1. Reading of The God Delusion in Lynchburg, VA

Comment #12358 by Garbonzo on December 11, 2006 at 3:41 pm

I just began reading your book "The God Delusion" (through chapter 4) and came to your website out of curiosity and ran across this video Q&A you had with regards to the book.

I must say, I was extremely dissapointed by the quality of questions coming from the audience. I have only read less than a third of your book, and I knew the exact answer you were going to give to almost every single question. I'm curious as to what your thoughts are on the quality of college education here in America? Is no one able to absorb anything that they read and form new unanswered questions to further extend the discussion you have started with your book?

Along these lines, a question I have is in regards to the origin of religion itself. The book "Guns, Germs, and Steel" by Jared Diamond touched briefly on religion being a necessity in order for smaller civilizations to evolve into a larger metropolis. Religion had to be used to maintain control over large populations. Could the development of religion itself be part of societal evolution in that civilization cannot advance without the collective control over populations provided by religion?