How wrong I used to be.

I am a 14 year old living around Chicago. Around 5 years ago, I met someone by the name of Sara. She was an Atheist, and at the time I was christian. We battled over religion for 5 years and it was only when I opened my eyes when i realized one thing- Religion is CRAP. There is no logic, there is no "good" morality (Or at least nothing that contradicts itself in the Bible.)

In the name of the flying Spaghetti Monster,
Billy

Permalink - Posted Monday, 06 September 2010 at 01:15 AM

Proud to call myself an Atheist

Like one of your earlier posts, I was raised within a Catholic family – albeit one that had lapsed (due to my parents disagreement on the Church’s view on contraception). However, I attended a Catholic school even though I always knew I was not a believer and was always sceptical. Until I read your book The God Delusion, though, I was never comfortable admitting unreservedly and wholeheartedly that I was actually an atheist. I can now say, that I am proud to call myself an atheist and to identify with the thinking that underpins this position. I can now confidently engage in debating with believers in God, Jesus, the Holy Trinity and all the other trappings of Christianity - and have continued to develop a deeper understanding and appreciation of atheism. It is liberating to actively rebut the feeble minded people I meet who call themselves Christians, but who have no intellectual basis for their views, usually just a bland, blind faith. The God Delusion was a catalyst for my full conversion to atheism and provided the inspiration to fully embrace it. So thank you Richard for the book, but also for being so intelligent in dealing with the negative press that you constantly draw from the religious community. You really do set an example for us all.

Paul Donohoe,
Surrey, England

Permalink - Posted Monday, 06 September 2010 at 01:13 AM

calling all atheists in South Africa

My name is Elize Welge. Me and my husband live in a very small rural town called Bronkhorstspruit in South Africa. A VERY religious community. My husband's name is Volker and he was an atheist forever and I recently converted

Permalink - Posted Monday, 06 September 2010 at 01:11 AM

Help

Dear Mr. Dawkins,

I am no journalist nor scientist, I am merely an intelligent human being and devout Atheist that is interesting in starting my first pro-atheist blog site entitled ReligiPoliMusic. My first submission will be an article on intellectual evolution and I was hoping you could share insight on the topic that could help me shape the readers opinion. Im a firm believer in evolution and the fact that we are still evolving as a species not just physically but spiritually. Here's my theory....

Mankind used religion to explain away the world, during a time scientific thought wasn't around. Indians believed in fire gods, gods of war etc... Greeks believed in an ungodly amount of gods, so on and so on. Then all of a sudden we realised only one god was needed to explain it all rather than 1 god per situation. I think the next logical step in our intellectual evolution is to accept the likelyhood of no god at all.

Of course the actual article will be in depth, that's the gist of the point I'm getting at. Please let me know what you think and maybe add a little ammo to my arsenal. Thanks for your time.

SGT Knight, Christopher
U.S. Army, USA

Permalink - Posted Monday, 06 September 2010 at 01:09 AM

Thanks

Dear Richard

I was brought up to believe that “Jesus wants me for a sunbeam, to shine for him each day” at my Sunday School.

I went religiously , as it were , every week.

But from a very early age I just had nagging doubts.

One day, I decided I would rather play football with my friends than attend.

My problem was I had been given money for the collection and thus felt obliged to go (for this and many other reasons).

However in my childish way I constructed a situation where I “lost” my collection money, by throwing it away as it happens.

Now, without my collection money I felt unable to attend and free to play football.

This was of course only the start of my troubles.

Very quickly my young mind worked out that God would have seen what I had done and likely I would be damned for my transgression.

On top of this I had been brought up to be essentially honest and so confessed when I got home, adding that deep down I really did have big doubts about religion full stop.

This prompted the head of the Sunday School to arrange a visit to my home where he and my parents prayed for my salvation.

I was very troubled and in tears but then I noticed the intense embarrassment on my fathers face.

This was not the embarrassment brought on by me bringing shame onto our family but rather his embarrassment at having to go through with the whole charade.

Despite the best intensions of my mother and the Sunday School I never went back and my father later told me that he me he was pleased that I had made the choice I did.

Nearly 40 years later and I can still recite the first 30 or so books of the Old Testament in order despite forgetting half of what I learned studying for my degree.

Such is the power of what you are told when you are so young.

So I was an early convert but your books have helped me understand more effectively why I think what I think and help put the scared, worried and troubled child in me in the right context.

Thanks again

Permalink - Posted Monday, 06 September 2010 at 01:05 AM

Fairy Stories

I'm quite new to being open about atheism, in fact I haven't actually told my Mum and I'm not sure if I will. I was brought up in the church of Scotland, and went along with it until I was 16 as I was told to go until then. After that I only 'had' to go at Christmas, which seeemed a small inconvenience. I also got married in church and have christened all 4 of my children. So what am I doing here?

Well, since I was very small, I really struggled to see the difference between bible stories and the other fairy stories I was so familiar with in childhood, such as Cinderella. It was only when I started reading 'The God Delusion', that I realised I might actually be right about this! I am still half way through the book, and am really enjoying knowing more about why religion makes no sense, and is not necessary.

So anyway, I'm rambling on - what I wanted to say was thanks to Mr.Dawkins for putting all those ideas out there, it's really helping me to answer the critics I come across, and to feel certain about the information I will give my children about the world. Fiona Bullions

Permalink - Posted Friday, 03 September 2010 at 12:57 AM

Noah's Ark!

I always thought that the idea of God was just a bit far-fetched, but for a while was a bit of an agnostic ditherer. I am pleased to say that combined power of The God Delusion and Christopher Hitchen's God is not Great, has ordered and clarified my thoughts. How could I ever have believed such twaddle? (Because it was drilled into me throughout my school life).

I work in a primary school which is not a faith school, but which seems to have its fair share of visiting vicars, pastors and god-squaddy theatre groups. One of the latter re-enacted the tale of Noah's Ark (with much added humour to make it enjoyable), and all the while i was thinking, what a nasty piece of work this god of the old testament was. He commited mass watery genocide, which would have included innocent babies and children, not to mention every other creature on earth (except for the famous pairs of everything). - and all this with the aftermath of hurricane Katrina and the Pakistan Floods fresh in our minds. Nevertheless, some would still sell this to our children as a truth! In my opinion this should have been followed by a discussion about the natural causes of floods, or maybe about how simple tales grow in the telling when passed down the generations. One person even tried to give me a rough idea of the size of the Ark, by saying something like, "It would have stretched from the Post Office about as far as that tree"

Mmmmmmmm, you would have had a job squashing two of everything on to that mate, and just imagine the logistics of collecting them all - "Ham, come over here, just sex this hamster for me, I can't tell what it is, and no I,m not collecting the rattlesnakes, thats your job".

Sorry, getting carried away there, but you get the idea.

Seriously though, it is very alarming and something MUST be done. Keep up the good work Richard, you are a clear voice of reason in a world that is still as mad as it ever was.

Permalink - Posted Friday, 03 September 2010 at 12:51 AM

Noah's Ark!

I always thought that the idea of God was just a bit far-fetched, but for a while was a bit of an agnostic ditherer. I am pleased to say that combined power of The God Delusion and Christopher Hitchen's God is not Great, has ordered and clarified my thoughts. How could I ever have believed such twaddle? (Because it was drilled into me throughout my school life).

