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 Prof Dawkins,

I am celebrating 10 years of being a happy atheist this year. Reading through the stories of other converts here, as well as talking to other atheists in my circle of friends, I am amazed at how similar everybody's testimony is.

My parents are missionaries in an extremely conservative mission here in South Africa, and my two brothers and I were brought up pretty much with a literal interpretation of the Bible. Every school holiday we went to Christian camps, which meant that my brothers and I were probably the only pupils in our school NOT looking forward to school holidays. My earliest memories of these camps were of four services per day, indoctrination, fear, hell, guilt, horribly boring hymns, and then subdued mass hysteria as, at the end of each camp, we were encouraged (some would say coaxed) to witness about what the Lord had done for us during the past few days.

One particularly memorable incident at such a camp was when my one brother and I were playing chess (we are both avid chess players and were school and university champions), probably the only intelligent activity at one of these camps. Anyway, a very kind old lady, no doubt with pure intentions, walked up to us, put her arm like a loving grandmother around my shoulders and asked: "What does check mate mean?" I replied: "The king is dead". Then she asked: "Is the king of your heart dead?" At the time I was, what one could call, burning for Jesus, so I assumed this was her way of starting a pious conversation about the love of Jesus and all those nice things, so I replied: "No, he's not", and she retorted: "Then you won't play chess, because every time you say check mate, you say that Jesus is dead". I was dumbfounded, and pointed out to her that that check mate really means that my opponent's king, and not mine, is dead, but that made no difference to her. That was my first experience of how religion can turn one irrational. Another colleague my parents believes she is married to Jesus, and she is considered extremely pious for that. Nevertheless, I carried on believing, but I was never really convinced. Something of religion didn't make sense to me. I was always very interested in science (especially astronomy), and for starters religion does not gel with astronomy, especially when it comes to the age of the earth and the universe. Despite that, I slaved on, hoping that one day the Holy Ghost would also speak to me, and that I would be sanctified (which loosely means something like you'll never become angry again). That also didn't happen. Nowadays I find the concept of a holy ghost somewhat ridiculous.

Then I went to university, and eventually starting dating a girl, with whom I experienced the most important thing up to that age, losing my virginity. Because of my religious upbringing, I was, however, overcome with guilt. The next day a bee was circling around my head (I am mortally allergic to bee stings) and I saw that as God's way of expressing his disgust at what I've done. It didn't stop me from having sex, though, which, today, I see as a sign that the urge and need to leave progeny is much stronger than religious convictions and insanity. However, the most insane thing I did, and which I feel bad about up to this day, is that I eventually broke up with this poor girl, because I started looking for a job and needed God's help, and God won't help a fornicator find a job. I'll die feeling stupid every time I think about it. But worse, it was a long time before I had sex again after that.

Anyway, I carried on believing, but never with that complete conviction that I was told to have. Then, at the end of 1999 I got a job in Brazil. It was a once in a lifetime chance and actually set the course of my career since then. For one thing, I was out of the clutches of my parents' mission. One day, a couple of months after moving to Sao Paulo, I sat on my balcony with a cup of coffee and had an epiphany about religion that I will never forget and told myself: "This is just rubbish", and that put me on the irreversible path to being a devout and outspoken atheist nowadays. I didn't immediately turn my back on religion, though, I tried to fight off my nagging and increasing disbelief, but there was no turning back.

It had struck me before that religion promises people a life after death, and that this relief knowing that you will survive you own death is what grabbed people, and was being exploited to the full by religion. Hell was a place to fear, and heaven a place to long for. I remember having sleepless nights thinking about a dear gay friend of mine that would burn in hell one day. When this realisation about selling life after death dawned on me, further realisations happened. I was suddenly at a loss when I realised that, having no god to forgive me, I was ultimately responsible for my own actions. That huge responsibility, and wondering where to look for guidance, was extremely daunting. In conversations with other atheists, and reading several books, I was struck by the fact that all of us face that dilemma. I did miss the calm that religion offered in times of crisis. In subsequent years, especially after learning about evolution, I have however come to realise that science does provide a perfect and better substitute. Knowing that death is part of evolution, because we shouldn't compete against our offspring for scarce resources, gives me complete assurance and peace about death. I therefore disagree strongly from Karen Armstrong that science cannot provide consolation. It can and it does.

I am therefore, I think, one of a group of atheists that came to the conclusion that there is no god solely based on my own reasoning. However, a few things spurred me into action around 3 years ago, and here I have to go back to sex. My then girlfriend decided to become religious, and told me that we had to stop having sex. This made no sense to me at all, although I knew that from a religious perspective she was right. But since I see the prohibition on sex imposed by religions as completely ridiculous, and all the supposed advantages of waiting until you are married as devoid of any reason, I could not accept this change in status quo. That was when I started reading Sam Harris's End of Faith and started to realise the real impact of religion on society. I have always resented the wasted opportunities we had as a result of my parents' decision to live in faith, but I started to realise that religion is a pernicious lie with a horrible grip on humanity. I started reading books by Stenger and Hitchens as well, and started to gather arguments that I could use against Christians in conversations. I only read the God Delusion in 2009 and that was a further eye opener.

However, I do not want to thank you only for opening my eyes to atheism, but indeed to evolution. I have read both The Greatest Show on Earth, and Jerry Coyne's Why Evolution is True, and have just finished listening to your recording of The Origin of Species. I find evolution such a perfect theory, there is almost a poetic beauty to it. It is so simple and elegant. I can now hold my own in conversations with Christians about evolution, yet I never fail to be stumped by their counter arguments. Not because they are scientifically wrong, but because they are just no brainers. Recently I was told that I make evolution fit my beliefs because I desperately want to believe there is no god. This was coming from an engineer that I thought I could engage with in meaningful conversation. I must admit, I didn't know what to say, and just gave up. It is just impossible to reason with those who refuse to look at the facts.

I want to end with a final story involving sex. I do not want to sound like a pervert, but, as I said before, religion's obsession with sex is truly astonishing and no Christian could ever explain to me how not having sex before you get married makes any difference to the marriage itself. They don't make such a fuss about any other "sin". You don't see sermons about "Why we should not murder", but topics on "Why sex is wrong" go up on church billboards every Sunday. While living in Brazil, I became friends with an evangelical Christian girl. There was a strong attraction and one night she came over to my apartment basically begging me to have sex with her. When I asked her how she could reconcile this with her religion, she replied that God had promised her a husband, but he hasn't delivered on his promise, and she has needs which God clearly wasn't considering in his grand but hidden plan for her. Therefore she asked God for forgiveness in advance for what she wanted me to do. Needless to say, with forgiveness having been obtained in advance, I had to oblige.

Kind regards,

Emile Myburgh

South Africa

2

Dear Professor Dawkins

Allow me to introduce myself, I was born and raised in Karachi, Pakistan in a Catholic household (it may come as a shock to some people but there are people of other faiths living in Pakistan). Religion is pretty big in Pakistan and it's how we identify ourselves here. If you are an atheist in Pakistan, you are probably in the wrong place (which is one of the reasons I got out of there, not that you need many). As a Catholic boy, I did all the normal things that Catholic boys do; I attended Mass, prayed at home with my family, read the Bible, was an altar boy (was not molested) etc. During my youth and young adult life, I had faith. I spoke to 'God' all the time asking him for signs and advice and favours. To me there was a God just as sure as there was the sun in the sky. I had even convinced myself that Jesus was the son of this god.

What started me on the road to atheism (and enlightenment) was the Danish cartoon controversy. The Muslims were making a big fuss about them in early and I was curious to know why. In my attempt to view the cartoons that had apparently upset 1.4 billion Muslims, I stumbled on to the Faith Freedom International web site (it was not banned at the time in Pakistan). Here I found much more than just the cartoons. The next few weeks I spent hours on their web site reading about Islam and its Prophet. Although the web site focused on tearing down Islam, I could see that some of its very convincing arguments could just as easily be used against Christianity. This made me skeptical yet I persisted in my belief in God.

And then I read "The God Delusion" (surprisingly it was available in a bookstore in Karachi). Evolution was not a problem for me; I could see that it made perfect sense when I was introduced to the idea in primary school I had simply thought that God had started evolution. (We were however not taught about evolution in school so I'm currently filling in that gap with your book "The Greatest Show on Earth"). What your book – The God Delusion – did was to force me to examine my beliefs and the reasons why I held on to them so desperately. It gave me the courage to finally let them go. It wasn't easy; I remember lying in bed one night and contemplating the universe without God. I felt that by my unbelief, the laws of physics would go into abeyance and I would fall through my bed and the Earth itself. I guess that's the sort of feeling you get when your illusions are shattered and when you come to the realization that what you believe has no bearing on the truth. It makes you feel insignificant. This may be the reason why so many people still cling to their illusions; I want to thank you for shattering mine.

I enjoy being a skeptic, a non-believer, an atheist, a freethinker (we really need to get a word we can all agree on). I find it liberating not feeling guilty about missing church on Sundays and not having some mind-police auditing my thoughts. It's true what they say about Catholics carrying around a lot of guilt; it was a pleasure getting rid of mine. I hope for a world where religion is but a distant memory. Through your efforts and those of many like-minded individuals, that dream may come to fruition.

Keep up the good work.

Yours sincerely,

A Pakistani Atheist

3

Dear Professor Dawkins,
I've considered the theory of evolution to be true since I first learned about it. It made perfect sense to me, and I saw no alternative explanation that was satisfactory. Equally important was the fact that I saw no contradiction between evolution and the Bible. It wasn't until recently, when I, fresh from reading 'The Greatest Show on Earth,' was debating evolution with a Southern Baptist who was a Young-Earth Creationist, that I really lost my religion, though I had been doubting for many years. The creationist in question made the fatal mistake of demonstrating, beyond my ability to refute it, that Christianity and evolution are completely incompatible. Faced with the choice between Christianity and evolution, I was forced to choose the latter. Having rejected Christianity, the religion I was raised in, it was easy for me to reject other religions just as easily. It was the first time that I asked myself, "Why do I believe in God?" I could not produce a satisfactory reason. In that moment, I realized that I was an atheist, and probably had been for a while. It was only by reading and discussing your books that I came to terms with my own atheism. I sometimes wish that gods exist, and I usually wish that there was an afterlife, but then I also wish that I could be a wizard and go to Hogwarts.
Thank you for your enlightening books, Dr. Dawkins. I'll always be grateful to you, and I hope to meet you someday.

4

Dear Professor,

I am but a tiny speck of atheist sand in the middle of an extremely conservative town in the northern area of Virginia. Camouflage and Sunday church are the only things that happen around here, so to be a person that despises both is a little disconcerting to others. For a while, I was silent about my views, and would even go to Bible camps and Sunday schools. I felt like a hypocrite; well, simply put, I was one. I was terribly afraid of being the black sheep in a town of so few. Clearly being one of few targets but a greater bounty on my head. Something happened though, something clicked. I wasn't as afraid of being different, I was liberated from ages of Christianized oppression.

At first I was not a devout atheist, well I wasn't even a devout agnostic. I was simply a person walking around asking "too many questions for my own good" in regards to religion. My urge for answers did not falter. I pressed my luck with every preacher, adult, and teacher alike. Most gave me vicious looks, many treated me different afterwards. This taught me one of the true offspring of religion: prejudice. Was it not prejudice that fed the Holocaust? Was it not prejudice that enslaved the African-American people? Everyone in and out of the religious rank is enslaved; you are either in or out. It took a little while to get used to being in the outgroup.

Each consecutive year I grew more fond of my own abilities of a person, and concentrated less on the "acts" of a "god". By freshman year of high school I was completely over any aspect of religion. To me, it was only about never being good enough, and belittling yourself to a deity on an altar. I grew sick of being associated with such hypocrisy and finally took my stance as an agnostic. I suppose I originally used the word agnostic simply because it is a "softer" term than atheist, and for some reason people perceive it as not being as "terrible" as atheism.

