, I asked people in church why God made us with the inclination to sin in the first place. Of course I got a non-answer, something like "you just have to have faith."

Now I have copies of "Unweaving the Rainbow" and "The Greatest Show on Earth" I look forward to reading. Keep up the good fight!

28

Dear Professor Dawkins
I am writing to tell you that you converted me to atheism about 10 years ago. I feel loyal to my family and so i still put myself down as a hindu but I am a cultural hindu. My favourite book is the Ancestor's Tale which I enjoyed so much that I felt quite low when I got to the end of it.
Thank you for all your books.
Meera

29

I suspect that Richard would be intimately familiar with my 'Road to Damascus' being as it was the 8:15 am from Oxford to London Paddington. I finished reading 'Climbing Mount Improbable' just before entering Sonning Cutting on a bright sunny autumn morning. I felt as if a weight had been lifted from my shoulders. One of Douglas Adams' quotes: "Well that about wraps it up for God" slipped effortlessly into my mind.

I had drifted away from 'the church' because it didn't really fit with my life, but always felt a guilt as if I was going to be put on report by some cosmic Headmaster. However as I finished reading your book, I realized � no job for a creator, no job for a supreme being and no more guilt.

I took me a few more years (and some more of Richards books) before I came across the Brights and had a similar 'ahhhh'. I have never been comfortable describing myself as an Atheist. Having a label I was comfortable with was another weight off my shoulders.

I now look forward to guiding my two lovely daughters to a life of reason and scientific method for wherever their lives take them.

Iain Mason.

30

I remember in church as a kid i'd do silly things like snap my fingers in front of someone's face as they prayed or play with my toy cars in church, making as much noise as I could. What was funny was that the priest didn't go after me for the noise I made during the sermon, but the fact that I played with toy cars as a "woman" he would phrase it. I'm talking about living in Quebec though; their view of religion was a tad more sexist than the rest of the Christians in Canada.

I never took religion seriously and neither did my parents. I thought it was a game, a fairy tale actually, and it was fun for the first few years that I had believed in it with 15% of my whole heart. I made a bet with another kid in my class that I could read the entire bible in one week before he could and get into "heaven", which was to us like an endgame boss, and surely enough, I did. It was very very boring, but it was the first of few times i'd actually read it, and some of the stuff in there... it really isn't meant for a child to read. My parents had always attached images of fluffy clouds, hugs and pretty angels pampering me with Christianity, and to read some of the more PG13 rated passages in the bible, I was a little shocked. So shocked I didn't take that friend's dollar when he tried to give it to me for the bet the following week. At some point I started getting scared of all the people going to church regularly, all the old people shoving the donation basket in my face or forcing me to eat a flake of stale bread. I even sang for them, but after that week of reading the basis for this whole festival called "The hour where I waste my time sitting there listening to a half homo babbling about hippy crap", I honestly didn't want to go anymore. When my father tried to get me into the car to go to church, I remember jumping into the closet and yelling: "I'M NOT GOING TO FUCKING CHURCH!". As I heard myself say that I knew things would just get worst, as I did the most unforgivable thing, I used Fuck in the same sentence as Church. Oooooh boy!

One thing that my grade 8 teacher did right in my french religious school was introduce the lot of us to different religions, and Atheism+Agnosticism. I seperate them because obviously one is the lack of belief in the God as i've learned; can't get the definition wrong these days or an Atheist will light your eyebrows on fire. I read the definition of Atheism written by my teacher, and it said: "The art of denying the earth's creator, God." Something like that. I was about to raise my hand and ask why it didn't sound right, or why he didn't take credit for creating the universe along with that Earth, but was immediatly stopped by the assistant teacher. Damn she knew me well, and told me, "God does not forgive a disobedient child." Whatever that meant.

Long story short, that day I searched up Atheism, and got some half truths and lies about it. I didn't really know what to believe, but I did stumble upon some of the works from Carl Sagan, Mark Twain, and eventually you. I watched some videos of your interviews, and before long I really really wanted to read some of your books. Unfortunately when I did get my hands on The Selfish Gene, I didn't get it at all. Terms were too technical for a 13 year old I guess. But I got some of it, and my mom read it as well, she was nice enough to offer reading it to me and attempt to make me understand more of it, even though she was undoubtedly struggling with her own beliefs as she went on. She said she always had doubts (Even though she was abused into it, completely brainwashed and kept talking about miracles and all that BS) within maybe a month or so your book undid approx 50 years of indoctrination. I was so proud of her, it wasn't easy. We went on to reading more evidence against the existance of God on the internet. This is around the time when my Dad suddenly decided to go to latin church and dive into religion like a perv with a stash of porn.