I work in a primary school which is not a faith school, but which seems to have its fair share of visiting vicars, pastors and god-squaddy theatre groups. One of the latter re-enacted the tale of Noah's Ark (with much added humour to make it enjoyable), and all the while i was thinking, what a nasty piece of work this god of the old testament was. He commited mass watery genocide, which would have included innocent babies and children, not to mention every other creature on earth (except for the famous pairs of everything). - and all this with the aftermath of hurricane Katrina and the Pakistan Floods fresh in our minds. Nevertheless, some would still sell this to our children as a truth! In my opinion this should have been followed by a discussion about the natural causes of floods, or maybe about how simple tales grow in the telling when passed down the generations. One person even tried to give me a rough idea of the size of the Ark, by saying something like, "It would have stretched from the Post Office about as far as that tree"

Mmmmmmmm, you would have had a job squashing two of everything on to that mate, and just imagine the logistics of collecting them all - "Ham, come over here, just sex this hamster for me, I can't tell what it is, and no I,m not collecting the rattlesnakes, thats your job".

Sorry, getting carried away there, but you get the idea.

Seriously though, it is very alarming and something MUST be done. Keep up the good work Richard, you are a clear voice of reason in a world that is still as mad as it ever was.

Permalink - Posted Friday, 03 September 2010 at 12:50 AM

Will I need to come out for the second time?

Dear Professor Dawkins,

I am a 26 year old female British Military Doctor who has just finished reading The God Delusion.

I had to write to you.

I was brought up as a Roman Catholic. Baptized, attended a Catholic school from the age of 3 until 16, and went to church every Sunday, as well as participating in every other custom and activity that my Catholic upbringing dictated. I never once questioned God, Jesus, the Virgin Mary, or any else that had to do with Catholicism. Everything I was taught, I totally believed, unquestioned.

I remember when I was 16, I ended up in an Anglican Sixth Form, much more open minded than my previous schools. One of the most shocking moments of my life was the moment I met an atheist. I didn’t know such a concept existed! One of my school friends and I were having a chat, and he threw into conversation that he did not believe in God. Images of fire, the devil, eternal damnation and suffering all came to mind. I could not believe for a second that someone could not believe in God. The thought just wasn’t acceptable. I continued to meet other atheists at my school, including my Biology teacher, who was very strongly opposed to religion and had no problem voicing it. I used to think of him as a very poor role model (as he was trying to convince me to not believe in God). One phrase I remember his saying, which will stay with me forever, is – ‘you do not need religion, or God, to tell you how to live. So long as you don’t do harm to yourself, or others, you can pretty much do what you like’. This to me, at 16 years of age, sounded totally absurd and I dismissed it entirely. Thinking about this sentence now (and wondering why I remember it so vividly), it makes a lot of sense to me. The millions of religions that have evolved throughout the ages, claiming to be the one and only truth, have all tried to teach very similar things – in particular about morals and good and evil. What my biology teacher’s statement made me realise was, that, we, in fact, do not need religion to tell us what is good and what is bad (something you clearly explained in your book). However, because of my strict upbringing, it was only 10 years after hearing that statement that I can finally voice that I no longer agree with religion of any kind.

Back to my story, at the same sort of time, I discovered that I was attracted to women. This was a total disaster for me, and as a teenager, trying to form an identity, this mere fact which conflicted with my beliefs was enough to induce what I recall to be several years of suffering and inner conflict. I was also unfortunate enough to have a large family who at the same time decided to divide into 3 main religions. Of my mother’s eight brothers and sisters, all raised as Roman Catholics, two sisters decided to convert to Evangelical Christians, and one brother and his wife became Jehovah’s witnesses. The remaining Catholics became more extreme in order to defend their beliefs against the new and very fanatical views introduced into our family. I recall most of our big family gatherings ending up in complete and utter rage between family members, attempting to convince one another that their particular faith was the ultimate. I would always sit silently in the corner and listen to these debates. The one thing the 3 branches did have in common was an utter dislike of homosexuals. This was particularly enforced by my Jehovah’s witness uncle, who deemed it appropriate to bring in into conversation at every given opportunity, and thereby convincing the others to hate homosexuals as much as he did. From my eyes, and my naïve mind, the message I received almost weekly was that I was hated by God, that I would go to hell and that I deserved to be unhappy. The other choice for me was to avoid homosexuality altogether and overcome my desires by praying to God and becoming very religious.

When these people talk about homosexual acts, and how these can be avoided, like any other ‘non-righteous’ sexual act, they forget that sexual orientation is not just about having sex with the same gender. They forget that it is a form of a loving relationship between two human beings, that by forming a bond, not only sexual, but also intellectual and spiritual, become one. By asking us to avoid acting out these desires, they are also asking us to be denied of a relationship with another human being which would bring us companionship, friendship, love and fulfilment. So, the path of chastity was a path of loneliness, of self denial, and of ultimate absolute unhappiness. Despite this, I did in fact try this path. I attended several Catholic retreats with my sister, and I would sit in confession with the priests and explain my predicament. They would provide me with the ‘tools’ necessary to avoid homosexuality. Daily prayer, pamphlets on guidance from ‘ex-homosexuals’ and rituals which were not dissimilar to exorcism. I tried, with all my heart and mind to follow their advice, but I remember nothing more than a feeling of pure and utter misery throughout those years (years when I should’ve been embracing my own self discovery, and increasing my self esteem, not trampling on it over and over again). After many attempts to ‘become straight’ and to live a ‘virtuous life according to God’, I realised that my attempts were futile. I honestly cannot understand how so many people truly believe that homosexuals are on a par with say, paedophiles, and that both behaviours are equally wrong?

Luckily, and in retrospect, the whole issue with sexuality, for me, was the gate that opened my mind away from religion. As soon as something as big as my sexuality came into conflict with my otherwise unquestioned beliefs, I started to question everything. At the same time, I was at University studying Medicine, and came into contact with many religious individuals, from several denominations, as well as agnostics and atheists. I decided to keep an open mind and indeed participated in discussions with my evangelical Christian friends as well as one particular devout Muslim girl (who luckily was open minded enough to listen to me!) amongst others. I came across a very interesting individual, a profound atheist, who opened my eyes again, but this time to a very different perspective. Before him, every atheist I’d met was very happy to respect other people’s beliefs and never once tried to ‘indoctrinate’ me. Therefore a lot of their ‘non beliefs’ sort of passed me by, unnoticed. This particular friend however, was more than happy to voice his opinion when I told him I was, at the time, the vice president of the Catholic society. We engaged in lots of discussions, but as someone that tends to sit on the fence a lot (which I don’t think is a bad thing when one is going through the process of finding truths) I was always more than happy to listen to his views rather than try to oppose them with mine.

The more I discussed with different denominations, and the more interesting, lovely, moral people I met, who all happened to have totally different religious (or non religious) backgrounds, the more I started to doubt the teachings of my own religion, and then consequently of every other religion that exists. Logical questions such as: every single religion claims to be the ultimate truth, based on faith and unquestioned belief. So, who is right? They all differ so much, yet they all claim enlightenment. This fact made me very curious. Also the fact that so far, in my 26 years, by rule of thumb, the vast majority of people that I’ve met that are the most open minded, respectful of others’ beliefs and cultures, least racist/ageist/sexist, amongst other things, have all been atheists!!!!! Considering that God is supposed to be a God of love, compassion, loyalty, etc, and that Jesus taught us to not judge, and to love everyone the same, it is ironic that the only people who seem to truly follow the above are non believers. Again, I totally agree with you when explaining that we do not need religion to have morals.