Receiving your book as a Christmas (oh, the irony) present was perhaps the best present I've gotten in a while. With each page, I grew a little more sure of myself, and was able to walk out a complete and headstrong person in my faith, or lack thereof. You provided the "atheist baptism" that I needed, and I thank you. Your book is one of two weapons I thrust at friends who are blinded, or share with friends with similar beliefs. Your book, and the genius of Bill Maher's "Religulous" helped me to stand against the painfully blind believers, and aide me in combating the atrocity of religion.

I felt the need to write this, not only to have a chance to share my story with you, a great idol and hero of mine, but to allow others to see how liberating agnosticism and atheism can be. As a side note, I want to go to Oxford University to study Psychology, and I also plan to dabble with The Sciences, and nothing would make me happier than to have you as my professor. I look forward to the possibility of being taught by you, and if not, at least by your books.

Most Sincerely,

Wesley

5

Dear professor,
First of all, i 'd like to apologize in advance for my English, as i am not a native english speaker.
I am an Egyptian freshly graduated physician, I am 24, female, raised as a muslim.

I have never thought of my self as a spiritual person, I have always believed in science, and i was always fascinated by molecular biology and cytology. and about how the human body works.

My religion was always running parallel to science, always there, i never tried to look for the contradiction between the Quran and Science, i believed in evolution, and in the big bang but i never saw how that would make me not believe in God, or why does that contradicted the presence of God or may be i was afraid to think that, because i knew according to my mind set that i only believe in scientific facts.

In the Islamic world, the Quran and Sunna are taboo, we all believe beyound doubt that the Quran is literally the words of God. and that Muhammed is a holy man who can make no mistakes. so if there is something in the Quran that didn't make sense, or contradicts the known scientific facts we always doubt our selves, and lie to our selves, and assume that we don't get it because we are not wise enough, or open minded enough, or spiritual enough, and that one day we 'll get the point.

Then luckily one day, i read this book about Arabs before the Islam, and the begining of Mohammed's prophecy, and another book that mentioned lots of historic facts about the collection of the Quran. and the taboo was broken, i could see how the Quran is just the words of a man who lived among certain people and spoke their language, nothing is special there, nothing is holy, and i started seeing the Quran from a whole new prospective, and i could see clearly the defects, the contradictions, the mistakes in garmmer, the scientific and historic falacies, the rediculus ways of Imams and Shieks to bend the truth, and find excuses and unreasonable explanations.

I have to admit that i ve always seen someof those things, but it was the first time to not try and justify them.
After that, i read your book, The God Delusion. i luckily found an arabic translation. it was a great experience. a reasonable explanation for all the issues i couldn't explain, and your book also changed my prospective about how harmful religions can be when people take them seriously and take the words literally.

Before reading your book, i though that some people need to believe there is a God in order to behave in a certain way. buti now i know that what people need is a solid law that prevents them from stepping over the rights of another human being, and as long as religions exists some people will find it okay to kill another human being in the name of God.

I have to say that now i am very comfortable with where i am, i feel more honset with my self, i finally got rid of this fog arround my brain, the fog that prevented me from seeing the beauty of the universe and enjoy a guilt free life, and do the good because i am good not because i am afraid of punishment or want a reward. but i also have to say that i can't come out of the closet, i have to still pretend i am a muslim, because where i live people aren't free to say who they really are, i have to live with a double personality if i dont want a crazy person slitting my throat in the name of "Allah", or my family cursing me and boycotting me for crossing over to the camp of "Kuffar" and just hope that oneday this will change, although i doubt it.

Lastly i would like to thank you professor for helping in changing my life and my future, and giving me the courage to admit to my self what i was a always afraid to admit.

Regards,
newathiestdoctor.

6

Dear Prof. Dawkins.

I can thank you directly for removing my agnosticism, which was bordering on semi- belief at times. You have very much changed my mindset permenantly.
Without bleating on about my life story, I'll condense it a bit by saying that I was essentially suicidal for most of my childhood, due to abusive parents. The abuse was of the psychological kind, which I believe is criminally under-acknowledged, in favour of the stereotypical sexual abuse by males. I am still trying to rescue my two brothers from that same situation, and the social workers don't give two shits. Hopefully times will change.
There wasn't actually any religion involved in the abuse, but my mother 'raised' me in such a way that if there were to be a sudden revoke of law, I would without hesitation travel down there and...you get the idea. Imagine the nurse in the film: 'One flew over the cuckoos nest', but infinately more sinister.
I still hold a huge amount of baggage, and having left the household 3 months ago, I am undergoing heavy psychological 'decompression', as I release 20 years of repressed emotions.

Religion enters the picture because I had a refuge, in the form of my grand parents. Most of my childhood memories involve the few times I was with my grandparents, because I have repressed most of the rest. They were both christians, but of a very endearing kind. Highly intelligent, they did their believing mostly in private, and were never the type to be seen singing the loudest. I was raised with bible stories, and church-going. It was never forced, and certainly not the child abuse that is the norm for evangelical parents.
The trouble was, I didn't believe it. But nonetheless I suffered the paranoia about hell, and the punishment for my borderline atheism. I was besotted with my grand parents, and struggled to reconcile my disbelief, with their strong faith. Basic logic dictated that either I was going to hell, or they were deluded. Neither was a comfortable thought.
They died, and being my only protectors, I wanted to kill myself every day from age 16-21. My mental hell was linked in with the semi-belief. I would cry out to god often, and reached my lowest point when I just sobbed away, crying out to my grandmother, who had recently died. I thought that I was being punished for something, or that God was in control of my life. About a year later, I read the God delusion.

I wasn't really impacted by the argument against god's existence, but it was the plentiful social commentary (that sounds derogatory....it is an extremely well written book!!) which stirred something in me, and awakened an interest in anthropology. From there, it's a case of putting 2+2 together, and it is so blatently obvious that religion is a (necessary?) social construct, male concieved and male benefitting.

I am probably not the best advert for atheism, still in a state of depression as I recover from a lifetime of abuse. The depression results in nihilism at times. Christians would love to quote-mine me, I'm sure.
But without doubt, I can thank the God delusion for emptying my mind of unnecessary guilt (for 'sins' such as lust), and the terror of going to hell has mostly left me. By FAR the single biggest benefit, is that I no longer feel a helpless victim of 'fate' - I am in control of my own life. That will have a very positive effect on my future.

Keep up all you are doing, I genuinely believe that you are a significant figure in changing medieval attitudes, and highlighting bullshit for what it is!!

Thanks,

Rich

7

Dear Professor Dawkins:

I just want you to know that you greatly inspired me to expand my knowledge and understanding about the world, and to be proud and not afraid to be an atheist, and to be supportive of other agnostics, atheists and doubters.
Before reading your books, I was a completely socially phobic and absolutely introverted, milquetoast atheist. After reading several of your books, I became a totally radicalized activist, most particularly because of The God Delusion.
I am still very shy and find it difficult to be an atheist activist, but as America and my own university become increasingly obsessed with religion and with infiltrating Science and public policy with ridiculous notions about creation science and the like, I have started an atheist group on campus. I find it amusing to note that I have become known as "aggressive." Well, there's a first time for everything!
Thanks for helping me to broaden my knowledge, and hopefully, my horizons. I hope that my activism also helps others become less alienated and more aware of how important it is to be "out" as an atheist. I hope it becomes more fashionable and safe to do so, as well. I do not live in a part of America where it is always safe to be 'out'; nor is it ever easy, but thanks to you and a few other brilliant and bold souls, it is better! Thank you for helping to make it so!
-T. Joy Nichols, UNC-Chapel Hill Secular Student Alliance

8

Dr. Dawkins,

I feel compelled to add to what appears to be a rapidly growing collection of similar stories! I grew up in a small town in Texas, in a devout catholic home. As a child I suppose I was a devout catholic, but as I grew older it was harder to take seriously what I was asked to believe. Come on, a piece of bread and a cup of wine really become human body and human blood? Not to mention that's pretty gross. So needless to say, although I still went through the motions, religion became significantly less important. Nonetheless, my parents still applied pressure to "stay close to god" and I caved simply to keep the peace.

The catalyst for my conversion came with a very joyous event in my life, the birth of my first daughter. I'm not sure whether it was pressure from my parents or simply an entire lifetime of being a catholic, but the next step was a baptism. Then I heard something that I had not thought about for many, many years. The deacon in charge of the baptism classes was talking about a previous tenet of the church in which any baby that was not baptized and died would not go to heaven. He went on to say how that was incorrect and gave reasons as to why the church said that was no longer true. I remember thinking how significant a shift in thought this was. I mean, I grew up believing this my entire life. Then other questions popped up in my mind. Does this apply only to those that died after this was changed? What about adults that were not baptized, did they not go to heaven simply because they were adults and not babies? What about all the suffering that had been caused to the families who had newborn babies die without a baptism before the church decided to change its stance? I kept thinking of my 4 month old daughter and what would happen if she died. I couldn't believe that religion was making me think of my child dying! I also thought how silly it was that the church changed its mind on baptism. What possible evidence could they have now to know that it was no longer true that unbaptized children do not go to heaven?

This turned into a snowball effect and I thought of all the tenets, principles, canon, etc., that made no sense to me. I could no longer rationalize holding on to this religion. I knew that I no longer wanted religion to have any influence on my life but I wasn't sure what the next step was. I didn't know anyone that was intentionally not religious and so I was caught in limbo, so to speak. Then on a visit to a bookstore, I ran across Daniel Dennett's "Breaking the Spell". I read the book and my mind was sprung open. I next read "The God Delusion" and this book absolutely changed my life. My wife was taken with how voraciously I read this book and the only way I could explain it to her was, "Imagine the feeling you had after eating the absolute best meal of your life, how satisfied you felt. This is how I feel after reading this book." My mind was quenched of a thirst for answers to questions that religion could never answer. I have since read all but two of your books and have found other authors that have also enriched my knowledge. I had a few undergraduate courses in biology and had a decent understanding of evolution by natural selection, but the picture was hazy and it is now in clear, stunning HD.

I live my life and make decisions with nothing to guide me except science. I teach in a physical therapy program and by looking at the human body in terms of evolution, I am better equipped to answer questions and treat patients in a way that I was previously not. Not to mention, it gives me great pleasure to talk about evidence-based practice.

I am glad to be free from the snare of religion. Living without a belief in god has opened my mind to the great beauty of this life we live. Thank you and I hope you are able to make it back to the University of Texas at Austin again soon.

Sincerely,

Jose Milan

9

dear sir ,
I went to a catholic primary and protestant secondary schools ,and although i was never 100% sure about the invisible man above,i did ,in times of trouble in my life ,I found myself praying to it for help.

After reading the god delusion I am now 100% sure that there is only EVOLUTION .thank you sir for your bravery in publishing the book ,for that is what it is ,with tens of millions of dumb religious fanatics in this world. I am now reading it for the fourth time trying to take it all in.I have also received your new book .put my name forward to be used at your discretion.

yours ,
JOHNSTONE LITTLE
HIGHVALLEYFIELD FIFE SCOTLAND

10

Hello Dr. Dawkins,

I came across your website, and decided I would like to share my story with you. I don't know if you actually read this or if someone else does...but, in case this gets to you, I decided to try to share this as briefly as I can.

During my very early teen years, I was invited to a church camp. If you have ever seen the documentary "Jesus Camp," that is the type of church camp I attended. While there, I firmly believed that I had found God. That one week had such a profound impact on me that it would set the course of my life for the following 15 years.

I became heavily involved in my youth group. I came from a very rough home situation, so this made the "nice church folks" even more appealing, and I placed my trust in them. I had always loved science. I had a microscope when I was a kid that I had bought at a yard sale. I constantly made slides of everything I could get my hands on. In a field nearby my house, I often looked very closely at the different types of grass, the bushes, and the trees. I had a habit of climbing dangerously high to the tops of tall trees to see if there were any differences between the leaves at the top of the tree and the leaves toward the bottom. In middle school, I was thrilled to learn that we could take a science lab course and conduct basic experiments. Sadly, when word of this made it to the leaders of my youth group, I was confronted with shock and horror as these leaders questioned why I would take science classes beyond what was required for my education. They informed me that science was evil and that scientists were liars out to lead people away from God. I was too young and too vulnerable to know any better. I gave up science as my sacrifice to God. And I would not think about it again for many years.