The word "Obey" became the most hated word in my household after that. Throughout high school even up til now, my father believes all women should wear dresses, hats and gloves with long, long skirts. He thinks WEMENZ should all G0 BAK IN TEH KICHINZ N MAEK HEEM A SAMMICH, which is the best way I could express it in stupid speak. Hates any movies about sex or anything he perceives as innapropriate (He tried to stop me from going to see Ponyo recently!), was easily influenced by THE BEAUTY OF DESIGN and then the transformation was complete when he threatened to kick us all out of the house one day if we didn't convert to Christianity once again. Even though me, my mother and my brother aren't as dumb as he thought we were, he still relied on us being ignorant of our rights, about the process of divorce and all that. When I told him I would never be a christian, he threatened to call the cops, then I told him they would only charge him for wasting their time. Fancy that.

Long story short, I tried to get my dad to read, watch and be aware of the evidence against his God. What I did was take some of your books and drop them in random rooms around the house, hoping he'd take a glimpse at it in his anger against me and see the sense in your written words somehow. Well it didn't quite work, as I regret to inform you he ripped your books into shreds, or dumped them in the trash, I don't know, and then took a page out of it and threw it in my face. Something unexpected happened though as right after he did that I laughed at him, and instead of getting mad he simply smiled and said: "I probably should have read that first before ripping it apart, waste of 20 bucks on your part". It was weird but I welcomed a part of my old dad back.

So my approach to this was probably too harsh for him, but at least it was worth a few tension breaking laughs, especially when I looked at one of our credit card receipts and discovered he ordered more of your books, and reordered some of the other ones he ripped apart like Portable Atheist, God is not Great etc etc. What he plans to do with em, I have no idea. Hopefully to read, otherwise it would be a terrible waste of paper and intelligence waiting to be absorbed by a willing mind.

Oh yes, and if you or the person assigned to read horrid emails such as this one actually got to this point through my rant, I congratulate you, if not, then this was somewhat therapeutic for me. In any case, my spelling mistakes must have been an eyesore.

You are sincerely the greatest hero of these modern times, take those creationists down in the name of reason!

xo

Genevieve
Canada, Ontario

(btw I have no problems with homosexuals, just caught my church's priest eyeing up a boy one day and ever since I can't resist calling them half homos. It makes no sense I know, that guy should be arrested.)

31

Dear Richard,

You will burn for everything you have done! By "You will burn" I mean, of course, "Thank you very much."

I am only writing this because it promises to be therapeutic.

The specious worldview I grew up with wasn't a matter of faith. It was an assumption of everyday life akin to the assumption that after my present exhale of gasses and water vapor, I will indeed proceed to inhale oxygen-rich air once more.

I have befuddled myself in attempting to be reflexive. Simply put-- at present I don't feel as cornered or coerced as I did when I first started to see the elegant beauty of evolution. At times now passed I wanted naught but to chastise friends and family in the harshest language possible for telling me such harmful lies.

But I am a student in America. Despite taking huge student loans, I am still wholly dependent in my last three years of six on my father who is a Lutheran Minister.

A lot of irony could be brought into this brief email. At present I find I have many more pressing problems in life than the woefully depressing narrative of religion. It is all rubbish.

The most valuable thing you have taught me is that there are people in the world who think rationally, reason justly and don't live in subjugation to superstition. That knowledge alone makes me feel, at times, quite a bit better.