To finish my story (and this is my trying to summarise what has been a very difficult and confusing past few years), I went through the process of ‘coming out’ as gay to my friends and immediate family at the same time as trying to analyse all my former religious education. Needless to say, being a ‘child of Catholic parents’ and gay, makes the process of coming out even more difficult. Add to that my entrenched fears of going to hell, of being hated by God, and generally of going against everything that I grew up with, it’s no surprise that many people suffer unnecessarily, again, due to religion. I wonder how my teenage years would’ve been had I not had such a strict religious upbringing.

Now, after a long process, I can now happily call myself gay and I am very fortunate to live in a fairly tolerant society where most people accept homosexuals as natural variation. I have had to work very hard on regaining my self-esteem, but all this process has given me so much self awareness that I think it’s been very worthwhile. For the past few years I have more and more strongly doubted the existence of God. I never dared to mention this to anyone, but it has become more and more difficult for me to believe in the concept. It seems that the obvious step now is that I will eventually go through the process of coming out again, not as a gay person, but as a non believer. The thought itself fills me with dread. And despite my logical mind telling me the truth, I do still feel afraid of hell and God from time to time! I agree with you that indoctrinating children from a very young age is a form of child abuse. I do not see my particular case as extreme as that, because I know that my parents, like many others, had my best interest at heart. Still, it is fascinating to see what these beliefs can do and how they stick around even in the light of opposing evidence.

I know I still have a long way to go along this path of discovery. I am just grateful that unlike many others, I had the opportunity to see beyond what I was taught, and I feel happy that my mind has been cleared.

Thank you for your book, it has been enlightening to say the least.

(I shall remain anonymous at this stage. Maybe sometime in the near future I will be able to put my name down and proudly announce my new set of non-beliefs)

Permalink - Posted Friday, 03 September 2010 at 12:42 AM

Islam to Atheism

Hi,

I would like to thank Richard for all his work. Having watched a lot of his debates and reading his books, I became a atheist, after following Islam since birth.

I fully believe in Evolution, and hope that the human race will advance in science. Religion is simply slowing down the process!

I hope to one day meet Richard, he is simply my inspiration.

Give him my regards,

Sohail

Permalink - Posted Friday, 03 September 2010 at 12:40 AM

From Father to Child

Richarddawkins.net,

Apologies, I have no idea who to address this too. First, here's a little bit for converts corner to save me sending two emails (cc'd in)

"As a child brought up in an Irish-Italian (so more than a little bit Roman Catholic!) family, religion was always pretty much assumed to be the truth. The only time I ever really questioned anything was when I was 6 years old, and I remember asking my teacher then unanswerable question of what God was doing before he made everything. In my 6 year old head, he hadn't invented clouds so had nothing to sit on, therefore I asked if he was just 'falling through the sky'. I went to a pretty liberal set of catholic schools, where we were taught evolution in science and the gospel of Mark in R.E so I never really thought about whether the big fella up there actually was so after this point.

So here I am at university and my father begins to declare that he is no longer a Catholic, and he has found the truth. He has become a, if you will, born again atheist! Urging me to read the God Delusion he told me that someone 'of my smarts' should be enlightened too.

Just less than 6 months later, here I am, looking at expensive train tickets down to London to protest the Pope on 18th September. I cannot begin to express the weight I feel has been lifted off my shoulders.

Thank you.

Oh, and the God Delusion (now tatty!) has been passed around the family. Apologies for not buying extra copies!"

Permalink - Posted Friday, 03 September 2010 at 12:33 AM

Trying to Expand My Mind

Dear Professor Dawkins,

I was brought up in a fairly nonreligious home, and by that I mean that my parents didn't force it down my throat as bad as others. However, my father still argues with me that the red words in the bible are inerrant. I am on chapter 8 of The God Delusion, to which he commented "The delusion that God isn't real?". He's become a bit more hostile, as I've become more reasonable and confident in my own knowledge. His beliefs are very detailed to his likings, even as he admits that that is what everyone tends to do.

I'm 18 in October this year, raised in East Texas of the Bible Belt. There are less than 10 atheists I know and can discuss in person with here. However, I've taken up the fight against ignorance and blind faith. I think I've successfully turned my mother into a deist, at least. In her eyes, "in the end, you're better off believing than not."

I was merely agnostic for the past 3 years, before which I believed, in your Einsteinian sense of the word, deism, generally. This year, beginning as a closet atheist, I've started reading more books, particularly evolutionary psychology and the science of superstition (also the name of a book I plan to read, aka Supersense), and hardly anything fiction (save the bible!). I've become a very militant atheist, thanks to my friends turning me to your book, among others, such as Bart Ehrman's Misquoting Jesus. Here, I'd like to thank you personally for your incredible work!

I've heard of the event that you're speaking at in Houston on October 5th! I'd really love to go, but I'm afraid either tickets will sell out before I can convince my father to order one, or, of course, I won't convince him. Already, he claims it to be a waste of time and a step in the wrong direction in expanding my mind.

Again, thank you, and I would hope that once I am able to go to such an event, that you could come back to Texas (if I'm still here at that point) for another event!

Regards,

Clark

Permalink - Posted Thursday, 02 September 2010 at 11:29 PM

You are all individuals...I'm not!

To Mr Dawkins and anybody else out there in the illuminating sunlight (not the fog).

Very quickly, I was lent The Selfish Gene several years ago which got me thinking but it was The God Delusion that changed everything.... I must say, it didn't make up my mind; what it did do was help me use my mind to collate and critically assess the evidence before me. I have never been a church goer and was what Richard has described as a fence sitter... not really believing or in fact liking religion but keeping it locked away ready for use at any time (like the multitude out there, I was hedging my bets).

Not anymore!

There is beauty in evolution; after all, what is more satisfying? is it plagiarising a piece of work? Copying a photo? Walking past a prefab house? Or is it writing a book? Spending months modelling stone to form a image? Standing beneath the walls of century old buildings which had taken decades to build (I was thinking of the pantheon...art and science are apparently not without a sense of irony)... Good things, wonderful things, unique things, awe-inspiring things are not created in 6 days or a blink of an eye... they take months, years, even millennia; and rightly so... it is the time invested in them that make them so worth while.

I apologise for any grammar mistakes...it is 1 am and I really should be in bed.

Once again, thank you Richard Dawkins

Permalink - Posted Wednesday, 01 September 2010 at 08:46 PM

Thank You

Dear Richard Dawkins

I would like to start by thanking you for your work thus far and commend you for your bravery in the face of quite vicious opposition.

I have to admit I was once at the forefront of such opposition. I used to attend a small Baptist Church in Dorset ran by American fundamentalists, every Sunday and Wednesday were devoted to worship and Bible study. The further I studied the Bible the more it revealed the nature of God but unlike most Christians this did not make me closer to God, in fact it only made me question his nature, so called compassion and even existence.

At first I felt guilty about my lack of faith but in time I began to accept the fact that I was living a lie and began indulging, in secret, in behaviour condemned by the Bible. Such behaviour made me new, secular friends. I felt the need to keep my church attendance a secret from my new friends and keep my doubts secret from everyone at church. Despite the fact that I was torn between two very different worlds I kept attending church, I found the more I attended the more I doubted the existence of God until eventually I knew in my heart God did not exist.

I remember seeing your book The God Delusion on a friend’s book shelf, the very idea of a book of this kind of nature fascinated me. Later that week I bought the book in secret. From beginning to end I was gripped, it made me confident in my newly found closet atheism. This book not only answered any questions I still had about atheism in absolute clarity but it also gave me the courage and motivation I needed to leave the church and come clean about my lack of faith. I remember reading the chapter about pushing against the Burka of unknowing. I felt so uplifted and excited about my new life as an open atheist, I wept.