After graduating from high school, I went to a 4-year Bible College and then worked as a children's minister for several years. I did enjoy working with the kids and with families. Yet, something just left me feeling quite unfulfilled. I couldn't quite put my finger on it, but something just seemed amiss. Perhaps I needed to pray more. Maybe I needed to become closer to God. I tried everything. But, ultimately, I just didn't feel like I was in the right place doing the right thing for me. I was then diagnosed with a chronic, painful, and disabling illness. And things pretty much bottomed out for a while. I decided to take some online college courses to give myself something positive to focus on. I didn't even know what subject area to look into. But, I enjoyed learning, and I assumed taking a class would be good for me. In reviewing the many options available, I came across the listing for a course called "The Biological Basis for Human Behavior." Something about that sounded quite fascinating to me, and I enrolled in the course.

Over the next 2 semesters, the way in which I had viewed the world for so long was greatly challenged. I began to gain a better understanding of evolutionary theory, which I had always been told was wrong. Seeds were slowly being planted that would take time to grow and blossom. Yet, their growth and blossoming were inevitable at that point, I believe. My love for science had been re-discovered, and this time, I could not turn away. I left the ministry and returned to school to study psychology, biology, and neuroscience. As I learned more, my confidence in evolutionary theory and in science as a whole grew exponentially.

It wasn't so much that I decided "evolution is true, therefore, Christianity is wrong." What really struck me was that I had been taught so strongly for many years that evolutionary theory was a completely baseless theory designed by scientists to deceive people into turning against God. It became quite clear that that was just not the case. Yet, I had believed that that was the case for a long time without really researching the matter further. I began to wonder what else I had put my faith and belief in simply because I believed the person that told me rather than investigating the issue first. It was that idea that made me begin to question my faith entirely.

I spent a couple of years feeling as though I was a small boat in a huge ocean being tossed about uncontrollably by waves from all directions. My whole world was shattered. Everything that I had believed about myself, about the world, and about life was thrown into question. If my faith was true, could I ever go back to believing it as solidly as I had before? If my faith was not true, how could I begin my life again without living in total devastation?

I would leave the church and then, return. And leave again, and return. While I accepted science and had rejected many false ideas I had held onto for so long, I couldn't get myself to completely release my faith and to complete involve myself in science. My faith had become such an intimate part of every area of my life. It was like losing a part of myself.

And then someone mentioned your name to me. I listened to some of your lectures, interviews, and readings online. I read a few of your books. Through this exploration, I realized that even though letting go of my faith would involve losing a part of myself, I would be awakening another part of myself that had laid dormant for years. It is in my nature to embrace rationality. I believe that is why upon the initial very small exposure to evolutionary theory, my faith was immediately shaken, and I so quickly passed the point of no return. I also have awakened the self within me that loves science and the scientific process. I feel once again like I did at the age of 9 and 10 years old, exploring bushes and trees and microscopic material. Your arguments and explanations gave me the confidence I needed to let go of religion and faith and to embrace who I really am. Without exposure to these arguments, I don't know if I ever would have fully moved on from religion and faith.

That feeling of fulfillment and satisfaction that I sought as a children's minister...I have now found it as I am pursuing what I truly and naturally love. For the first time, I feel that I am truly following my dreams and becoming the person that I really am. In other words, I feel that I have finally discovered myself...and that is well worth the journey. Thank you for being a part of my journey to find myself.

I now, besides attending school, work on a research team, and I teach science classes to children in after-school programs that give students the opportunity to participate in hands-on science experiments. I absolutely love it. My love for science was robbed from me when I was young by people that took advantage of my vulnerability and ignorance. I feel part of my revenge on these folks is imparting my love and enthusiasm for science to children all over the city of Chicago. I just cannot tell you how happy I am to be spending each day doing what I naturally love.

Unfortunately, I have not been able to "come out" in my work, academic, or social life regarding my past. I am a closet ex-Christian. I no longer associate with those that knew me when I was religious (because I was quickly sent away as an outcast). I embrace the journey I have been on and mostly feel thankful that I was able to escape religion...most people never find their way out. Yet, it has been very difficult (impossible, actually) to let people that know me now know that I have not always been the science-enthusiast, anti-religion, etc. woman that I am today. I don't know why...perhaps it is embarrassment. Maybe someday, I will reach the point in which I can share my story more publicly. In the meantime, I have started an anonymous blog in which I am discussing the many issues I have thought about and discovered through my deconversion process. I know you are an extremely busy person, so I will not be offended in the slightest if you turn down my invitation...but, it'd be an honor to have you post a comment on my blog...although, I'm sure my long email has already taken enough of your time! http://theex-christian.blogspot.com/

I fully support you in your efforts, and I look forward to the ways in which you will move science and reason forward in our world.

Leslie

11

Professor Dawkins,

Thank you for the enlightenment, right here, in this life itself.

I'm a 21 year old student of Physics from India. I've always been an atheist as far back as I can remember. But, coupled with my introverted nature, the lack of a lot of answers (which I was too intellectually immature to understand) meant that I had to quietly endure religion. So I participated in religious rituals, listened with interest the stories of numerous Hindu Gods and the purported miracles.

The problem my budding faith faced was two-fold.

One, I was reading a lot of science and was very interested in getting to the ultimate logic. It is the greatest game ever played and the definitely most beautiful one. Which is something I could never say about my faith.

Two, I could never put 2 and 2 to get 4 in whatever I knew about faith. Even with the little I knew, faith seemed to contradict. And I could never get the wonderful feeling understanding an 'explanation' on grounds of faith as I got when I understood why the sky was blue or when I first read about radioactivity or that our world was once inhabited by dinosaurs, and we weren't around.

When I was about 16, I started asking what would happen if I didn't have a religion. What would I stand to lose? Except for one massive loss, I realized I would lose nearly nothing. The massive loss was that I had to conclude that people like many of my teachers, my grandparents, aunts and others who loved me so much and who formed my support system were wrong. In fact I had to positively blame them for teaching me something I didn't need. One noticeable exception to this list was my mother. She was, as I realize now, way ahead of her times. Even though she participated in rituals, she never forgot to mention to me that these are just done, for reasons she herself didn't understand. I should never lean onto these for my support even if I desperately need it. I could reason. I could choose. Faith was not going to be my choice. But I needed to know more…

In Hindu society, the 'intellectual' consist of people, who have supremely romanticized views of the world that just don't seem to work. A carnivore was one of the Devil's incarnate. The gentle deer was a beautiful example of God's handiwork. The great cycle of Good and Bad keeps on going round. Our souls, the souls of the highest being, (how arrogant!) long a way out of this cycle. Do good and you shall be rewarded in your afterlife… A pile of rubbish I could see – finally.

How can anyone not be awed by the spectacle of a lion chasing a deer? How about the supple cheetah? Even if the end is bloody, how are they wrong to search for food? As I found out later, it was never a question of right/wrong. If the 'right' for the deer didn't contradict the 'right' for the cheetah, the entire ecological system would collapse. Deer, and even us, flourished precisely because of the cheetah, otherwise the deer would outcompete each other. Darwin's gem of an idea was beginning to make some sense – finally. I was about 18 when I picked up 'The selfish Gene'.

I've always liked reading. Still, it was difficult going for an absolute evolution-virgin to understand 'The Selfish Gene'. But I was too engrossed by what the idea promised that I had to absolutely understand how it delivers on what it promises. However, unlike many, I turned more to physics for logic against faith than to evolution. (This would be natural to me, as I was never formally trained in biology. Evolution, I learned, but was never taught, simply because I never took biology classes.) And what physics taught me shattered my faith absolutely. Newtonian science could explain so much with so little. Quantum physics, though contradictory to common sense, gave so many answers, each with absolute precision. Yes, there are unsolved mysteries – but that's why we do science. The fact that we understand quantum mechanics only through abstract mathematics and never through 'revelation' or 'inner feeling' made sense only when I let go of the idea that the Universe existed for us. Physics, and evolution, have constantly taught us much more humility than religion. Where was God? Religion and faith were dispensable, science was not.

At about this time, age 20, I picked up your book, Prof. Dawkins. "The God Delusion" reaffirmed my doubt of faith, and also pointed out why faith is positively dangerous for society as a whole. (I had naively assumed that faith is passive and that most people didn't take it very seriously.) Thanks for clearing that delusion for me. I was, however, always critical of superstition. Now, I understand that most superstition (especially the most dangerous ones) stem from religion itself. I became a staunch atheist.

Your latest book, 'The Greatest Show on Earth' was simply brilliant. I have never come across such a great amount of evidence for any subject which was presented so lucidly. Darwin - Wallace shone brilliantly.

I'm halfway through both 'The Ancestor's Tale' and 'The Blind watchmaker' (I'm reading them simultaneously J ), while also studying the theories of physics. All point to the same conclusion – the world is just what it would be had there been no Creator.

I'm now an outspoken atheist and, for the first time, extremely proud of that.

Thanks, Prof. Dawkins for giving atheists a voice. You are needed. May you possess the gene to have a long life. Be as outspoken as you are.

Lovingly,

Debjyoti Bardhan,
Kolkata, India.

12

Dear Professor Dawkins,

I have been reading numerous books on religion, ranging from Scriptures of the Abrahamic Religions to more loosely defined spirituality 'guides', in an effort to gain a broad understanding of the religious. I have seen many, many arguments for and against the existence of god. Your clarifications on the profound implications of Darwinism in religion have truly been an awakening in my understanding of the natural world.

Like many others, I understood the basics of Darwinism. I knew of its power, along side others such as geology, to overcome the creationists when it came to young-earth but I had never really thought about it in depth enough to gain, or expand, the understanding to that on which you write.

Thank you, Sir, for taking a side step in your writings to confront religion in The God Delusion and in subsequent debates and lectures. Like you, this insight has allowed me to shed the last doubts I had on the matter. While I will continue to remain open to the possibility of new arguments for religion, I can shelve my New Testament along side the Iliad and other great works of fiction by ancient man.

Thank you
D Spalla
Washington, D.C.

13

Dear Professor Dawkins,

I've been reading through the countless email stories of other people's convertions and felt compelled to share my own.
I was born Catholic and raised Mormon until my mid teens. (I know...what a combination!)
my parents always encouraged me to ask questions, find things out for myself and come to my own conclusions.
I had a sunday school teacher when I was a child who kept saying women's lib and I had no idea what it meant.
It was only when I went to secondary school and learned about suffergettes did I start to understand the effect that religion has had on women.
Yep...I was a feminist first.
At the tender age of 14 I was at church and the lesson in the young womens sunday school class was on how to prepare to be a good mother!
I immediately asked if there was going to be a lesson on staying in school, getting good grades and preparing for a great career.
When the teacher, fumbled with her teaching manual and failed to come up with a satisfactory answer that was the beginning of the end of my faith.
I began to look more closely at church doctrine and not just the stuff they give you to read when you are a teenager in the church.
I'm talking the heavy stuff. I had no idea that the belief system I was being raised in was based on the most obvious cock and bull story ever invented.
And all the stuff about women not being able to reach the "Celestial Kingdon" without a husband sickened me, and being eternally pregnant with spirit children to create a new world for my husband to be God of....
Did they really expect me to buy that? or want that?
Around the same time there was more and more people in Ireland coming forward about sexual abuse they had suffered at the hands of priests, nuns and bishops of the Catholic Church.
I was also involved with Amnesty International and a number of relief aid charities during my teens. I could not equate what I knew of religion and the world with a benevolent, loving God.
He just couldn't be real. I finally came to that conclusion when I was studying politics and International relations a few years later. Wars, genocide, famine, child soldiers, countless inhumane acts and
weapons of mass destruction. God was used as an excuse for all of them! So quoting the enigmatic Mr Charlie Chaplin, "by simple common sense, I don't believe in God."