-Stephen "the onus of proof is not on me" H

32

Dear Richard,
I was a fundamentalist Christian until I read The God Delusion. Now I am an atheist
(just kidding! You'd love that, wouldn't you?). I had converted to Christianity after reading C.S.Lewis' Mere Christianity. I attended a bible college for two years and dropped out because I lost my faith. The professors could not give satisfying answers to my 'hard questions' (Praying is just thinking, isn't it? Was Yahweh surprised when Adam ate the fruit? Where did God come from?)" I became a student of Buddhism, but eventually saw no need for that path either. I was an agnostic by the time I picked up The God Delusion. You confirmed in my mind that religions are harmful, not helpful to humanity. Now reason is my rock. These days whenever I feel lost, instead of praying to an invisible friend I can breath a satisfied sigh and say "we can't know all the answers". I guess I am still an agnostic. Who can be certain there is no God? Certainly the named ones are imaginary (Yahweh, Allah, Krishna). That children's debate is resolved. And Darwin has explained the origins of species. But I have heard no satisfactory explanation for the first cause for life or the universe. This is a point of confusion. As rational being, if I must choose between two explanations - both of which require faith; "God made it" or "Science will give us all the answers" - unlike Pascal I am going to err on the side of scientific inquiry rather than kiss that jealous hothead Yahweh's ass just so I can get to heaven rather than hell. I discovered that escape from religious bondage IS Heaven!

Edward Woelke
South Korea

33

I have a background in European Literature/Philosophy. I had a brief flirtation with Faith when I was 12, mainly due to the reasoned arguments of an R.E. teacher far more learned than myself. Didn't take long for that to dissipate, and as soon as I studied at university I found some real doubts surfacing. The enlightenment philosophy sparked a raft of potential answers in me. Coming from a point of view of empirical evidence, i even acceded to Rousseau's notion of natural religion. The French existentialists further strengthened my view that Man is the master of his own destiny, thus negating the need for any external influence, fuelling the libertarian view that morals are a matter of conscience. I even subjected myself to the rancours of the Christian Union in an attempt to find answers. I found none, indeed when i challenged members of this group to justify their beliefs in a logical and rational manner, they failed. I did however meet some enlightened people who had at least thought about it and come to a conclusion. I still thought they were wrong.

However, I still had found nothing to encapsulate all the doubts I had, and satisfy me that my Agnosticism was merely a way of logically framing an inability to prove the non-existence of God. This fence-sitting has irked me for a number of years.

Thus, thank you Richard. The God Delusion has inspired me to embrace atheism. It gave me the rational and philosophical, nay scientific means to frame my non-belief and finally come out of the closet. I'd always felt this was the way I was meant to be. Now I can do so with the pride and conviction I had previously lacked. Years of intellectual wrangling are behind me and I'm all the better for it

Sincerely

Mark Fisher,

Oxford

34

Dear Mr. Dawkins,

I am not a 'convert' I was fortunate enough to have been brought up in an English working class family where reason and free thinking were ideals that were to be cherished. My father (an atheist incidentally) believed that children should not be told what to think about matters of religeon, but never pushed an atheist agenda either. I was encouraged to question and to look at the available evidence to form my own thoughts. I was allowed to grow up before making my own mind up about religeon. A lucky childhood indeed I would suggest.

I write to you now to thank you for giving me evidence to base my answers to the most idiotic of religeous claims which I delight in using when debating with a certain religeous organisation who from time to time must fancy a a bit of a challenge and knock my door for a debate about "have I ever wondered how beautiful god's world is?". I have to confess to 'stealing' some of the quotes that you use in the 'God Delusion'!

Your elequent, evidenced. rational arguments are a joy to read/watch, and you have inspired me to learn about the amazing wonders of nature (without the need for fairies!) and how their existance can be accounted for by the fact of evolution by means of natural selection. The evidence for which I have just finished reading in your new book and I have to say is a little more than compelling!

Keep up the good work you wear the title of Darwin's Rottweiler well.

You are always welcome at my home for a cup of tea sand a slice of cake should you be passing!

Yours Sincerely, and thank you again.
Dave Hadley

35

Hi there dear Richard!
All though I have never regarded myself as being a real christian, I was never convinced of the fact that there is (probably) no God; I guess I also did qualify for your category of those who have faith in the faith. After reading The God Delusion at the vulcan beaches of Santorini this summer there is virtually no room for doubts anymore. I�ve also just finished The Selfish Gene and that contributed a lot.

Thanks a lot for these fantastic and clarifying books; they certainly changed my view on life, and therefor my life as it is and "evolves" - I�m very happy for it!

Therefore, all though it might mean that I�m being "over the top" personal at to long of a distance, I regard you as a dear dear friend!

I just can�t wait for The Greatest Show on Earth!