Reading The God Delusion was a defining moment in my life and the purpose of this email was to thank you. You are truly inspiring and your work is not just brilliant but necessary.

Thank you,
Andrew Norman

Permalink - Posted Wednesday, 01 September 2010 at 08:44 PM

Thanks for everything

Dear Mr Dawkins,

I e-mail you simply as yet another grateful fan and admirer. I, like so many others (particularly in a Catholic stronghold like Ireland), I was raised by fundamentally religious parents.

As a child, obviously I never really questioned what I was being raised to believe. However, as I advanced into my teenage years, I found myself becoming more and more interested in nature. I’d watch a lot of Attenborough documentaries, and I was fascinated by dinosaurs and ancient life-forms. I suppose it was the glaring contradictions between religion and natural science that planted those first seeds of doubt. However they were merely seeds and I retained my belief in the Christian God.

As I hit my mid to late teens my faith was shaken when I learned the extent of my parents literal belief in the Bible, that communion was actually the body of Christ, the wine was his blood, and (probably) most astonishingly of all, the preposterous Genesis account of creation. I began to take my mothers religious ramblings with a whole handful of salt. They believed The Big Guy created heaven (believed to be about 3e24 stars) and the earth in one 'day’ (what was a day before the sun?). This is essentially, the entire universe. To me, this is like rowing 3,000 miles across the Atlantic in a canoe, dropping anchor millimeters short of New York, and saying “I’ll finish the journey over the next five days!” Having said that, I found it hard to shake off the feeling that there was a judgmental deity 'up there', and I questioned the wisdom of religious satire.

By this point I was confused about life and its origins, and probably quite vulnerable. I was desperately looking for some proper, straight answers. However the lack of broadband in our area, or Internet in our house for that matter (Ireland generally lags years behind the rest of the western world in a lot of respects, at least in the midlands, where I’m from) was a hindrance, to put it mildly. This is when I first came across your work, in the form of the documentary ‘The Root of All Evil?’. The name Richard Dawkins stuck in my mind. I had stumbled upon just the kind of straight talking, intelligent, pull-no-punches arguments I had been searching for. I began looking through book stores for more information on the subject, when I stumbled upon the (un)holy grail: The God Delusion. I must point out that I was by no means a book worm, and very rarely picked up and read an entire book. This has of course changed since I read God Delusion, and now I’ve got an increasingly large library of books, including the likes of Climbing Mount Improbable, The Selfish Gene, The Greatest Show on Earth and The Origin of Species.

Not only has your work lifted the fog of religion out of my life, but as a result I now view nature in a whole new, wonderful, inspiring light. I feel for all the people who are unaware of the ‘theory’ of evolution, or who dismiss it as contradictory to their beliefs. I don’t think these people could possibly see the true beauty of nature and of life; that every life form is the result of a pectacularly long ling line of successful organisms, since the dawn of life. As Darwin said, “there is grandeur in this view of life”. Indeed, this is probably an understatement. On a side note I think it’s a disgrace that children aren’t thought Natural Selection in schools. In the entire length of time I was in school, I only remember a few fleeting references to evolution, compared to a countless hours wasted on Bible stories.

Despite not being a confrontational type of person, I take great satisfaction in getting into religious debate. Whilst in town recently, one local man just so happened to be letting everybody who would listen know what he thought of Atheism. He began feeding me the usual nonsense like how do I explain morality, what do I think will happen when I die (to which I was glad to produce one of my favourite quotes, from Mark Twain, “I had been dead for billions and billions of years before I was born, and had not suffered the slightest inconvenience from it”) and all the usual vacuous crap. He was nothing but courteous at first, but soon gave up his hollow debate, along with his integrity, and stormed off whilst calling me an “atheist scumbag”.

I don’t take this kind of comment personally, but it annoys me that most people simply will not listen to scientific evidence, and choose to believe their own baseless fables. The level of superstition that people believe leaves me both amazed and depressed in equal measure. There seem to be more people who completely deny global warming is happening, despite the mountain of evidence, than people who accept there is a problem. When they are presented with undeniable evidence, they often reply “If it is true, then it’s Gods doing, not humanities”. This is, of course, a very dangerous view.

So, I think I’d better wrap up this letter as it’s getting quite long. While I wasn't a person of strong faith, I was a vulnerable teen looking for answers. Your book was essentially a guiding hand towards liberalism and rationality, away from simplistic thinking and prejudice. I shudder at the thought of what might have been had I not seen that documentary and found The God Delusion. Perhaps I would have been reeled back into their cult, and be writing a letter for the “bad” or “ugly” page of richarddawkins.net. So, thanks for everything you weren’t aware you done for me.

Paul Henson
Westmeath, Ireland

Permalink - Posted Wednesday, 01 September 2010 at 08:33 PM

Converted? I think I was already!

May I start by saying I have never felt the urge to write to any of my favourite authors or sportsmen or call into a radio show to express my opinion. So it comes as a great surprise that I am doing this to a person who has generated so much thought, interest and dare I admit, excitement (if that is the correct word) just from reading two of your books (one and a half actually, as I am half way through ‘The Greatest Show on Earth).

I am a 31 year old male from a mildly religious Christian background. (In your very correct words, I am a child of Christian parents!) My Grandmother was Italian and a strict Catholic. My parents never forced any religion on me but from a young age I was in the Cub Scout movement and we were encouraged to attend various services and educated into the thought of a Christian way of life, whatever that means.

I am no means what I would call an intellectual. I didn’t finish my A level education as I wished to enter the workplace, so I consider myself an average, run of the mill human being. Around 4 years ago I saw a copy of ‘The God Delusion’ staring back at me in a bookshop and the title itself summed up my feeling on religion.

In the past, I have wondered how so many well educated people can actually be ‘fooled’ into believing the delusion in all of its forms and guises. The book eloquently didn’t deride any faiths but set out a meaningful objection and in some cases passionate reasoning as why religion and faith are flawed. I remember thinking that this is the kind of thing that should be taught in schools alongside religious education. For years I felt unable to have a logical discussion with my parents, teachers and Grandparents on how believing in Santa Claus was for children but belief in God was what ‘we just do’. The thought of me raising any children and the establishment that I grew up in forcing certain beliefs on them before they are old enough to decide themselves is terrifying, yet goes on every day.

I have found over the years that atheists like myself just can’t be bothered in the age old arguments that crop up in any discussion so just carry on living their lives, experiencing the awe and wonder of the universe, the earth and everything in it. After your dedication to Douglas Adams, I read his entire series of Hitchhiker novels and laughed aloud at the religious connotations while marvelling at the fictional wonder of his created universe (if only God had a sense of humour like that!)

‘The Greatest Show on Earth’ is proving to educate me even further on areas I have never been interested in. Explaining examples of evolution and biology and, in layman’s terms, getting the point across that the evidence for evolution is there to be seen by our own very eyes, should we just open them and look straight at it.

The point of this email is to thank you for helping me not only finalise my beliefs (or non beliefs) but for opening my eyes and making me realise it is the right thing to question, to wonder and most of all to enjoy what we have in this life and not pander to any mythical beings that say we must do this and that. I only wish my family and friends would read your work as I am dying to discuss it with them. I will move on to your earlier books when I have finished this one.

Keep up the good work! (One more converted)

Lee

Permalink - Posted Wednesday, 01 September 2010 at 04:30 AM

Well I Never....

Hi My name is John Blackhall and I have a question.