That was back in 2002. It was only after reading The God Delusions. watching, listening and reading everything about it and around it did I finally find my "Atheist voice". The no nonsense science and what felt like a tidal wave of rational, purely logical argument really put my mind at ease. I had been so worried that I might be wrong. I gave it to my mother to read who now shares my appreciation of it and would put herself comfortably at a level 6. My Dad now has it on his bedside table.

While the book did not convert me it gave me the confidence to "come out" as a non believer and if I had not read it or any of your other books on this subject I would have my convictions but there would be no strength behind them.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Debbie Morris

14

Prof. Richard Dawkins,

I know you may not read this e-mail personally, but I wanted to thank you for writing such wonderful and insightful books. Thanks to you and "The God Delusion" specifically, I can say that I am no longer a 4 on the scale. I am now a comfortable 6. This is my story about my path to enlightenment.

I was born and raised in the deep south. We call it "cajun country" around here: complete with your stereotypical swamp scene and drunk church-going rednecks (a.k.a. coon-asses). My family is a mixture of Catholics, Methodists and Baptists. I grew up in a few small towns around this area and every one had at least 5 churches every 2 blocks. I didn't think at the time that there was anything wrong with religion. I had been raised in the midst of it.

There was never a day that went by that someone I knew didn't utter the phrase "praise Jesus" about something or other. There was never an ending to children's bible stories either. One incident that sticks out in my mind from Sunday school was the story of Daniel and the Lions, a picture book. The teacher would hold it up and read Daniel's story to us because it was a class favorite. I remember the end of the story all too vividly: There was no mercy for the 'bad guy' and he was fed to the lions while the King and Daniel became buddies again. I remember thinking "Wasn't there some other way to resolve the problem, rather than the Lord letting somebody be ripped apart by a gang of lions? Wasn't my god supposed to be a merciful, forgiving god?"

After a few of these 'isolated' events, I began to feel uncomfortable in church as I grew older. I quit speaking to a lot of the other kids and grownups because every time I said or asked something, the answer always seemed to be "Have faith" or "Jesus loves you". I was not supposed to question what was being pounded into my brain. My aunt even warned me in a dire tone: "If they start teaching you about the Big Bang in school, you don't listen to them. It's a well known fact that God created the world, don't let those science teachers bully you into thinking otherwise." Amazing, right?

Throughout middle school and high school, I was starving for knowledge. I had been deprived of truth all of my life. I started to find many faults and inaccuracies within Christianity. My inquisitive mind decided that the story just didn't make sense AT ALL. Christian doctrine didn't hold up under my intense scrutiny. Let me make this clear, I did not set out to reject Christianity. I set out to deepen my understanding of it- and let me tell you, that may have been the best decision I have made in my entire life. It is bogus and I'm glad I figured it out. But I still hadn't let go of the idea of "God".

I started researching Judaism. I fell in love with it. It seemed to me to contain SO much less hocus pocus than Christianity. There wasn't a trinity, Jesus wasn't in the picture, and there was actually a set of laws written down that I could follow first hand out of the Torah. A clear cut path with a much less complicated way to reach "God". I broke the news to my parents that I was interested in Judaism and they took it better than I had expected. But then something happened. I became a little too interested in Judaism and I started asking too many questions again. Why so many laws? What was the point? I began to wonder why God hadn't shown up in the picture before the Jews. If there was an almighty, all powerful god, why couldn't he just appear on CNN/Fox News and state "I am the Lord. Sit down, shut up and listen. I'm going to correct a few misconceptions..."?

Then I decided to test my faith and go to the nearest synagogue. It was a 40 mile drive and WELL WORTH the trip. When I saw the extravagance, the elaborate ceremony, the kissing of the Torah... I decided that I didn't have much use for rituals. Why would god care about rituals, laws, our own personal thoughts!? Shouldn't he be a bit more majestic than that? Shouldn't he have better things to do with his time? I mean, there's the WHOLE UNIVERSE to take care of!

Or my personal favorite: Is there even a god?

It was a few weeks of deep thought and reflection that I decided I was an "agnostic". I thought- "Well, this isn't so bad. I'm sitting in the middle. I'm not a fanatic at least. There's no proof either way..."

Then I stumbled upon your book a few months later, Prof. Dawkins. I immediately bought it, curious about your argument. I was SURE that I would never change my mind about my agnosticism. But thanks to you, your wonderful way with words and the EVIDENCE you present I must say that I am now an atheist.

I am not ashamed be an atheist. It doesn't make me a bad person. I am not a Satanist (I had frequently been told atheists are in the league with the devil). I am not evil. I just "believe in one less god" than everyone else. : ) Thank you for the inspiration to be who I really am, Professor.

May you live a long, happy life-

Kayleigh D.
Louisiana, USA

15

Greetings,
My name is Michael, Over my 40 years I have searched for a faith that would make since to me, and last past the beginning "Honeymoon stage." I have been Baptist, Catholic, Celtic Witch, Buddhist, Satanist, Studied Shamanism & Druidism. All have aspects I keep with me, And I hold dear the philosophy of Buddhism & With the Druidism & Celtic History reminds me of my bloodline from the U.S. back to Scotland.
But when It came to faith in God or God's I just could not hold on to that blind faith, I could not make my mind believe in something I thought did not make since, I never really thought about being Atheist tell I came across a video of you debating someone on youtube. What you said made since to me, and you seemed so passionate about your convection's.
At first the big fear was the thought of no afterlife, But it does make you look at the world with new eyes, I hold my wife & kids a little closer, I spend more time with the people I love, because this is it. Knowing we only have one go makes this life mean so much more.
I wish you all the best.
Much respect & thanks.
Michael Pearson.
Texas, USA.

16

My story is kind of long, and I have the horrible curse of being both long-winded and uninteresting, so I will do my absolute best to keep this as short and interesting as I can force myself to keep it. So I'll skip most of the details...

I was born into a family of mixed-marriage. I'm the oldest of two children, and now 22. My family is half-Jewish (my dad's side) and half-Catholic (my mom's side). The Church I attended when I was young was actually rather liberally religious. I was taught in CCD that Genesis is metaphorical and meant to be taken as such. I was taught that the Bible was written by men. They were divinely inspired, but not corrected (the reason given was something about God refusing to mess with Free Will). Later in my life we moved from Connecticut (where I was born) to Georgia. During this time, Mom found a Church and Dad found a Synagogue, and we started going to Synagogue more regularly while continuing to attend Church. Things went like this until Dad decided to become a Hazzan. We started to go to Church less and less and Synagogue more and more. We also started keeping Kosher, and I rebelled against immediately because Bacon Cheeseburgers are the best... and I LOVE shellfish (and I think the tradition is pointless because the Kashrut laws were health laws for a time when the desert-dwelling Israeli's were cooking on rock slabs by the sun, so are pointless today).

At 13 I was Bar Mitzvahed, and at 18 I was Confirmed (Judaism... and yeah, even I noticed the almost complete rip-off from Catholicism... I can't figure out why). I even began reading Torah in shul...

Which is when my doubt began. I didn't usually look at the English translation of what I was going to read from the Torah when practicing because reading wasn't about the Torah itself for me... it was about getting over performance anxiety (I'm a musician and intend to have a band... I'm already recording an album). But my mom's Dad (who had just been confirmed as a Deacon in the RCC at this time) once, about a month before I turned 19, asked me if I knew what I was reading... so one Saturday, after I had read my part of the portion for that day, and had gone home (after Synagogue was over and my family and I had enjoyed the after-services lunch [Oneg]), I read, in English, what my portion was... and I was beyond disgusted.

It was the law saying that if a man rapes a virgin, he must pay her father 50 shekels and marry her. WHAT KIND OF PUNISHMENT IS THIS?!?!?!?!?!?!? I decided that day it was time for me to read. What I had was the JPS translation of the Tanakh. And I read it. It took me a good 3 weeks, but I read it. I then hooked up with a friend who had a copy of the Septuagint and a Greek lexicon, and with the aid of a Greek professor who lived on my friend's street (who was an atheist), we spent the next 3 months reading it together.

I began wavering on my readings of the Torah in shul, only reading portions of what I considered "positive" sections of the Torah (Joseph reuniting with his family, for example). But I had, at this point, outright rejected the Bible. I also began studying religion and coming into contact with Christian and Jewish fundamentalists. As a result, I was beginning to grow a major dislike of organized religion. Soon, I had even rejected Judaism, and was then someone who believed in a "God whose name is Love" (you'll need to watch Bill Hicks's stuff to understand).

At the age of 21 (actually, I was quite nearly 22), I picked up Dawkins's book "The God Delusion". At first, I was somewhat dejected by what I saw as "Dawkins's failure to separate faith from religion". About half-way through, despite that criticism, I found I agreed with quite a bit of it, especially his section of the Biblical Proofs of God's Existence (that's not exactly what it was called, but I don't have my copy of the book with me at the moment), and so I joined the forums. My introductory post on the forum will show that I did believe in God. However, not long after, I read chapter 4. When I had finished that chapter, I had to put the book down, because for the next few weeks I struggled with some questions:
"Why did I still believe in God when I had rejected the only evidence of his existence? Did I even believe in God, or something else entirely? What was it that I believed in?"

My answers were a while in coming. I had become a fan of Bill Hicks just before this, and held to his view of humanity as "a virus with shoes". I agreed with it because I had always struggled with mild depression (not always mild, because at one point I was suicidal) from being a complete outsider at school (until college I only ever had one true friend, and even now my social life is more online then it is offline). And, of course, by extension, I was a fan of George Carlin, whose view on humanity, as we know, was similarly bleak. It was by being introduced to Australian comedian Tim Minchin, joining the fan forum (Angry-Feet), and interacting with the members there that I realized that there is, in fact, more reason to love humanity then to hate it. I did find an answer to my questions. I realized that I did not believe in God; I just didn't want to believe in humanity because I was blind to what good there was to believe in. I then realized that there was reason to believe in humanity, and that was when I became an atheist.

I then started Chapter 5 of The God Delusion, and finished the book. I became enthralled by science, though as a consequence found myself in the middle of the Creation/Evolution debate. Obviously I supported Evolution. I had always been taught that Evolution was a fact, but I had never been taught about Evolution (although, admittedly, in school, mostly thanks to poor teacher, I never really cared about science). So I had to teach myself. I headed to Talk Origins, Wikipedia, and so on. Then I picked up Dawkins's "The Greatest Show on Earth". I am also expecting Jerry Coyne's "Why Evolution is True", and I'm continuing to search out books about Evolution and the evidence for it to educate myself. Natural Selection has certainly raised my consciousness, and it is partly thanks to "The God Delusion".

Now, I do not think that private faith is itself bad. I'm fine with people who believe in a higher power or powers as long as they don't shove it in anyone's face, and as long as they don't let that belief blind them to reality. However, I am proud to join in the debate against fundamentalism, and I hope to educate myself enough to become a strong voice in the debate. Now, I simply listen to the debate and educate myself in what I don't know. But I find life wonderful, the Cosmos wonderful, science wonderful, and, of course, reality wonderful, and I look forward to the day when fundamentalism is gone.

Nathan Hevenstone
(United States)

17

Dear Professor Dawkins,

Firstly, I would like to thank you and others like you, for bringing Atheism to the public forum, through the publication of your books and media programs.

I was raised by devout Roman Catholic parents. We went to mass every weekend without fail and were educated in Catholic schools.

Since the youngest age, I have not been able to relate to a 'god'. I always felt extremely uncomfortable trying to pray - to me it felt silly, as though I was talking to nothing. When obstacles in life would arise or tragedy occur, I would be instructed by my mother to 'pray about it'. This always seemed pointless, useless. For me, when difficulties arise we must stand up to the challenge and come up with a practical solution, to the best of our ability. There are those aspects of life that may be beyond solution. This is when one must acknowledge that they have tried their best, and work towards acceptance of the situation. Explanation in the superanatural is not warranted.