Below is by the way my translated review of The God Delusion, as it was posted and issued by the biggest bookseller store in Norway, the Norli Bookstore. http://www.norli.no/NORLI_HTML/ibeCCtpI ... em=4981004

"Richard Dawkins is one of the world's most respected and possibly (amongst religious people) most hated scientists. He is, like most in his "industry", darwinist, in addition, he is a declared atheist, humanist and skeptic. His proposal that he will add the flat and immediately accept a divine creation, if it is presented something even close to scientific evidence of such existence, literally takes the wind out of all creationists and supporters of "intelligent design" that in the absence of credible and rational arguments claims that Dawkins himself is a fundamentalist.

"The difference between me and a fundamentalist is that my "faith" is based on irrefutable scientific facts, the religious fundamentalist is based on his faith and has since been unwavering, no matter what had to be presented by the evidence of the contrary", says Dawkins with high credibility. "The God Delusion" is a rhetorical masterpiece, and what an abundance of arguments Dawkins here have to frolic in and with! This book should be read by all who consider themselves to have an open mind and also of the religious who dares to see their religion in this relentless critical and at times very revealing light.

The book is very critical of religion in general, and Islam, Judaism and Christianity in particular. Dawkins' assessment of the religious use of hell to scare people and especially children to "devotion" can give anyone who has the ability to skeptical thinking, the creeps. A more widespread, and even in many ways socially accepted form of child abuse can hardly be imagined. The book contains many very clarifying and simple images of amazing aspects of religion; some of them are kept in the humorous description of all this self-righteousness; very often reaching the peak of absurd heights. Catholicism and its use of indulgence to get through purgatory on the right side is a highlight in this respect (price pr. day for reduced stay in this "crossroads" on the way to heaven/hell is determined by the Pope!).

Another highlight is where Dawkins mocks around with key points in the foundation of Christian faith, set against what is claimed to be true in a (according to Christian's opinion) the very obscure beliefs of a tribe in Africa. "The God Delusion" add conditions for both smile and laugh, but is deeply serious in its intent: to show that people's faith, though so strong, is not synonymous neither with the existence of God nor that religion is true, and that this belief on the contrary, proved well throughout history, have led to so much suffering that people should reconsider carefully before they confess to it. Whether it involves a marginal sect or some of the largest religions, as we know them worldwide. Read and become enlightened!"

With friendly regards
Hans-Petter Halvorsen

36

Professor Dawkins,
Thank you for all your efforts in shining the light of reason, as a beacon of hope and direction, for the world's embattled truth seekers. I count myself in that fortunate number.

My 'letting go of god and religion' story began in December of 1962 at the tender age of 9 when, despite being surrounded by religious extremism, I found myself questioning the concept of god. It was almost 46 years later, to the day, when I finally broke the spell of 'belief'. Your book "The God Delusion" played handily into this event. I was emboldened by your writings as well as the works of Carl Sagan, Christopher Hitchens, Sam Harris, Daniel Dennett, Julia Sweeney, and to a lesser extent, various others. It takes a herculean effort to dislodge oneself from a lifelong belief system, especially when said system is as completely and utterly indoctrinated into a person as was with me. I regret only that I did not escape this mental and emotional slavery at an earlier age.

I recall, as a young boy, the terrible nightmares I would have wherein I and my siblings were burning in hellfire. A hellfire that was described quite graphically by my religious instructors. As I mentioned earlier I first questioned the concept of god, when at the age of 9 I found myself in circumstances that were at odds with the picture of the loving benevolent god my parents first taught me about. Later, at the age of 19 I rebelled and participated in some sophmoric blasphemic behaviour, but the concept of a world without a god still eluded me. That mental handicap has cost me dearly. Many are decision I would have handled differently had I been free to see the world as it really is. How many were the time when I would forego my own happiness because of a superstition.

I sought refuge in drugs during my 20's & early 30's to quiet the turmoil inside. Of course drugs, by their very nature, make a poor substitute for the truth. The drugs went by the wayside, yet still I couldn't bring myself to cast off the beliefs that were harming me. It wasn't until the ripe age of 55 that I finally squared off and faced the demon of unsubstantiated belief. I had begun reading your book a few weeks earlier, and found myself viewing videos and reading books by your contemporaries. I was extremely depressed and nearly suicidal at moments. It's a sad and scary thing to discover that you've been wrong your entire life. I think I was also a little raw from having ripped away the security blanket of believing in god. Now I had to examine my life as something that I alone was responsible for.

The days since this past December have gotten gradually better. I have gotten better. I try not to spend to much time in regret, but rather to make the most of the days I have left. I am most grateful to you and others like you, for helping me to awaken to life -not as I might wish it- but as it truly is. This adventure is so much richer and fulfilling than any religious fantasy could ever be. I don't take a single day for granted now. I am coming alive!