I can't be a convert, or can I? I was baptised a Catholic. I went to Sunday school (breifly), my parents were asked to send me somewhere else. I asked questions of our religious instructor at Primary School (Looking back I felt a little sorry for him as he battled on regardless of the sane and often inane questions us curious eight year olds asked him). I think he was the reason I never accepted religion. He couldn't answer what I as an eight year old would have thought a person in his position should have known the answer to. Who made God?

I think I have answered my own question. I am a convert!

John Blackhall

Permalink - Posted Wednesday, 01 September 2010 at 04:25 AM

Free at last

Having been raised in what I will describe as a fringe Protestant cult, and having brought up my own family in the same belief system I am now, very happily, free of religious dogma and belief. Professor Dawkins' book The God Delusion was certainly instrumental in my journey from strong belief to where I am now. The superstitions I absorbed as a child were fairly easily dealt with in the light of rational and scientific argument. Harder to shift were the dogmatic creationist ideas arguing for the uselessnes of say, half an eye, if evolution were true. Some residual ideas can lodge quite firmly in the mind even when the overarching belief system has been discredited. TGD dealt with these ideas so clearly, logically and simply that it was not just a pleasure to read but it was a lesson in how confused one's thinking can get when steeped in religious and superstitious ideas.

I am very grateful to the likes of Professor Dawkins for the logic, clarity and simplicity of his arguments. It is a real pleasure to be free of the fear-based, esoteric confusions that were the hallmark of the brand of religion that I was exposed to. Thankyou, Professor Dawkins.

Jeannie Clarke

Permalink - Posted Wednesday, 01 September 2010 at 04:17 AM

The Reality of Life: Science

Dear Mr. Prof. Richard Dawkins,

My name is Çağrı Mert Bakırcı and I am a Turkish student, studying in Middle East Technical University, Turkey.

My questioning of life and religion has started a little bit earlier than other people, about at the age of 10. Although Turkey has always been in a religious fundamentalist position, most of them uneducated in terms of collage/university education or even high school education, I have always had an educated and questioning friend environment. Also, I accept that, the "hidden" pressure on people who question the religion have triggerred the anarchist side of mine and that led me to the questioning of religion, Islam, God, Allah and all the other so-called divine and religious stuff at a very young age.

I first started questioning: "What I am really believing in?" And this question was because of the fact of realizing the reality that the prayers of mine was changing literally nothing in my life. At that ages, about 8-9, you pray for small and useless things like toys, having a girlfriend (the first girlfriend, actually), etc. You know, I was thinking that these shouldn't be this much difficult for the so-called "creator of everything" (Allah, in our case)! OK, I was accepting that I must be a good little boy to have those, but even if I were, my wishes and subjects of prayers had always been realized at unexpected times or at times that I knew the reason why it is realized. To clarify, I had prayed for an atari (the most primitive game console) at the age of 6-7 for a long long time and nothing had happened. After I stopped praying about it, about 2 years have passed and my mum promoted! And after that, as my parents knew my wish because I told them too many times (I was playing safe even at that age), very reasonably, they bought me an atari. Some other failed prayers like this suddenly made me realize that, my wishes had nothing to do with a God! It was only about the "correct timing" of life. I made some experiments and observations about prayers and realized that nothing was happening by chance; I mean no wish needed a prayer! The wishes were coming true, because the variables in the equation leading to a success of wish was turnin out to be positive! And that was why, people think that God was doing something and they keep praying. Actually nothing was affecting the life, there was only too many variables.

After realizing this, I started to question the different areas of religion. All of them had logical explanations. Nothing seemed to be "divine" or nothing seemed to be "extraordinary". That was the time I stopped praying and trying to analyze the variables behind my wish and change them, serving to my needs and wishes. That meant working and working hard. And that made me realize, people were praying, because they were afraid to change things. They were afraid, because they did not find the power to change things in themselves. That was why they were not aware of and I was.

My questioning and justifying the argument that every divine thing can be explained have been continuing since that time! At the age of 14, I read Quran for the first time and I was still a believer but not like I used to. But still, I read the book as a believer, in my own language, Turkish and tried to find out where I was wrong about religion, where I was wrong about Allah, where I was wrong about prayers, etc. I was not wrong! I was shocked when I finished reading! I remember telling myself "Is that the 'Great Book' that have been shaping people's lives! You must be kidding me!" There was nothing in that book. Lots of repetitions, lots of psychological supressions, lots of mythological children stories, lots of junk! The book was supposed to be "universal and beyond time" but even the simplest moral and judicial arguments it tried to made was unacceptable in the 21st century! People had kept telling me that science was only repeating the things Quran said 1400 years ago but there was only 5-6 scientific information (which is a shame for me to call "scientific" to that stuff) which had known until before Christ (BC)! There was nothing new! Even I could understand these with the knowledge of life I had in High School years, how possibly could people still believe in these things, that was what I couldn't understand. Then I stopped and start thinking extra-critically. Something was wrong about these people, these book. And then I realized, noone was even reading the book! People had been reading the book in Arabic (which they do NOT know how to speak or understand) and they were just "memorizing" it. The knowledge of them was coming from funny religious TV programs and books, which were just the interpretations of some other people! That was incredibly insane! How could it be? This was a book that had been supposed to change and shape your life and you don't even bother to read it! Incredible!

After realizing this, everything changed too fast for me. I started reading, inquiring, investigating, examining the realities behind religion. I found out that everything we know has always been based on lies, human stories and/or human nature. Every single religious story, every single religious law had a logical and scientific meaning and explanation. It didn't have to be divine!

At the age of 16, I started to feel and act like an atheist, or more like an agnosticist, I would say. I was sure that all religions were lies! They were human-made and had scientific and basic explanations: How they arose, how they spreaded, how they were believed, what techniques did the writers of these books used to make people believe, how people were forced to believe these books, and millions of realities about religion. I was not pretty sure of God's (or Allah's) being because I could find neither prooves nor refutations for its being. And that was when I felt like I must wake up the most people I can from the child story they were believing in: Religion.

That was the time, I met your books, dear Mr. Professor Dawkins. I read all of your books in less than 2 months and I analyzed them. I saw that we were thinking almost the same (but you had more knowledge than me, of course). That really connected me to your ideas, sir. And you gave me hope & power that we could change something. That we shouldn't be ordinary atheist. That we should spread the truth abour life. Forget about subjective phenomena of "truths". We must spread the "realities" of life! And realities are objective. They do not accept any Gods, any wishes, and "believes". Realities only accept, what is a "reality". What must be accepted by every single human being. And I realized that the quest of reality was being made by a source called "science". That was the time, my science love began unstoppably.

I really fell in love and started with the most favourite subject of mine: Biology. I started reading about cells, organisms, taxonomy, etc. just as a hobby. Then I met Evoulutionary Biology and this changed my life. I read the "Origin of Species" by Darwin (I wish I could read the 1st edition), I read the books about the analysis of the Origin of Species, I read many books about the Theory of Evolution annd Abiogenesis Theory, including yours, dear Stephen Jay Gould's and many more's. And I was not the type to just do research on somethings and let it be. I needed to spread the realities to others. So I started to become members of websites and organizations. I started debating on religion, God and Evolution wih my friends, with people whom I don't know.

That was not enough for me. I started reading on Astrophysics, Physics and Quantum Mechanics. I wanted to learn the realities of the universe. I read Stephen Hawking, Carl Sagan, Richard Gott, Steven Weinberg and many more. I was becoming more and more knowledged about life and realities of the universe. And I didn't stop there, also:

I had the ability to write essays. Long ones, like this letter of mine. Even many times longer ones. I started writing articles abour religion, science, philosophy and fate. I started learnin Biology, Evolutionary Biology, Physics, Quantum Physics and many more. I read over 300 books in a period less than 2-3 years. I read the most famous physicsts, biologists, philosophers, thinkers, and so on. I created my own life vision, which was based on atheism (but not the conventional one, the one we call "The New Atheism"). I increased the number of debates I was attending (usually not formal ones) and increased the number of essays I write in the following years.

