Outgrowing God: A Beginner's Guide

Should we believe in God? In Outgrowing God, written for a new generation of thinkers, the brilliant author of The God Delusion and The Selfish Gene explains why we shouldn't. Richard Dawkins was fifteen when he stopped believing in God. Deeply impressed by the beauty and complexity of living things, he felt certain they must have had a designer. Learning about evolution changed his mind. Now one of the world's best and bestselling science communicators, Dawkins has given readers, young and old, the same opportunity to rethink the big questions. In twelve fiercely funny, mind-expanding chapters, Dawkins explains how the natural world arose without a designer—the improbability and beauty of the "bottom-up programming" that engineers an embryo or a flock of starlings—and challenges head-on some of the most basic assumptions made by the world's religions: Do you believe in God? Which one? Is the Bible a "Good Book"? Is adhering to a religion necessary, or even likely, to make people good to each other? Dissecting everything from Abraham's abuse of Isaac to the construction of a snowflake, Outgrowing God, is a concise, provocative guide to thinking for yourself.