Your most grateful reader (and fan),
Mr. Harold E. Taylor

37

Dear Dr. Dawkins,
I was always skeptical of religious superstition, but it wasn't until I came across your Militant Atheism speech that my atheism has taken shape. You have given me the language, the colors, the tools to take my thoughts about the truth and life to a different level. It is to you whom I am grateful for this.
I grew up as a Sunni Muslim, or rather my society has given me that label. I tried to be a good Muslim, but failed, luckily. I have always detected the lies and the illogic in it. I was just afraid of losing friends, family and the simple happy life I had. That is exactly why your Militant Atheism speech was a wake up call for me.
I dispise religion now for it made me hate myself. As a homosexual, my needs and thoughts clashed. I sincerely tried to be a good Muslim, and for that I had to give up something very precious. I hated myself and naively believed that I was sick and needed "fixing". God offered no explanation, no justification. He simply hated homosexuality yet he is its creator. I saw the myriad of fallacies and illogic in the reasoning of the almighty and finally realized that his Light is just too bright for me. I started, for the first time, actually, God forbids, loving myself.
Thanks to you Mr. dawkins, I am now determined to fight faith and expose religion and show how it has hijacked our deepest desires to be good.

38

Dear Dr. Dawkins,

I'm a 20 year old college student at James Madison University. For a great number of years I had been a weak agnostic. But upon reading "The God Delusion" twice, I now consider myself a true atheist. Your arguments in the book are so well done that its difficult to argue against them.

There was recently an evangelical on my campus so I tried to debate his position, needless to say, it did not work. I did however, get him to autograph "The God Delusion." I love the irony there, and I hope you would too. I have pictures if you would like

39

Dear Richard,

I was brought up in a Christian household and was given the usual rites of passage, Christened (don't blame me I was only 6 months old.) dragged to church and forced to go to the hated Sunday school. When I finally escaped this was when I went to secondary school, and met the best teacher in the place, an RE teacher who showed the class ALL the alternative religions and more importantly the alternatives TO religion!

Being a lover of science I read "The Origin of Species", I studied the formation of galaxies, planets and life. I was lucky that the science department at school had fantastic teachers and as good a library, The debates in RE were most lively, and yet always student led, the teacher merely suggesting topics.

So I thought about my position, and announced that I would not be going to the arranged confirmation ser vice at the local church. Oh dear me, that row at home measured on the Richter scale, my modern and forward thinking Mum told me I was an idiot who, at 15 yrs of age did not know my own mind. Luck was on my side again as my Granddad, an engineer and long time atheist told my Mum to let me make my own decisions. (My granddad died of cancer 22 years ago on his last day he told the hospital chaplain to "Sod off, and peddle his lies to the cretins in the loony ward!" He was never very pc as you might guess.

The ironic twist to this is that my niece told the family she had decided to be confirmed into the church at the age of 12 yrs, this was met with much approval, mostly from my Mum, did I resist flagging up the notion that at 12 she knew less of her mind than I did? Did I resist mentioning that when family members fall into line and follow the religious path hen its OK? I did resist, for about 10 nanoseconds!!

So, Richard your comments in "The God Delusion" about Christian children or Muslim Children struck a chord with me, and a campaign to stop the practice of indoctrination of our children by ANY religion should be mounted, we should stop religious services in school and stop "faith" schools. But lets employ teams of modern "Mr Robinsons, my old RE teachers to give the CHILD the choice, my friend has a son his RE teacher is a pagan and she is doing exactly what my RE teacher did, putting ALL the information and facts before the students, and giving the CHOICES TO THE CHILDREN.

My best wishes to you, and keep up the good work!
Andrew Humphreys-Penlington LLB(hons)

40

Dear Professor Dawkins,

It is to my ABSOLUTE pleasure that for the first time i am publicly expressing my newfound (thanks to you) more aggressive attitude on the fact that i do not believe in god. I am a 15 year old Australian who is very tired of seeing what you have to go through in interviews. Obviously the Christians like Bill O'reilly don't know what they're up against when they use the same arguments about Hitler, Stalin and the strength of emotions over and over again. Your lectures are phenomenal. they explain things exactly, yet people who show no evidence for obvious lies get annoyed when you show no evidence for obvious fact and rhetorical questions for which evidence is unnecessary. Although i have never really been religious since i was about seven, it was only towards the end of last year when my inability to believe in god was changed from a strange and hazy mystery into an explanation as to why. It's so simple- it's a stone-aged lie.