Now, I am 21 years old and I am still debating, writing and researching. I am, unfortunately, not a biologist or physicist but I am interested in these more that anything and I keep reading and researching.

Now I am almost sure that (science never claims certain results, as you know, sir) any form of God does NOT exist. All religions and Gods themselves are the creation of human mind. We are all in a fairy tale, being told by our parents, and bein brainwashed from the very beginning of our childhood.

I am still trying to spread the reality. I created a blog of myself, writing on these. I am writing at the largest website of Turkey, who brings only the university students together. I am trying to start debates on these issues anywhere I am at and I am trying to trigger people to think, to investigate, to question their believes and what they take for granted.

Dear Mr. Richard Dawkins, my only wish is to meet a great professor like you and at least talk about these issues for just 10 minutes. I know it is funny but I really would love to share my ideas with you personally. If you may be interested in this offer of mine, please write me back and I can arrange anything to meet you personally.

Before finishing my words, I see myself as the "Turkey's branch" of yours. Because we are headed to the same direction, just in different countries. I will never stop spreading what I believe is true and my love of science will never end. You have a great part in these feelings of mine and I want to thank you for this.

I wrote just an insignificant portion of my life and insignificant portion of my ideas in this letter. I hope you write me, Mr. Dawkins, at least positively or negatively. I just want to know that you have read this letter of mine.

Keep spreading the reality.

Yours sincerely, Cagri Mert Bakirci

Permalink - Posted Wednesday, 01 September 2010 at 04:05 AM

The Lie They Portray

Hello.

I left the religious lie before reading The God Delusion, but it did reinforce my view to some extent. The recent Sky TV programme was frightening in that it displayed the fundamentalist core of all religions, and the lie they portray to the vulnerable masses. Religion has been responsible for most of the worlds tragedies. Including my own Ireland, and also where I served on military and police duties, Lebanon and former Yugoslavia.

Good luck with the message.

Tom Mansfield.

Permalink - Posted Wednesday, 01 September 2010 at 04:02 AM

My story - devout Christian turned outspoken atheist

Dr. Dawkins:

I hope you are able to read this e-mail. I notice from your book and website that you enjoy correspondence from fans. I think you will find my story interesting. I also wanted to extend my appreciation and respect for your work.

I was raised in a family devoutly Christian on both sides. My parents, as well as my extended family, are great people and I love them dearly. But they raised me as a "Christian child," offering no discussion of the possibility that God does not exist. As I child I was led to believe that creationism, the death and resurrection and the virgin birth were simply facts of life. I accepted this, as any child would (one of my favorite points of "The God Delusion," it struck a very personal note with me). Through my teen years I believed that humans were placed on this plant by God, and that we should all try to live according to his will. I looked with contempt upon issues such as abortion, homosexuality, and promiscuity. I felt I was living the way my creator wanted me to.

As I matured, however, I began to have doubts. These started with a realization that the teaching of the church seemed to be discriminatory and out-dated. Then I began to question whether or not God even exists. This was a torturous time for me. I was raised in a family and society that stigmatized non-belief. The word "atheist" was a taboo connotation of evil. I briefly believed that I was in fact what I had always been told atheists were - a misguided soul with a weak sense of faith.

But, after all, you can't help what you believe. I soon realized that my sense of logic simply would not allow me to believe in God. There was no use torturing myself trying to fight this fact. So, I embraced it. I read up on atheism (from a non-Chrsitian point of view), secular humanism, skepticism, and, of course, evolution. WOW! This was the stuff for me. Everything suddenly clicked. Of course there is no God! And, better than that, who needs one?! I turned my doubts and misgivings into a new philosophy and lifestyle. I now embrace logic and reason, science, and humanism. I have learned that I don't need God to give my life purpose. The purpose of life is to live it to the fullest, to make others and yourself as happy as possible. At the same time I realized the erroneous ways of Christianity. You know these better than I, so I will not recite them back to you.

The point is that since I decided to embrace atheism and skepticism I am a much happier person. I can now enjoy life free of the guilt of sin and fear of eternal damnation. I can now appreciate the spectaular things of nature. Theists like to say that natural beauty strengthens their religious beliefs, but to me it is much less satisfying to think that such beauty exits merely because someone created it, not because of the magnificence of science and evolution.

Atheism and humanism are who I am. I am happy now because I am not trying to be someone I'm not. In my heart of hearts I like to believe that the teenager who looked down on gay couples and women who had abortions was little more than a misguided youth who had not yet realized his true beliefs. Today I am proud to be an outspoken proponent of equality. It feels good because I know it's what is right.

I am currently entering my senior year of college. I am applying to many of the top U.S. law schools, and plan to use my career to protect the civil rights of others. This has become my passion and my career. I know that I have found what I am going to be great at and what will make me t happy. I am incredibly grateful for this, as many people never find such a field. I would never have found mine without my conversion.

I was an atheist before reading your book, "The God Delusion." That certainly did not lessen the profound impact it has had on me. Before reading your book I was the type of atheist who said "I don't believe in things I have no evidence of. You can't prove there is a God, so HA!" While this is certainly a difficult argument to counter, in spite of its simplicity, your book has elevated me to the next intellectual level of atheism. I am now able to say precisely why religious beliefs are flawed, cite evidence against God's existence, and give explanations as to why atheism is actually quite the opposite of someone simply losing their faith or falling into Satan's grasp. Your pinpoint logic, flawless acknowledgment and response, and impeccable historical and scientific knowledge make the book an unbeatable weapon.

You have shown me there is absolutely nothing to be ashamed of in atheism - it is actually something to be proud of. Today I am happy to call myself a proud atheist.

Thank you and keep up the good work.
Dan Hido Erie, PA

Permalink - Posted Tuesday, 31 August 2010 at 03:22 AM

A coming out party

Professor Dawkins,

My name is John Wheeler. I am 33 years old and I am living in good old Sin City(Las Vegas, NV). Seems a fitting place to live for the godless. I was recently introduced to your writing by a friend and in having read your latest books I must say I am a huge fan. It seems funny, the last time I read a book was in high school when I was forced to. Now within the last three weeks I have burned through The God Delusion, The Greatest Show on Earth, and God is Not Great by Christopher Hitchens. I am overwhelmed by how very interesting these books are. At the same time I have had a great feeling of satisfaction I guess, in seeing that there are people out there that see religion as false and bias. For years I have looked at all religion with very skeptical eyes. Calling myself Agnostic because I saw no reason to believe in any god. Religion has made me lose friends and excluded me from family interactions. The subject of god has even caused my wife to threaten divorce upon me for my "inability to be sensitive to Christians" even though she herself is not very religion and certainly not a Christian. Today I wish to stop calling my self Agnostic but rather I wish to come out and call myself an Atheist. I wish to thank you for helping me to understand the importance of evidence and critical thinking. I will never call myself smart but I certainly am more informed now than I was just three weeks ago. You can add me to you growing list of converts. This is the start of my coming out party and I look forward to the twisted looks on the face of everyone I tell. I will recommend your books to everyone I can. Not to steal a line from Bill Mahar but "I hope your book is in every hotel room in America"

Thank you again,
John Wheeler

Permalink - Posted Tuesday, 31 August 2010 at 03:11 AM

Anglicans are worse than most realise...