I have always been made feel inferior - somehow defective, for not having 'faith'. I was told throughout my childhood and into adulthood that "you have no faith". I always took this as a negative slur. I felt somehow defective for not being a person of faith. I shed many tears, especially during my twenties and thirties, trying to understand why I couldn't just believe in 'god' like others around me did.

Then seven years ago, I almost died from contracting an atypical pnuemonia. This experience was liberating, for I realised that at my lowest moment and close to death, I had no inclination to pray or call out to a 'god'. I had no fear and was not afraid to die.

After recovering, I viewed my life through different eyes. Life was more precious than ever, wonderous and full of things I wanted to learn. I have always been a passionately curious person. During my childhood, I would have to know how and why things worked. I have never just accepted things because I was told to. I have always been a thinker.

I began persuing subjects I was passionate about - Archaeology & Ancient history (egyptian, indus valley, sumerian, roman), genetics, evolution, medical science - reading as much information on these topics as I could. As well I began to further develop my skills and love of art - sculpture and painting.

In 2006, my husband wanted me to go and see a movie. He had already read the book and said that it was a 'must see'. The movie was the Davinci Code. This started me on a journey of discovery and truth, that has to be travelled once commenced. While it is a work of 'fiction', I began to research the origins of many of the Christian traditions and doctrines that most Catholics have no real knowledge of except for that which they are told.

As you are well aware, christianity at best, is a work of fiction if not a deep deception. Every part of the Catholic tradition is a bastardisation of a previous religion (jewish, ancient egyptian/greek mythology, pagan romanism).

By this time I had two sons, 10 and 7 years of age. My husband and I have not raised them with religion or praying in our home. We have taught them to question beliefs and enquire about evidence. We have instilled in them an awareness of their responsibilities towards others, and have taught them to value and respect all life and the future of our planet. We value empathy, kindness, generosity, justice, truth and love. They do however attend catholic school. This decision was made because the government schools in our area did not offer the quality of academic education we wanted for them. We do not worry about the influence catholicism may have on them. Being raised by two reasoning, free thinking parents has allowed them to develop as every child should have the right to. Their minds have not been stunted by the limiting influence so often inflicted by parents & doctrines. They attend religion classes at school, but from the earliest age have reported to us that what they have learnt 'makes no sense' & 'is silly'. Any human being allowed to develop without early indoctrination naturally comes to this logical conclusion when told far fetched stories and myths.

Even though we didn't pray or teach them to believe in a 'god', we did occassionally attend church to appease my mother.

Then 3 years ago, I decided enough was enough. It was easter and none of us wanted to go to church. However, I said to my husband I couldn't bare the aftermath that would occur if we didn't take our boys to church for easter, so we went. After two hours, communion hadn't happened yet and my husband and I decided to go home. After leaving the church we made the decision to tell my family that we would no longer attend church and if they had a problem with it that that was too bad!

Then 2 years ago, my husband and I joined the Atheist Foundation of Australia. I then 'came out' and told my family that my husband and I were atheists and member of the AFA. This did not go over well and I distanced myself from my parents, mostly my mother for 6 months or so. She has always worked on the premise that if you badger someone long enough, you will wear them down and into submission and around to her way of thinking. This, she had tried with me all of my life. It took her almost two years to realise that if she couldn't respect me as I was, then we would have no relationship at all.

She has finally stopped (or almost stopped) her constant comments and attempts at conversion.

Our sons will be free to choose whatever beliefs or lack thereof they want to. I will support them and accept them for who they are, and not for what they do or do not believe.

Shaking off the shackels of religion is a freeing experience. It is though a weight has been lifted of your shoulders, a dark veil removed from your eyes. At times while on my journey I felt isolated and alone. Your books and those of people like Sam Harris helped me incredibly. I had spent my whole life up to the age of forty feeling I was inadequate. Your books confirmed what I had always known. They helped me to feel justified as the person I was, just how I was. Thank you

Sincerely,

Catherine Campbell
(Australia)

18

Dear Prof. Dawkins

As a biologist, I knew your work on Evolution long ago. However I just recently came across the BBC documentary "The root of all evils" and "The god delusion" book. I was brought up VERY catholic in a small city in Colombia, in a society where unfortunately (at least back then) there was not much of a choice than being a strong and obedient believer (specially for a child). I went to a catholic (Jesuists) school and University (again…not many choices to get a "good" education, which in Latin America is still quite monopolized by the Catholic church). Off course my studies in Biology (including a Master in Evolutionary Biology in the Netherlands), the opportunity to get out of my country, and my common sense allowed me to find out all the non-sense in religion and in god, and finally realize my atheist nature. However, I want to thank you for "the god delusion". Now I am not only atheist, but a really proud one, not afraid to tell anyone, finally completely out of the closet and starting to be activist. Your book answered many still-open questions and re-assured many ideas and feelings with respect to atheism .

Although the religious environment in which I grew up was "milder" than the one many girls still grow up in the world (specially muslim societies) I want to share how this religious brought-up affected me and my friends in negative ways. The "hell" fear in our case was very strong when related to sexuality (intensified by the latin "macho" society). Any act related to sexuality (even kissing a boyfriend in high school) was felt as a sin, as something wrong, dirty. This sinful thinking I grew up with, affected the development of my sexuality to a point that it took me quite long to finally enjoy sex and get know my own body without feeling that I was doing something wrong and shameful. If this is how it feels for me, I can't really imagine how religion affects women worldwide, especially in the Islamic world. I can't imagine either the suffering that my homosexual friends had to go through (they had to leave the city and even the country to come out of the closet).

I also want to mention the bad influence that the catholic church still has in Latin America in the un-educated social classes. People are still told by the priests that using condoms or any other kind of contraceptives is a sin, as sex is just meant for reproduction. No need to mention that this argument does not stop this people from having sex, it does stop them from using contraceptives. Consequence: Low-income and uneducated people keep having children they can't feed and educate. Off course the catholic church takes no responsibility on this.

Before finish I want to share one more story that happened a few years ago in Colombia: a 12 year old girl was raped and got pregnant. A gynecologist practice her an abortion. The doctor was immediately excomulgated (probably something not very nice for him in a society almost 100% catholic), but off course the rapist was not…

Again, thanks a lot for your enlighting, encouraging and relieving work.

Silvia Bleuler-Martinez

19

Mr. Dawkins,

First of all, let me introduce myself. My name is Ricardo Velásquez, I am currently 18 years old and I just finished highschool and I'm about to begin college.

I was born into the heart of a really catholic family in a little town named Antigua Guatemala, which during the time of the colony used to be the capital of my home country, Guatemala. I was raised under the religious principles of my parents, both of which were raised as roman catholics. I have lived, all my life, sorrounded by a majority of christians, and I believe that part of this is due to having studied since elemantary level in a catholic school, by choice of my parents of course. I was never a deeply religious person like the ones you see praising "the lord" every day, but I sure was certain that there was a loving father and that Jesus had died for us and that he was the only path to salvation. I never actually bothered to question these ideas because I never felt the need to do so. Even when my grandfather died a terribly painful death, which was a tremendous blow to my heart, I never dared question the concept of a loving God.

But as I matured I slowly realized how silly my believes could seem from an outsider's point of view. And this fact was later emphasized to me by one of my greatest english teachers mr. David Kincheloe. So I began to research and to really pay attention to what was supposed to be my faith. I was astonished to see how weak the evidence and arguments to support the idea of god were. It was more than anything, just wishful thinking. I can't deny that I was disappointed at first, but that didn't stop me from taking the first step towards emmancipation from religion, I became an agnostic. It was not that hard, I atribute my convertion towards agnosticism to simple common sense.

I lived with this uncertainty, barely satisfied with it, until last year. That's when I, by accident, happened to find what I would call the most life changing book that I have ever read in my entire life, The God Delusion. I read the first chapter online, and was greatly amused by it, so I bought it. As I read it, all of my uncertainty was being slowly erased and replaced by something better (even better than blind faith ), reason.

Today I can happily say that I'm a full atheist and when I look back at my past in a retrospective manner I laugh at who I used to be. Now my struggle is no longer with myself, but with my family and my friends.

My country, as well as many others, need more atheists, that's one thing I'm certain about.

With respect,

José Ricardo de Jesús Velásquez Nájera, Guatemala.

P.D.: As you can see, my religoius upbringing reflects even in my name.

20

Dear Professor Richard Dawkins:

I always thought that I was crazy because everyone in my neighborhood is either Buddhist, Christian, Catholic, Protestant, or some other religion. It was not until I picked up your book "The God Delusion" that I relized I was not the only person in the world who was atheist. Sometimes I still think to myself, "How is it that people still belive in fantasy stories that were told 1900 yrs. ago". Then at my school kids really don't care about what I think, and that's religion, politics, and philosophy. I can understand since I'm from the United States. I had an argument with a creationist about a month ago and it went something like this:

Remember I'm not trying to sound like a douche bag I'm just discussing a topic in which makes many people uncomfortable, so here it goes. as a kid my mom made me go to sunday school. I had faith and comfort in knowing that god loves me and he has a place for me when I die. though after a couple of readings of the bible I began to question it, how is this possible (supernatural events). then i realized that there is so much wrong with religion, an invisible man hating on people who are gay, people who lust for women, and people who don't believe in him. so now I'm an atheist though I'll tell you something that scares me the most, without a heaven I know there is no place for anyone in the afterlife. and the question that no one can ever answer "why are WE here, how did these universes come about" and the first answer that comes to creationist minds is "well, god created the universe" in the genesis the first line reads "god created the heavens and earth" well where was he before? It's okay to be afraid not knowing all of these questions... it's just a matter of forgetting religion and come together in peace so we can explore space together in peace... forever. I hope you uderstand what i'm telling you without thinking I'm some horrible person, though can YOU just open your mind a little bit cause it takes a person to understand atheism though it takes a bigger person to be one.

See professor Dawkins to me the meaning of the life is to do whatever makes you happy in life, sort of like some nirvana bullshit. The only thing in life that makes me happy is to write and direct movies so hopefully with my education I can make movies which makes teenagers think about the movie. Not just to stare at the screen and watch car transform or vampires sparkle give me a fucking break. The only thing I can do for now is hope that I will awake from my dreams in my sleep tonight. Thank YOU professor for opening a window of fresh air.


Edward Gonzalez
Young Philosopher/ Writter

21

Dear Professor Dawkins,

I've just read your book, "The God Delusion", and it led me on to the website.
I am now a firm atheist although I was raised a Catholic. My indoctrination was never that severe, though I was encouraged to go to mass and take part in religious events at my (Catholic) primary school, and as a consequence I believed in the sanitised "Good God" of the New Testament.

It was only on going to high school (again a Catholic institution, but with a larger number of sceptics and atheists than I think they wanted to realise) that I started to learn about the natural world in any depth. I studied Biology and Chemistry from my third year (not sure how that equates to the English system, sorry) at Scottish Standard Grade level, and then went on to Higher and Advanced Higher courses in my fifth and sixth years.
Because of a hard start to my high school career I was already sceptical about the existence of a God (no salvation or answered prayers), and as I moved through school this scepticism became agnosticism, then full blown atheism. I found it hard to realise how anyone with even my basic knowledge of biology could even think about believing something like intelligent design. I did cling on to my faith for a little while however while I was still sceptical, probably more to do with a skewed sense of loyalty than anything else. I am now proud to be an atheist and secular, and I think (or believe, even) that nobody should be afraid to be true to themselves instead of a religion because the belief is expected of them. I have just, in the last few minutes, actually sent a letter to the local bishop asking to be removed from the church records in case I am still considered a member.

I am now looking forward to going to university and studying to become a doctor with only my own rationality and judgement to rely on.

As it should be.

Thanks for confirming what a lot of us already believed, and for landing another few converts as well...

All the best atheists!

Alex Leitch (Scotland)

22

Dear Professor Dawkins,

Thank you for enlightening me, your book "The God Delusion" acted as a catalyst for me to take this big leap of leaving the faith which was forced upon me through out my entire life. I used to live in Pakistan, moved to US and currently living in Washington DC area. I am very satisfied with my decision, though I have not and will not be disclosing my believe or non-believe to any body. I felt obliged to write this email just to thank you that I am a free man just because of you.