Yours TRULY, Anonymous

Brisbane, Queensland

41

Dear Richard Dawkins,
Thank you for converts corner, but I think it should be reconverted corner since we are born without religion and then forced as children to act as if we believe Mom and Dad's brand of nonsense.

Phillip Carroll,
San Antonio, TX

42

Hi Richard,

I had finished reading your book "The God Delusion" earlier this year having seen your appearance on "The Panel" on Irish TV. I have picked up the book for a second time and I am in the process of reading it again. Only this time I am armed with a dictionary and some marking tape. The book has opened my eyes to the "Delusion" that I have been under all my life with Roman Catholism. It has spurned me on to watching your many debates, TV appearances, presentations and interviews on the internet. I have also joined your Web Site where I saw an interesting submission by Isobel Cook.

I have passed on my story to Isobel in the hope that she may have an interest in highlighting my conversion from RC to Atheism because of your book, on her TV Programme.

Thank you Richard. (There was a time where I would have thrown in a "An God Bless you too" but I think I'll leave that out.

Warm regards,

Miche�l

43

For many years I was a victim of religious child abuse without realizing and it took me a long time to be able to escape from the psychological terrorism of the catholic church.

Now a days I'm an animation filmmaker and visual storyteller, recently I started to work on a little personal project about overcoming the fear of hell. It evolved into a sweet non-religious book about tolerance and more than anything it helped me heal some scars from my childhood days.

I thought I would keep that little project to myself but all that changed after reading "the God Delusion". The moment I read the chapter on child abuse I became determined to share the little fable to the world. The book is "I'm not a little Devil", part of what I hope will become a storytelling movement that explores the negative consequences that religion has on young kids. So far the response has been very positive, I wanted to thank you guys to inspire me to put this tale out to the world and I hope you help me spread the word of it. A future world with no religion is in the hands of children, I definitely hope this book contributes to that change.
Rodrigo
www.nodevils.com

44

Dr. Dawkins,

Your goal in writing The God Delusion was to persuade people who are on the fence to become Atheists. I can assure you that you have succeeded in doing so. I was one of those people who was unsure of my position and afraid to voice my opinion. Raised in a Catholic family, I kept my views and opinions to myself for fear that I would not be able to clearly and successfully explain myself if challenged. Your book, as well as your various interviews and documentaries, have given me the clear, irrefutable evidence to confidently and proudly call myself an Atheist. With a degree in Biology, your arguments against religion in terms of Darwinian evolution make complete and total sense to me. Thank you for all that you have done as a defender of science and a challenger to religion.

Shannon

45

As a child growing in a christian home, going to a christian church, and forced to go to a christian school I considered myself a "Christian". I was told that the reason God existed was because of "miracles" like the body, the sun or whatever. Even as a child I was always rebellious of my upbringing and questioned religion, I didn't consider the body as an evidence of God.. The body has a reasonable logical explanation for how it works. When I was in 7th grade, during science class (I was still and am in christian school) my teacher told us to wright why we believed in creation over evolution. In mine I said that God was cruel and thinks murder is fine if you do it as a flood, and that natural process is an answer of life and has all the evidence while creation has no evidence. My grade on that paper was a 20%, I had to visit the principles office, I had to spend lunches with the teachers and my mom was so embarrassed of me.

At the age of 14 I was in 8th grade and I was told for bible class to wright my testimony. I confronted my teacher and asked in a nice tone "I think I am having problems with my faith and am going through a rough time and the testimony I right will probably not be from a 100% christian standpoint". He replied "well that will effect your grade". I wrote basically what I believed, that creation has no evidence and it does not deserve to be believed in, this of course was the "what you believe in" section considering it was a life "testimony".

I decided that I never believed in Christianity and think that it was cruel for my mom to make me, it was damaging and took me years to get it out of my disease. Religion is a virus and Christians goal is to prolong the virus as long as possible till you have no logic.