As I write this I chuckle to myself because I am sitting just two seats away from my mother who is oblivious to the fact that I am an atheist and that I am writing this. Soon I hope i will finally pluck up the courage to tell my family I am an atheist, but having studied their reactions to any uncomfortable problems regarding religion I am still nervous as to how they will react because of their views that they hold...

Having been an Anglican for 16 years because of my upbringing I have first hand experience as to just how damaging the indoctrination of children is. Anglicanism prides itself on it liberal attitudes and "encouragement of discussion". This however is translated by my experience as "we will discuss what we wish you to discuss". Having being brought up in christian primary AND secondary schools as well as a christian 6th form I had met only other believers and a few sikhs, a few muslims and one jew. We discussed sex, drugs, the usual stuff, but until I met atheists (and numerous amounts of them) I had NO IDEA of just how much I had not thought about. Unless you hear about something you will most likely not think about it and this is one of the alarming traits about the anglican church. I had never questioned my religion as most don't, but I had also never questioned or even thought about having any views on homosexuality, abortion, sex in general, assisted suicide. For some of these issues I had extremely fascist and degenerate views that I had never even thought about. I realised after my convertion just how mad these views were.

I don't remember a lot of my religious life now. It may just be that I have hit that stage where you remember more about yourself because your self-awareness opens up, but I believe that It is because of the opening up of my mind by my friends that I now know and remember so much more. Appparantly I, just a few months before becoming an atheist, likened you to a terrorist proffessor. I don't even remember this-just a few months back and apparantly in a large debate I had with a good friend of mine. I now look upon my aquaintences who are religious with an extreme pity. Every one of them that I have questioned about their views has given me the same answers that I myself used to hold and always refuse to change their views despite the fact that I ALWAYS trap them in their own logic. The answer I always recive is "god can do the impossible" and It never progresses from there...

I do not leap on people and question them about their views, I merely state mine when asked and them ask them theirs, yet I am (as you are) constantly accused of being strident, shrill and un-empathetic towards a believers views. Yet it is in one of these "moderate anglican schools" that a very dear friend of mine was called a waste of space by a male student no less than 12/13 purely for being an atheist and not believing that the only reason women are on this earth is to procreate. These types of views are RAMPANT among students in the school. Stereotypes based on gender, derogatry comments towards homosexuals and bi-sexuals are commonplace among them. Respect for faith (especially muslims) is constantly hammered into you. Respect for lack of faith is non-existant, both in the R.E curriculum and the school in general.

Now I do not say that all of them are like this, far from it. My philosophy teacher is one of the most wonderful christian teachers I have ever met. No faith is forced upon you, he keeps it to himself as do a lot of people. But the fanaticism bred unknowingly in schools such as this (as well as the churches) is extremely worrying.

I thank you from the bottom of my heart Proffessor for opening my eyes, and hope I will have the courage to reveal my atheism to my family tommorow... I'm still nagging my friend to let me borrow the god delution, I've only seen your online interviews and that was all it took!!!

THANK YOU!!!

Alexander Farr

Permalink - Posted Tuesday, 31 August 2010 at 02:23 AM

Ricardo da Costa Lima

My family has always been a kind of mixture of beliefs. A blend of spiritualism with newage movement based on Alan Kardek. We always understand the most fundamentalist movements such as Christianity or Islam as something hypocritical, biased and full of flaws. But our "mixture of superstition," not: it "explained" everything. Or almost everything.I was wondering when become the time when science and religion would join into one thing, helping only the good of humanity. But with 12 old, something happened. I read an article by Carl Sagan on the pseudoscience. He completely destroyed the astrology and homeopathy for me, on this day. Good for me. I was starting to get confused by what I read about astronomy and astrology.

At 20 years old, another demolition. At university, in order to obtain a scholarship, I was introduced to what they called "Scientific Initiation and Methods." So far, nothing to do with my old belief who "explain" the "life after death." But the scientific method became so fascinating and strong in my daily life that changed my way of thinking about almost everything I did or thought. But things like "destiny", karma and reincarnation persevered.

At 25, bought a used old book, a book of ancient philosophy where the first page I came across there is no less with Epicurus and soon after, the story of the Hepathia. I connected the dots and began to feel afraid. Fear of being wrong for such a long time. I closed the book and not opened until recently.

I was really confused and I confess that I felt very lonely.

Then a really cool thing happened. I won a gift certificate to a bookstore and I ended up choosing, "Deus:Uma Ilusão (The God Delusion)" to read. I read it alone. At the end of the book (it took me two days only), a confirmation of what I felt, but much more mature, thoughtful and organized. Everything came to mind while ... Epicurus, Sagan, Darwin, Hepathia. Really a scientist thing, I thought ... I was relieved. It was what was missing for me at the time, but only briefly. Wanted more. And I still do. Today besides the architect, I am also an amateur astronomer, political activist of PirateParty, photographer and Android developer, beyond what I'm most proud: Free-Thinker.

Thank you for you all.

-- Ricardo da Costa Lima

Permalink - Posted Tuesday, 31 August 2010 at 02:15 AM

The God Delusion - My Epiphany

Dear Richard Dawkins,

It is coincidental that you have Douglas Adam’s quote at the start of your “Converts’ Corner’ in that I have just discovered this little gem ‘The Salmon of Doubt’ in the local library! The chapter ‘Interview, American Atheists’ perfectly describes my current state of mind!

I was raised in a Pentecostal Christian family who for generations taught the Bible is the literal ‘Word of God’. Any doubts or questions I had as a child about creation, Noah and the flood, Jonah and the whale and other questionable Bible stories that seemed illogical the argument ‘you just have to believe and have faith’ was the usual reply. When I was about eight our beloved dog was run over by a truck. I prayed and prayed that God would raise him from the dead. My prayers went unanswered and the seed of doubt was planted. However, fear of eternal damnation was the reason I kept following like a sheep and even submitted to being baptised because God may return any day soon and I will be left behind.

In my twenties having moved 1000’s kilometres away from this overtly religious environment I stopped going to church and reading the Bible, and low and behold, I was not struck by lightning. I still believed in God but the fall of apartheid in South Africa and the realisation that this so-called Christian nation had inflicted the most atrocious pain and suffering on the majority of the people living in South Africa for decades, just because they were not white, was another step away from religion.

For a while, I still had some belief in God and the human soul – it is hard to let go of years of brainwashing. About ten years ago I met a man who was openly an Atheist. We started a relationship and although he had not tried to ‘convert’ me, we had many discussions about religion and evolution. I started exploring New Age philosophies and Eastern Religion particularly Buddhism reasoning that I could replace religion with spirituality.

In 2006, I read The God Delusion and it was my epiphany about the non-existence of God and any form of supernatural beings! Reading such, a bold, radical book was liberating. Suddenly Science was the most interesting subject!

I read The Selfish Gene, Bill Bryson’s ‘A History of Nearly Everything,’ ‘Out of Africa’s Eden by Stephen Oppenheimer and ‘Faith, Superstition, and Wishful Thinking’ by George Claasen.

‘Why I became an Atheist’ by John W. Loftus, a former Christian apologist, and ‘Blind Faith’ by Morné du Toit illuminated the ridiculous belief that the Bible was written and or inspired by a deity.

After reading ‘Why Evolution is True’ by Biology professor Jerry Coyne everything fell into place. I still plan to read Charles Darwin’s ‘Origin of the Species’ and ‘The Decent of Man’ and all your other books.