Regards from Washington DC.

23

Prof. Dawkins,

This email is to thank you for my life in the most literal sense.

A couple of months ago, I walked into a book store here in the U.S, as I have literally hundreds of times in my life, looking for the thoughts of anyone who might know the answer to a simple question: "Why hasn't God chosen me?" I've wondered why I never felt His presence in my heart as so many millions appear to do. I certainly wanted to. I invited him in. I felt the "hole" in myself that believers call the "god shaped hole that can't be filled by anything else."

I was the perfect candidate for recruitment into the fold, but I never felt the touch and I was dying to know why, literally.

Your book, The God Delusion finally provided an answer and at what was literally the lowest point of my life.

I was raised in a variety of "faiths" as my parents struggled to find one that fit, flitting from church to church, never satisfied. The result was that I never knew what God wanted from me. Every faith has its own version of god, and its own version of what it takes to be saved. How is a child supposed to know how and what to believe?

All I took from the experience was that I was somehow unsatisfactory in all versions of his sight. After all, all of my friends found him simply by going to church and waiting. My parents "got" god. Their friends likewise.

For me: nothing. Just the hole.

It seemed simple enough, and in talks with literally dozens of pastors, rabbis and elders, it was confirmed time and again: just asking him to touch you is enough. "Just wait. He'll come," they would say in that tone that in an untrained ear is sincere and loving, but in one who's spent most of a lifetime hearing it again and again is a mixture of pity and disgust. I could almost hear their thoughts, "Poor lamb. You must have done SOMETHING wrong or he would have scooped you up into his love by now."

Can you imagine how much that tone of voice hurt? Most people will probably never know how alone you can be, how much self-loathing you can generate when even all-knowing, all-loving god rejects you for actions you can't even recall as they must have happened so early in childhood as to be invisible in memory.

I literally shiver as I write this; the memory of that feeling is still raw and very fresh in my mind.

Still, daily for more than 30 years I knelt and prayed - a simple prayer, "Father, please enter my heart and take me to your service and your will."

I was assured that if I meant it, if I REALLY meant it, and if I humbled myself and begged, I would get my answer, find my peace, know my savior at last.

I felt nothing. Ever. Empty rejection of my pleas.

In March of this year, I finally gave up. Not on God, but on myself. After three decades I simply couldn't carry on any more being so obviously hideous in his site that I must suffer the absence of his presence; this, by the way, is a common definition of hell given by believers - to be separated from God.

I was literally in Hell, while here on earth. I wanted nothing more than for him to love me and was in constant agony because of my failure to be worthy.

In the end, I sold virtually everything I owned, ceased most contact with friends and family and prepared myself to give up, to die. I thought that if I proved my devotion by seeking Him in the most direct fashion (going to meet him), I would finally have my answer, even if my suicide meant going to hell. God loved me, or so I was told, perhaps I had simply failed to ask loudly enough and show enough faith.

I was empty, alone in a way that simply can not be described to someone who has never felt that hole in himself and ready to die. I was just waiting for the courage to do it.

I wandered around in that state for several months.

As I was approaching my breaking point, drinking myself into a hopefully (but never successfully) dreamless sleep every night, exploring mind altering drugs, doing anything and everything I could think of in a last ditch effort to find Him, I walked into the above mentioned local book shop.

There, on a bargain bin table, I saw an odd, shiny book: The God Delusion.

As a side note: I find it astounding that in the bible-belt [a nickname for the most religious portion of the southern united states] a best seller and relatively new release can go on the bargain bin. According to an employee of the store - who was so offended by it that she refused to touch it - "they knew it wouldn't sell well, but they had to carry it due to some agreement with a distributor". Appalling.

At any rate, the title captured me. I was, for a minute or two, equally anxious and terrified to open it.

Could I be delusional?

Oddly, I hoped that I was in fact pathologically incapable of finding god. At least I wasn't to blame if that was the case.

Could this be it? The moment when god reveals himself to me at last through the medium of a scientist, an apostate to all faith?

I opened it and within 3 pages of skimming I realized that this was a book I had to own.

I read it in an 18 hour straight session.

Here is the rough shorthand for my thought process: The reason there had been no answer to my years of prayer is simply because there is no god. What a revolutionary concept!

Believing this doesn't make me a monster. It doesn't relieve me of the burden of morality. It doesn't make me "abnormal". It doesn't make my life meaningless and my death into an inevitably pointless punctuation mark at the end of a pointless existence. It simply means that I had best get on with whatever I intend to do with my time here; it's very short and very, very important that I spend it well.

Mr. Dawkins, I do not have command of the language sufficient to describe what happened inside me by the time I was finished reading. I wish I could quote some great philosopher, sage or poet who has said it perfectly. I'm sure they exist, but I haven't read widely enough to have found any (although in the last few months I've begun exploring some: Blake, Spinoza, Hume, Lucretius, Plato and I'm proud now to say Darwin himself).

I will say that I simply sat in my chair crying in relief. I have no idea how long I was there, but it was several hours; I just remember being too exhausted and emotionally drained to move. I fell asleep in the chair and woke up a very stiff, very sore, very new human being.

My whole life I had been told, and dutifully believed, that my humanity was granted to me (and somehow grafted onto my imperfect body) by divinity; that my meaning and purpose was generated by - and for the unknowable purposes of - this fantastically complex being whom everyone else seemed to be able to see and hear, while I could not; that my purpose was to serve him, my existence because of him, my unpardonable (apparently even by him) debt of gratitude to him. All my life I tried to believe it and was ashamed, mortified, that I couldn't quite convince myself that it was true.

In trying and wanting to believe, I crippled myself and brought myself to the point of ending the pain by ending my existence. The nagging fear of hell for suicide was still there, but I literally couldn't imagine anything worse than the abandonment I felt in this hell and if I could only see him the one time, feel his presence, then hell was worth it.

In the end, your calm yet passionate reverence for, reliance on and advocacy of reason was simply inarguable - when I finally allowed myself to truly THINK for the first time in my life. It was so powerful and elegant in its simplicity and honesty that when I finally took the time to compare the two truths, the Darwinian version of how we came to be to the shallow creationist view, the god-based version was washed clean and whisked and away.

Yes, you converted me.

When I held up my blind faith to the light of reason I could see through the holes in belief right down into the one I had felt in myself and I saw the fearful, crying child, lost in the dark and hiding under the covers from the bogey man of death and abandonment; I couldn't hide from reality any more.

When I finally examined the price that I and the world pay for clinging to religion, I came to the - now seemingly inescapable and inarguable - conclusion that whatever false peace I might have taken by clinging to the delusion of a god was bought, on credit, in the name of innocents in the next generation and in other places in the world; it isn't my (or anyone's) right to spend the resources, lives and futures of others for our pathetic pseudo-happiness.

Where before I felt I had a "right" to god's love, I now realize that we and I are mortgaging the future of our species because of our "belief" in an afterlife and its paternal landlord. That is to say, we are terrified of the dark of death and we are willing to do anything, at any cost to ourselves, our children and our neighbors, not to have to face it, including believing in that which is, if you are honest, impossible to believe.

No more. Now that I've allowed myself to see it, I can never go back to allowing myself to feel that way. And I am convinced that I did indeed allow myself to do it, rather than needing to do it as most believers will claim.

When, for the first time in my life I allowed myself to be honest, god simply died in my arms.

Make no mistake, I still grieve for that never-found sense of peace that comes to believers who can imagine without skepticism a paradise to come, but I would rather have the comfort of truth based on reason and evidence and all the innervating strength that comes from it - and the realization that I will cease to be at the end of my days here that goes with it - than be so frightened (yet arrogant) about the end of my time like most believers who simply pour the opium of mythology on the pain of the fear of oblivion.

I thank you for that.

And for the realization which was at the heart of it all: complexity, wondrous majesty, miraculous diversity, fantastical breadth and depth of existence can only come from the accretion of simplicity. I use the word advisedly. In a pearl, no one ever sees the simple center, the irritant that causes the buildup. The same was true with me and my "faith." Reason was the irritant, misery the raw material of the accretion.

I had never seen the simple truth at the heart of me; I hadn't known how to look for simplicity. I didn't have the strength to break through the accumulated layers of scar tissue and see that grain of truth and reason that was there all along. This fact is astonishing to me, even now.

So simple an answer, yet I had never been taught how to see it. In 40 years I had never been exposed to true critical thinking.

Professor, since July, I've read every word of yours I've been able to find, and bought many copies of your books, including Greatest Show On Earth, as gifts for the people I love. I do this precisely BECAUSE I love them. I want them to feel the absolute thrill of truth, the joyous abandon of living for NOW, not some imagined future. I've watched every video of your attempts to help others truly feel the wonder, the "miracle" if you will, of simply being alive against such unimaginable odds and work hard to become as gently yet unwaveringly forthright as you are in discussion.

I wish I had the eloquence that comes so simply and naturally to you as it would help me convey the true depths of the abyss that religious indoctrination can create in a person who isn't adapted to believe (pun intended). I hope it suffices that I say the desire to be accepted by God is as strong enough to make an otherwise sane person suicidal. I compare it to the loneliness of teenage years when one's hormones are so profoundly powerful as to cause delusions of ugliness or overweight, or to an old age spent alone; it is stunning to me now how deep such veins of despair can run.

I suppose that I knew all along that god was a myth like all the others. Yet as a child, saying so was tantamount to slapping my mother or father and so, as every child in such an abusive (albeit unintentionally so) situation would do, I blamed myself for my shortcomings as a son, an American and a child of god.

No more.

I have received many gifts in my life, but I consider you my greatest benefactor and perhaps the only true friend I've ever known for you literally gave me back my life by telling the whole truth without fear. No one else in my life ever did.

I consider it a gift and a debt and I intend to spend the time you've given me in spreading that same gift to others, trying to prevent such abuse of other children in our world.

I am not one to write to authors or celebrities (in fact this is the first "fan" letter I've ever written), but it seems to me that, at least in America, you must face nearly constant fear, perhaps even hatred, and criticism of the "evil" you are doing by "turning children away from God" as I saw someone on your website wrote.

I thought you deserved a bit of praise, thanks and encouragement from one who was in fact turned away from god by god itself (the concept of course, not the "being" since it isn't real) because of you, and found in reason a reason to go on, quite literally thanks to you and your courage and passion.

Thanks also for the obvious sense of awe and wonder with which approach and hold life itself; I had one fear in letting go of god. "Will there still be beauty, love, music, tears, passion, etc. without him?"

I'm happy to report that there is MORE beauty, love, passion and the rest to be had simply by getting off your knees, walking outside and opening your eyes - truly seeing the world, tasting the wine, being in the moment with your friends and family - really accepting how stunningly short is our own little slice of time in consciousness and determining to waste not a moment more of it, than there ever will be or ever was in cowering on my knees, waiting for things to "finally get good" in paradise.

Thank you.

I hope that you have many, many more years ahead of you sir.

The world needs you.

Respectfully,

from
Texas USA

24

I have just finished reading The God Delusion and I wanted to thank you for helping me to think clearly about things I have always sort of known. I described myself as agnostic in the past out of a sort of sentimentality for the Catholic church (I am able to be sentimental about it as my parents allowed me to make up my own mind).

I can now see that really I have always been an atheist I just needed to admit it. The thought that this is my one chance at life has actually made me feel very liberated and I am looking forward to living my life to the full, unburdened of the nagging thought of a God figure looking over me and judging me.