46

Richard,

Hello...I was raised next door to an Anglican church in Barbados. I went to church every week; I even attended the other events at church. My whole family are very religious to the core. My wife of 15 years is/ was very religious. I guess I was too. I would read the bible daily and would also read many so-called writing by theologians. Some of the events and stories just did not make sense...I mean they just started to seem imagined. Then one day when I started asking myself some questions: Could men have made up these stories? Would a god kill and have others kill in his name? Would a god that is no respect of person; choose a favorite people? Would a loving god give a doctrine that have so many interpretations? Does a god have to communicate to people through a book? Could there have been a virgin birth? Would god want you to leave your family? Would a loving god sentence anyone to eternal flames? Why would most of the great men of god be some of the worst people? There are many more but you get the point. Then I started to look at the manifestation of the belief on the body of believers. That literally scared me because what I saw was a false belief. I saw that they did not truly did not believe what they said they believed. The Muslims are willing to die for what they believe...are Christians? When I look at the history of religion and it's leaders...I see myopic, misogynistic, ego driven hypocrites and even murderers. This is in the old church as well as the new world order of churches. The breaking point for me was the hearing from god ruse. In the Hebrew text many prophets heard from god about talking land and killing in his name. Even in the Greek text it speaks of wars and killing in god's name also. Are there two separate gods? one good and one bad? I heard people say god told me to build a church, he told me to gather the people, he told me to preach this sermon, he even told me what do buy...the same as the people of the Hebrew text. There was a guy recently the cut his right arm off and said, "god told him to do it." Many people came out and said he was crazy. What makes what he did any different than the other believers that hear from god? In my opinion--nothing! So in conclusion, it has been a process...a learning process. I think Abe Lincoln had it right when he said, "It will not do to investigate the subject of religion too closely, as it is apt to lead to infidelity." I did such and that's where it led, but I am now living life to the fullest not expecting another. Valuing my family, my friends, and all things around me. Not saying that I could not do this before but now my family is most important.

47

Dear Professor Dawkins,

I wanted to write to you to express my gratitude for clearly explaining and laying out the arguments against religion and for atheism. I was raised Roman Catholic, became an Evangelical Christian, have many friends of both religions, and a few Mormons too. Over the years, I've teetered between strong faith and a sort of disillusionment with religions, in general. I felt guilty for many things more often than I could ever hope to count, because of their 'sinful' nature. I've also had experiences where I've convinced myself that I truly felt a sort of supernatural presence. However, even at those times, I was skeptical of the sincerity of those experiences. I also wondered if I was the only person with those sort of doubts. One of the biggest hurdles that prevented me from leaving religion openly was a distaste of the evolutionary theory, probably from a basic misunderstanding of its nature. Combining with what I have studied of the sciences, your writings on evolution have helped me to understand how small mutations, repeated over geological scales of time, can lead to the world we live in today. I understand that these ideas aren't all your own. However, you have cast a light upon them that I am truly grateful for. With the understanding that you've surely heard many stories more compelling than my own, I will conclude my thoughts. Again, I wanted to say thank you for showing me the merits of 'deconversion.'

-Best wishes,

-Brian Roche (Burnsville, MN, USA)

48

Dear Professor Dawkins,

I was not converted by "The God Delusion", but I was radicalized!

I have been privileged enough to enjoy 53 years of what Jonathan Miller once called "thoughtless disbelief". What a luxury it has been. For most of my life the belief or disbelief in God never really mattered.

All that changed with 9/11. Like you, I am starting to realize the value of what I have, and that it might be under threat.

Thanks for the wake- up call.

Richard Oakes

49

Dear Mr. Dawkins
I'm 15 years old and i as well as many others consider myself a convert. I was brought up Christian but not as harshly as many others so i guess my childhood indoctrination was unsuccessful.I have read your book "The God Delusion" and loved every word of it. I am a firm believer that evolution is the only theory that can explain why we are here. I'm glad i was set free from the vice of religion by your book. Thank you Mr. Dawkins for all you have done.

Adam
Dillon Colorado

50

Dear Mr. Dawkins,
Just wanted to tell you that I never really believed in any of the religious crap that was fed to me. I was raised catholic in a small New England town and went through the whole rigor-moral (baptism as a baby, first communion at 7, and finally confirmation at 16), but I knew from an extremely early age that it was all a crock. Anytime I would vocalize my disbelief I would be screamed at and squelched....but I knew what was real.

It's partly why I became a scientist and engineer.

Thank you (and Mr. Darwin) for ALL of your literature and insights. I have read most of your books and have watched many of your videos.

Take care, and long life to you...and remember, no death-bed conversions! :-)

Tom E.