"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.
Dear Dr. Dawkins,
5 years ago I picked up your book The God Delusion. I credit this book as what set me free from Christianity, and sent me on a road to recovery from anxiety and depression. I can't thank you enough. I no longer feel oppressed, worthless, and guilty. Every day is exciting as...
Dr. Dawkins...
I can only begin to detail how appreciative I am of your efforts to support science education, rationality, and reason. Your books and interviews (along with those of Harris, Coyne, and Hitchens) were of paramount importance to my "de-conversion".
I was raised in the ultimate, solipsistic...
Thanks Richard for giving my consciousness a good shake and pushing me over the line to becoming a fully fledged atheist. I'm a former Catholic raised in Ireland and found it hard to break free from the dogma drilled into me from an early age. I read The God Delusion and this was the catalyst to...
Dear Dr. Dawkins,
I am a professor of history. I am an atheist and I could never have been happier.
I spent much of my life struggling with the issue of faith. I was only honest with myself when evidence for life without the supernatural was before me. Even as a historian, a discipline founded on research and...
Dear Professor Richard Dawkins.
I was a flying horse believer, But now I am an Atheist, It all started when I failed in my first IELTS exam, So I took a course with foreign teacher and he was a very good man in fact he was way too polite, And in the last class I accidentally know that he was an atheist. So I wondered how could...
Dear Richard Dawkins
Thank you so much for all the great thoughts you have brought. I've now been an Atheist for 6 months, I've never been happier and I feel so much more free. I use to be Mormon, my screen name on richarddawkins.net is actually ExMormon. I was a strong believer in God and Mormonism, I believed it to...
Dear Dr. Richard Dawkins,
I was raised as a Muslim in Egypt. Since i was 8 years old, i had too many questions
like why i'm not born christian?, or why the pagans should have believed Muhammad
and accepted his message without enough evidence? and many other questions, but i was told that...
My name is Ceara Collins. I am a Diagnostic Radiographer from Australia.
I was raised a Catholic, studying at Catholic Schools all my life.
I always thought the stories we were told were questionable but when you are not exposed to other information, you just tend to believe.
When I got to...
Mr. Dawkins,
Hello Mr. Dawkins,
I'm not sure if you will ever read this, or if I'm talking to a random person browsing the website.
I'm 16 years old on the East Coast of America, and I would like you to know how inspirational you are to me. I am a Non-Theist, and I follow the philosophical BASIC...
Dear Mr. Dawkins,
I feel compelled to write this letter, Mr. Dawkins, because I admire you. I come from a family of very devout Christians and I have denounced any faith that I have felt. I would claim to be atheistic. I have done this recently at the age of 14 which, frankly, is unheard of in the deep south of...
Dearest Dawkins (and whoever is actually...
On my seventh Christmas Eve as an inhabitant of God’s green earth, I made Santa Claus a wooden ornament and left it by the cookies. Why I thought Santa could make use of an ornament modeled after a cartoon-version of his self, I do not know. Yes, thinking back, it was not a very practical gift....
Dear Prof. Dawkins
I trust this message finds you well.
After having read your inspiring book 'The God Delusion' - and watched several of your interviews online), I felt compelled to get actively involved in discussions with like-minded people, who are not satisfied with the minimum information we ordinarily...