Many thanks

Peter Corser
Halesowen UK

25

Dear Professor Dawkins

I know that the chances of you reading this are relatively slim but I just wish to thank you from saving me from the blinding clutches of religion.
I was a confirmed Lutheran up until last week when I finished your book The God Delusion and I admit the feeling was very freeing. I was persuaded into reading this book by a friend of mine who kept pestering me to read a book authored by you. I have no regrets about doing this. However, I have had difficulties explaining to my parents ( I am still a minor) about my change in religion and have been harshly lectured about my decision, almost guilted into becoming Christian again. Of course, this experience only reiterated the facts in your book about religion and only made my 'faith' in atheism even stronger.
I simply cannot express my experience to you in a simple e-mail and it is even harder to express how much thanks I have towards you and your outstanding book. I cannot thank you enough for letting me now experience the world in a totally different light.
I greatly look forward to reading more of your books in the future and once again I say thank you; though I feel as if it is not enough.

Sincerely,
M. Elizabeth

26

Dear Prof Dawkins,
I clearly remember the first time I ever heard of you. It was after school, as I was hanging out in my dad's classroom watching The Colbert Report on Comedy Central.
I had never been very religious; my parents took me to church and all that, but I don't think I ever believed in God, a higher power of any kind, or any belief systems. That episode of the Colbert Report was the one where you were on your tour promoting The God Delusion. I recall being slightly intrigued by what you were arguing, and I definitely remember the shininess of your book (to which I still refer, jokingly, as The Shiny Book). Unfortunately I completely forgot about it.

Luckily, high school seemed to be the time where everyone was rebelling against the conformity of middle school and finding their own identity. I can't remember when it was, but sometime during the summer after freshman year I came across your book at the library, and checked it out. Before reading your book, I wouldn't have described myself as an atheist, but probably because I had no idea what atheists were. I recognized myself as atheist after finishing your book. My parents were, and still are, okay with me being an atheist, but my dad warned me to not tell my disbelief to the wrong people.

I didn't really listen to him. I'm proud of my disbelief, and show it all over my Facebook and other online sites. I also love debating religion and faith. I even helped my friend come out as an atheist. He was brought up in a very religious household, but was talking about being agnostic or not really sure. I loaned him my copy of The God Delusion(or The Shiny Book, to be discreet), and he was able to solidify his belief as an atheist.

I am very thankful for how you helped me and countless others deal with their lack of faith.
Charles C.

27

hi Richard,

I can't credit you for my deconversion from Christianity- I did that, all by myself, aged 15. However, I can credit you for being a huge influence in my "deconversion" from theism.

For a number of years after my rejection of Christianity that I remained a stauch atheist. In my early twenties, one being faced with some of the less pleasant aspects of life, I looked to spirituality for comfort. For a few years I held what might be called a pantheistic view of the universe, but somehow this view slowly evolved into Theism. Actually, "somehow" isn't accurate; it was in large part due to my respect for personal development "guru" Anthony Robbins, and his influence on my life. I once heard Robbins ask a depressed lady in his seminar whether she believed in God. When she said that she did not believe in god he replied "maybe that's why your depressed". I cringe when I look back on it, but I'm ashamed to say that I actually joined in with the applause that greeted this statement.

For a few years I actually attended a liberal Christian church, not because I bought into Christian dogma, but because it kept my grandmother happy, and I could ignore the "Jesus is God" nonsense, and as a theist I could still get something out the services. I soon realised, though, that ultimately my going along to keep someone else happy was not a good enough reason to continue going,

A few years ago, when I met my fiance, I was a theist, who saw Christianity as benign, and she was a member of an evangelical church. Little did either of us realise that our getting together would cause both of us to become a hell of a lot less religious (not to mention, cause a lot of arguments on the subject).

When I picked up The God Delusion, I was looking forward to reading it, but I honestly didn't think you would change my mind on a damned thing. The funny thing was, reading the book caused me to begin to feel very uncomfortable indeed about my theism. For a few months I struggled to maintain a theistic view of the world. It was quite an uncomfortable period for me because I realised that I simply wasn't comfortable with my own belief in a God. The only real reason that I had kept a theistic worldview for a number of years is that I had never exposed it to any criticism: Reading your book started the process of my becoming a non-theist, and I would like to thank you for that. The world makes a lot more sense as a non-theist, and I have a lot more peace of mind.

Gladly, neither my fiance or I attend church these days, and the more I focus on the issue the more radically secular my outlook becomes.

Thankyou for causing me to be honest with myself and have integrity in my beliefs.

Best wishes

28

Dear Professor Dawkins,

I was raised as a devout Baptist, at church every Wednesday and Sunday, many times more than that. Throughout my childhood I had questions about religion, but because of my upbringing the answer always seemed to be "God this" or "God that" and for a while I was fine with that. I started having questions however, of whether I was "saved" or whether I was simply living a lie and needed to figure out how to really be "saved" by Jesus. I didn't feel different after confessing my sins, being baptized, the whole process, so I did it again, all by the time I was 11. Once I got a bit older however, I still didn't feel like there was any difference, even though I was doing everything I could to be in church, go on missions, attend small group Bible study, the list goes on.

At the age of 16, my best friend committed suicide. I was told that he would be spending eternity in Hell not only because he killed himself, but because he was didn't have "Jesus' gift of salvation." I finally decided that there was no way a loving god could send someone as kind as him to an eternity of suffering simply because of that, and so I left Christianity for Wicca, as a few of my friends practiced that and the only thing I knew at the time was that I didn't want Christianity and Jesus anymore. Wicca worked for a while, however my mother found out about it after finding a book in my room and absolutely freaked out "out of love." I was after that forced to go to church with them every Sunday, no matter what. I started acting like I was a Christian and for a short time even told myself I was. My girlfriend at the time was a Christian, so even when I finally decided to tell myself at least, that I was an agnostic, I didn't want to tell anyone else for fear that she would break up with me. It was after we broke up that I read The God Delusion, right before my Freshman year of college.

I will confess that my first copy of The God Delusion was an illegal copy that I had downloaded from a pirate eBook website, because I didn't want my parents to catch me with a book on Atheism, fearing a similar reaction to the revelation that I was a Wiccan. After reading The God Delusion, it seemed to make so much sense and I realized that Atheism wasn't the evil, horrid, immoral thing I had heard about all through my youth, but something I completely agree with. I now consider myself Atheist and am close to telling my family. So far only a few of my friends know, but I have been telling more of them every day and as proudly display the Out Campaign A on my Facebook page, along with Atheist as my religion and plan to order the Out Campaign pin as soon as I get a little extra money. I have also bought a copy of The God Delusion on iTunes recently and plan to buy a hard copy at some point in the future.

I really just want to say thanks, Professor Dawkins. Your book completely changed not only my opinion of Atheists, but my life, and I've realized how much freedom Atheism really is, not having to constantly worry about some deity's opinion of you. I have recommended The God Delusion to many of my friends, and hope that many more like myself will continue to have their perceptions of Atheism radically changed by your masterpiece.

Thanks,

Jordan Montgomery

29

Dear Professor Dawkins,

I posted this in the new members section, but I was encouraged there to send it over to the converts corner as well. I looked over the terms of use and I didn't see that doing so would be frowned upon, so here you go! (link to Forum post and comments http://forum.richarddawkins.net/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=99926)

I don't know whether the place to post this is here or under the 'converts corner,' but it seemed as though this could be a better venue. I have received a great deal of support at some other online communities, but having just finished The Greatest Show On Earth, it seemed fitting for me to come here and tell my own story.

I was raised as one of Jehovah's Witnesses, along with my entire family. I have served in a wide variety of areas within that organization over the years, and am in my mid-thirties now. Last year I was appointed as an elder, and quickly started to feel my belief waste away. I can't say that I've never had doubts; in everything I was always one to check sources and compare quotes to check on their authenticity and their context, but I never did that with the Watchtower's literature. I just accepted it at face value because that's what was expected. When I eventually did decide to look into something that struck me as odd, just around the time of my appointment coming through, I did it in secret, and I felt guilty and ashamed. But what I found made me feel more anger and frustration than anything else, and as time went on I began to look deeper and check into any source or quote to see that it was a property reflection of the original.

What I found was appalling. Not only were quotes taken completely out of context, but they were even edited, removing the elements that did not support the Watchtower's perspective. One of the most notable to me was a reference in the Reasoning from the Scriptures book, under the topic that discussed whether Jesus died on a cross; the Watchtower had chosen to include a portion of a paragraph from a bible dictionary that basically said that at one point in time a certain word referred to a stake or a pole; but looking at the actual reference it then went on to say that by the time of Christ, the word generally always referred to the use of a pole with a cross piece; I believe that it makes the statement that any time after about 100 - 200 BCE the word almost exclusively referred to a cross.

Of course then that opened the door to many of the other areas that I had believed Witness theology was unquestionably accurate; specifically in areas having to do with the theory of evolution. Over the summer, at our district convention they released a new DVD about the wonders of creation, and I was excited and hopeful that this would clear up some of the nagging doubts I had about the idea, and would present a strong argument to solidify proof of creation by a higher power. I knew we were different than the conservative Christians; we had to be. But the video did nothing but quote scriptures that offered no proof, and the few arguments it made were essentially all arguments of complexity or negative attacks on evolution. Nothing was presented that offered positive evidence of creation.

Again digging in, I read and studied, with a growing dread of finding the truth, the actual truth. Because I knew that if the actual truth was different than the "Truth," as I had come to believe it, I was in for a difficult ride. I dug deeply into the articles that dealt with evolution, creationism, intelligent design (as we had hopped on that bandwagon as soon as it appeared), and I found quote after quote taken out of context, information without any sources, and some blatant untruths, such as indicating that there was a scientific movement to discard evolution.

Of course evolution was not the only area that I dug deeply into, I looked into the history of the organization, I started reading old publications written by Charles Taze Russell, and other early Witness accounts, and I found that these did not gel with what we were saying in our own history books, such as the Proclaimers Book, which is a supposed history book of the Jehovah's Witnesses.

Not only did they not stack up against current writing, but they were filled with the same sort of 'prophesies,' now clearly unfulfilled, and completely rewritten and recompiled to fit our time, since their fulfillment never happened. Also I started digging deeply into the history of the bible, and began, for the first time in my life, a true study of the scriptures - considering both sides of the argument, attempting to look with an open mind.

Even as I started down this road, I still clung to the idea that Witnesses are somehow better people, higher morals, greater integrity than the "world." And just because evolution was true wasn't going to be enough to cause me to leave this utopia within but removed from society. Even if the bible wasn't as reliable as I had hoped, I was certain that we were doing things right. But that's where my appointment came in. As an elder, I sat on judicial committees, I was a part of several investigations of alleged wrongdoing, and was of course made aware of much that transpired in our congregation as well as those around us and across the country. As an elder I found out how little we were trusted to make right decisions; that our decision to disfellowship or reprove was already made for us based on what the elder's book had to say, and if there was any question on our part a quick phone call to the service department delivered what our decision would be, or risk being removed from the position ourselves.

It had been my hope that, even though over time I grew to not believe that the bible was the word of God, that as elders we were there to help people cope with their problems, help people look past themselves and contribute to others. So although I was dealing with some doubt, I plunged forward, trying to serve in every way I could, to rebuild the belief that I had that the Watchtower Organization was the right place to be. But when I found out that a few men thousands of miles away could decide to disfellowship based on a few of the facts, without even seeing the person, let alone hearing them and the heartbreak they felt for violating a commandment of the Watchtower (because many disfellowshipping offenses are found only in the Watchtower, and not the bible), it just broke my heart. It didn't matter how many mental problems they had, or if they had been abused in the past, or were being abused at present.

Although my doubt had started to grow, I couldn't imagine the Jesus I had read about in the gospels, who cured a woman with a life-long ailment despite her choosing to break the law for that chance, I couldn't imagine that man choosing to disfellowship someone from across the country based on a set of rules defined by a group of men. And after several other committee meetings where again and again, regardless of the individual's mentality or often even the nature of their "sin," the decision was handed down either directly from New York, or indirectly by following a flow-chart-like outline in the book that prescribed how judicial committees would happen.

And of course there was no transparency, there were no checks and balances apart from doing something that the leadership didn't like, whether it was a circuit overseer or the service department in New York.

All of this bothered me greatly, I lost sleep night after night as I tried to justify the process. But then I started to look at the statistics of those that were dealt with through a judicial committee, that two thirds never returned after having been disfellowshipped, that Witnesses have the lowest retention rate of any organized religion; I started to think about the problems people had that I knew that were witnesses compared to those that weren't, the number of people I knew that were on anti-depressants that were witnesses, compared to those that weren't. The percentage of marriages between witnesses that fail compared to those that were not, and there simply was no difference. There were more problems and issues within the congregations than there were outside of them, and people were not happier by any stretch. It's not that it didn't provide a great social environment; there were great parties and I have many that I consider to be wonderful friends. In fact Witnesses are in general very honest and decent people; but so are most people that aren't witnesses.

Right now, I have stopped serving as an elder and am in the process of just trying to fall under the radar - hard to do once you're appointed. My family is upset about this whole thing, my friends are all trying to track me down and get me back in. I have basically minimal relationships outside of the Witnesses, and I'm working on strengthening those that I do have. I'm trying to find new friends, but it doesn't come together as easily as all that. The internet has been a wonderful thing for me, and I have derived much strength from being able to talk about what I'm going through with some degree of anonymity. I do worry that someone might find this and do the math, figure out who I am and then see to it that I'm disfellowshipped.

I am also upset that I have to worry about that; that many don't feel that I have the right to believe as I choose, that if I don't agree in lockstep with them that I shouldn't have the privilege of speaking to my family or any of my friends. I'm upset that I can't tell my friends why I am making a change; at least not without them turning me in and destroying my relationship with my family. I have become such an adamant opponent of religion as a result of this combined body of experience that I don't even know where to start.

But I am very thankful that forums such as this exist, and that the people that contribute to it are here. I am thankful for people like Richard Dawkins, PZ Myers, and a host of others that present reason and logic, and provide the scientific, verifiable (and testable) information that helps people to think. So I guess that's my story, obviously there has been much more to the process than just these highlights. I look forward to learning about others here, and thanks for giving me a place to share. I appreciate it.

30

Dear Prof Dawkins.

As a child, God to me was a big invisible man in the sky that made everything and kept me safe. (This is what my parents told me when I enquired where I came from or if I was scared)
As a teenager, God to me was someone I prayed to when I had been caught mis-behaving in school/home due to fear of the forthcoming punishments.
At around 17, I did become "born-again" and for a year, learnt as much as I could, which was mostly how to feel constantly guilty for lusting at attractive females and being prayed for, to rid me of my demons, that I was told had entered into me due to my impure thoughts and actions. I make light and joke of it now, but at the time this was very serious.
I backslid, with much guilt and anguish in my life for a number of years, but never stopped believing. I would feel guilty for not going back into the church and ensuring I would be saved, especially if I heard someone I knew had passed away.

During my "backsliding" years, I always had questions in my mind, such as "If you can only be saved by believing in Jesus and his resurrection, what If you don't get to hear this story? do you still go to everlasting hell?" I was told by a pastor friend, apparently everyone has heard of Jesus and that ignorance, like in law, is no excuse.
I started thinking about the Native Americans, Australians and others who had no idea about this Hebrew God-man until the Europeans arrived (with their guns, bibles and diseases !) and started thinking how sad it was all those millions of people would have to go to hell and it wasn't really their fault they weren't privy to this very important information for so long and when it did arrive, it came so brutally. God of Mercy - who knows every sparrow that passeth away? -

Still - my doubts were set but I couldn't rationalize properly what was going on, I had no alternatives to work from and without God things didn't make sense, yet deep down I knew with God they definately DID NOT make sense, until early 2007 I dared to read your book, "God Delusion". What a relief - what true joy at last. I was free of needless guilt and my mind was open. I have read so much and been introduced to a whole new set of ideas and level of intellect I hadnot encountered previously.

I have re-discovered my childhood passion of space and the cosmos, marvelling at the works of Carl Sagan.
I have also re-discovered my passion of learning how things are the way they are - reading all your books, books on Einstein and many other scientific publications. Philosophy, ancient Greek, Roman, African and Chinese culture has become more interesting and makes more sense. Science is wonderful, I wish I took more care in this area at school.
I now feel genuine awe in my life. I have genuine astonishment and I believe I have become a far greater person as a result of finally acknowledging the truth....I don't believe in any kind of personal God ! Thank you Mr Dawkins.

D Campbell
UK - Nov 2009

31

Dear Mr. Dawkins

I am an 18 year old Norwegian girl who's always been, what you call, "on the fence". In my childhood, also I were, like many others, brought up to believe in God. Most likely because my mother really believed and do still believe (honestly I think she's more "on the fence" than she knows herself). I remember replying to a fellow classmate during the first years of school: "Seriously! You don't believe in God?" Like it was the most natural and obvious thing to do, a given so to speak. But at some point in my life I didn't really think of God or believed in him in any particular way. It was sort of like God just became a background figure in my perception of existence. Forgotten is maybe a more suiting word.

During later years I started to take up on my childhood believes, I guess I was searching for meaning, like all of us do at some point and extent. So I started reading a book called "The Bible, in 100 pages" (that's really peculiar I think, to be able to sum it all up in a hundred pages). All I got out of it was finding myself looking like a question mark, I think I actually laughed. Then I blew dust off my bible. I have not read the whole thing, simply because I didn't need to (even if I were a believer I wouldn't bother, because it's huge, booring and ridiculous). The little I read was enough. I found myself embarassed by my own "almost christian faith", how could one even believe in this, or any other faith for that matter?

So then, I thought of myself as an agnostic. Only to rapidly discover that I was, and still am, nothing but an atheist. Thanks to your book(s), my dedicated brother and my own reasonability.

Now I am content with philosophy and the "gift" of life, I'm also really caught up in my psychology studies. I feel really proud and thankful to be part of evolution, and living it, right now!

My only consern in the matter of belief/non-belief, is all those people in the world who doesn't seem to get it, or in many cases, are not wanting to get it. I know how hard it is to participate in a discussion like this, even with my own mother. How then, will we be able to communicate reasonably with religious people? They don't want to listen, and they make up, in their own mind, plausible evidence against evoulution and atheism, which are not really plausible at all.

My hopes is that human kind, someday, will be open to the truth and the truth only. Science is evidence, and scientists would be the first to shout: My theory was wrong, it need to be modified or exchanged with another, due to the evidence now present. Religious people just point to an outdated book, and say: "Nevertheless, there's our truth."
I find this fact rather mindblowing!

I apologize for any writing errors.

Sincerely, Ann Malene Hals, Norway

32

"Epiphany"

by Cheri Cloninger
Dedicated to Richard Dawkins and Professor David Gray

I closed my Evolutionary Biology textbook and put it in my backpack. I felt funny. The night before I had finished reading "The Blind Watchmaker" by Richard Dawkins, which was assigned reading for the class. We were half-way through the semester. I stood up, exited the classroom and entered the long white hallway with fluorescent lights. Time suddenly seemed to slow down, and my legs felt like hardening clay as each step slowed to the point that I stood completely stationary in the middle of the hall.

At first there were no thoughts, just a dizzy feeling as I looked up at the fluorescent lights and the salt and pepper speckled ceiling. I was vaguely aware of students passing on either side of me, but they were only dark blurs and inconsequential.

I think I stopped breathing. There was an almost audible click accompanied by a blinding flash in the back of my skull. I opened my mouth and sucked in air as if I had been drowning, and the rush of thoughts began. Ironically, the first thought was, Oh my God. Oh my god oh my god oh my god. This all makes sense! This is true. And then: Everything I've ever been taught was a lie. A lie. It was all a lie! The propaganda against evolution, the bedtime prayers, the training to resist evil spirits, the classes on how to stay faithful during the imminent end of the world, the videos of Christians being beheaded by rusty guillotines shown to condition us to be brave and resist the mark of the Beast, the speaking in tongues, the baptism where I was held under until I thought I was going to die, the obsessive prayer to prevent demons from entering my brain in the split second that it might become empty of pure thoughts, the constant guilt lest I accidentally tell a lie, the demons which terrified me every night because I was told that they hovered like vultures waiting to possess, and the belt marks and bruises I had suffered as a child in the name of Jesus......

It was all because of a lie.

And I laughed. I threw back my head and laughed as the bliss bubbled up from inside, the laugher releasing with each breath the chains that held so many burdens to my back and chest, and they rolled off with such reality that I physically felt lighter. It was the "Pilgrim's Progress" in reverse. I laughed for joy in finding my freedom, I laughed at my own gullibility, and I laughed in anger as tears streamed down my face for the child that was psychologically tortured and physically beaten in the name of a lie.

After a moment I began walking toward the exit with a gargantuan grin stuck on my face; shaking my head, still in a daze. It was too much to think and feel all at once, it was too intense of an experience to even explain. The facts had been building up inside for months, creating a foundation with logic as a scaffold; building an argument that was too solid for even my stubborn belief to ignore.

That night I slept soundly for the first time in my entire life. For there were no longer demons in the dark waiting for me. There was only the promise of a new tomorrow; free from internal struggle, open to new possibilities, and finally, the permission to simply be.

-Cheri Cloninger

Below is a link to 2 wonderful pictures of Richard Dawkins and I at the 2009 AAI Convention in Burbank.

http://img340.imageshack.us/img340/9774/dawkinscheri.jpg

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33

Dear Mr. Dawkins

As I slowly made my way through puberty, the regular questions seemed to be very mundane to me; 'will this haircut make chicks like me?' 'how do i get rid of these spots before the weekend?' etc..
Instead, I found myself worrying about my immortal soul (strange for a kid who has never been forcibly indoctrinated at all). Because of this, I began believing in a real God, one who loves and cares about me, looks out for me and certainly gives a damn if I do something as bad as think impurely about a woman...

After several years, I realised my reverence was merely ignorant fear, I was not well-versed in the subject of life, the universe and everything, so I took the easy road, said to myself that there is a God, and spent my time worrying and increasing my chances of stress-related explosive diarrhea.

But still, there must be a God? How can there NOT be a God?

Luckily at that time, a close friend of mine had The God Delusion on his shelf, I recognised your name from a documentary I had watched (albeit, at the time, I dismissed it as a stuffy old man getting angry at God), and promptly read it cover to cover.

Ahhh, the weight off of my shoulders, there is no need to worry. This world is working by itself, maybe now I can get on with my life.

There is no God.
But I am certain that we are here.

It should be obvious what we should be worrying about.

Thank you Richard, you're the man.

- Adam James

34

I never thought I'd commit to anything until I started reading Richard's books. I scan these convertscorner letters and see in every one, a bit of my own experience. I'm still not sure how to characterize the experience as it pertains to myself, other than a just-beginning sense of actually going outside that very self, not having a self at all. I imagine that when you fully see what evolution is doing, the way it works, the seeing renders the self non-existent and eliminates the need for the ultimate self that the ever-changing, replicating(?) self thinks it depends upon ... God. To characterize the experience, some kind of fresh language is needed that arises out of that selflessness. Richard seems to be in touch with that language and can convey the experience. One can only hope that this effort is the beginning of a commitment to conveying another organism's experience of realizing where if fits in the scheme of things.
Tied up in knots there, all right!
Embryonic thoughts?
Thanks for the books, Richard.
They're scrambling my brains but I think that's a good thing! Reason may yet prevail!

35

Dear Professor Dawkins,

I wanted to write you and thank you for the work you do. I have been in and out of christianity all my life and just recently gave up religion for good. The doubts were already there, even when I did go to church I never really felt comfortable. When I prayed, it always seemed I was just speaking to myself as someone who was crazy would do. I finally sat down and read a couple of your books including The God Delusion and decided it was time to let go of the fairy tales and grow up. I have since converted my wife and we are much happier now. We have purged our house of all religious books and now I am working on collecting all of your books. Again, thank you for what you do and have a wondeful day.
Sincerely,
Eric Richey

36

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.

37

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.

38

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

39

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.

40

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

41

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.

42

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

43

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

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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

45

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

46

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.

47

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

48

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

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

50

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