We were avid readers and my parents encouraged my brothers and I to read books. They must be horrified that ‘subversive’ books paved the way to my conversion. I have not admitted outright that I have become a ‘radical atheist’ to quote Douglas Adams, but I have told them there is no god, heaven, hell, miracles, angels. They are in their 70’s and I respect that they will hang on to their crutch. I am trying to educate my brothers and had suggested they read your books; to no avail, thus far...You can be sure the entire family prays very hard that God will intervene and I will come to my senses.

I am eternally grateful that you wrote The God Delusion to enlighten people to the folly of religion and the absolute wonder of biology and evolutionary science. Your book has freed me of my fear and every day is a joy away from the bondage of irrational thought.

Life is just beautiful.

Yours gratefully,

Amanda Hibbers

Permalink - Posted Monday, 30 August 2010 at 11:37 PM

I did a 180 after reading your book!

Dear Richard,

My dad had brought us up as Jehovah's Witnesses and being measured against a standard I could never hope to reach caused a lot of friction between us during my young life. Unfortunately, my father died when I was 18 and the issues between us were never resolved.

Dad died, believing that he was going to a better place. For years, I had to live with the knowledge that my dad would probably made it to the 'better place' and, if he could, then I never would. From a religious standpoint, he was a far better person than me. I believed but cheated all the time - smoking, lying etc.

Dad's religion didn't believe in hell. If you didn't live a righteous life, you simply would not be resurrected. Strangely, I actually really hoped my dad was right - that way, he would get his just reward and,as I would not be resurrected, would never know I hadn't been. So, win/win?

Then about 10 years ago I realised I did not believe in God. To say it was a release is an understatement. I had suffered with night horrors for years - specifically from thoughts of the Devil. During my childhood I'd been told that he lay in wait for us, ready to steal our souls, if we let down our guard for even a second. Imagine how powerful a 'bogey man' he is - especially to a child. Any time I felt anger, or too much pride, or vanity, or I lied etc, it was because of his influence - or so I believed at the time - but with the loss of my belief in God, came a loss of my belief in the Devil.

I always felt though that I might be wrong not to believe in God and I admired and respected those who did. In hindsight, I guess a part of me still believed that even if God did not exist, those who had the moral fibre and faith to worship Him him were better people than me.

Reading The God Delusion has turned my thinking upside down. Rather than being ashamed of my non-belief, I am proud of it. And, I am surprised to find, I am actually rather angry. I've wasted a huge part of my life feeling that I was simply born too corrupt or too sinful to believe in God or live by His laws.

This book has been life changing and liberating. I now believe myself to be an enlightened person rather than a morally inadequate one.

Thank you

Teresa

Bristol, England

Permalink - Posted Monday, 30 August 2010 at 11:31 PM

Emancipation from religion - my story.

Hello All!

It wasn’t hard to get to this point. In fact, it seems as though I’ve been thinking about it all of my life. Wondering and musing over the inconsistencies, injustices, and outright weird things presented in the Bible and Christianity in general. It began when, as a child, I was told that my dog would not meet me in heaven. Heaven, it seems, existed only for humans and God himself. No animals allowed. After all, according to the Bible, humans were to have dominion over animals and all the Earth. As lower forms of life, animals do not have “souls” and do not ascend into heaven. At least that’s what I was told in no uncertain terms. I remember looking into the eyes of the one who “knew” what heaven would be like, what it would and wouldn’t include, and how one like myself, after all, could gain access. There was no equivocation. No animals would be in heaven.

Inherently I knew this was wrong. My dog did, indeed, have a conscious soul. She had feelings, emotions, compassion, and a sense of humor. My dog knew how to love, and to love without judgment even when I wasn’t always good to her. She was absolutely loyal and always honest. Name one human that could possibly live up to her example… just one.

When confronted by the pastor with the absolute truth of the “reality” of the afterlife, no doubt squinting a bit and probably raising an eyebrow, I wondered… how in the hell would he know? He’d never been to heaven that I was aware of and I rather doubted if he had a special line to God with which to have a conversation or check on the rules as it were. I, rather unsystematically as a typical 10-year old, assessed the likelihood that this person could know one way or another and I decided that they had no way of really knowing if animals went to heaven or not. Thus, I decided that for heaven to be “heaven” our beloved pets had to be included. How could I face going through eternity without them… that would not be heaven; that would be hell. Without them, I didn’t want to go…

And so, as a young girl I began to develop a real suspicion of the doctrine of religion or at least Christianity which is all I really knew about at the time. There were always the doubts about many of the Bible stories… how could anyone live inside a whale for three days? Why did God appear to some, be it through an Angel of some sort, and not to others? Why are some selected and others apparently forgotten, forgotten even to be kept alive let alone be one of the chosen. The typical response is usually that we cannot know all of God’s plan… that the Lord works in mysterious ways… or that God never gives one a burden too big to carry. Hum, that’s all very convenient. We can know God’s mind to the point that animals will not be included in heaven, that men are the head of the family, and that God has a plan for each of us yet the fact that there is no explanation for the pain and devastated lives of so many remains a mystery. So, when there is no explanation—it’s God’s unknown will—when there is explanation, it God’s known plan. Thus, religious dogma explains all and nothing.

Throughout my childhood I also studied history, culture, science, literature, and mathematics. It was wonderful; studying the beliefs of ancient cultures including their beliefs in various gods. There were the Greeks, the Romans and the ancient Egyptians; Athena, Zeus, Diana, Thor, Rah and Isis. Of course, my favorite was always the winged horse, Pegasus, and the role of the royal cats of the Nile. Why did these gods fall out of favor? Why did worship of these gods yield to the worship and belief in the one Christian god or more accurately, the belief in only one God—monotheism? What made one god better than a group? The ancient Greeks had Olympus, Christians have Heaven. What’s the difference? The form of sacrifice? No. Don’t they all require various forms of human sacrifice or servitude?

The only answer I ever got from the adults in my life was that ours was the one “true” god and the others were phony. Just the creation of human imagination and ignorance, after all, the Bible was the word of God and thus we had the truth! At the time, I didn’t know that the Bible was written by men who had never known Jesus if, indeed, he actually ever existed. I didn’t know that there is not one shred of independent evidence of the existence of Jesus… that Jesus never wrote so much as a single word to leave behind. I never knew that all of the characteristics and miracles attributed to Jesus were identical to the characteristics and miracles attributed any one or more of a dozen other ancient gods. There was much I never knew but what I did know is that the assertion that the current god was the right and only one was not convincing… there was no evidence. No one I had ever met had ever met god, ever seen god, ever talked to god, or seen any tangible evidence of god. All were to believe that we were “blessed” to have the opportunity to believe without any evidence and grateful if we are persecuted for this belief as well—it made us better Christians in fact! Somehow, that too seemed remarkably convenient. We were to believe without evidence—because that’s what god demanded. It smacked of that old parental fable—do as I say, not what I do. Believe because we’re told to. That was really never quite good enough for me but I assumed that there was just something more that I didn’t understand and one day it would all make sense.

And what about the rest of knowledge. The Earth cannot possibly have been created in the literal sense as the Bible asserts. Was Eve really an afterthought—created just to keep Adam company? How convenient and how biologically impossible. Even as a young girl I used to tease my male counterparts in Sunday school that god messed up when he created Adam. He was a “first draft” as it were. After figuring out all of the imperfections, god then created Eve—the more perfect version of mankind. As you might guess, this interpretation was never well received.

The theory of evolution must be true just as the planet is not flat nor does the Sun revolve around the Earth. Certainly, the creation story in Genesis had to be a metaphor—a story to simplify a complex reality that uneducated minds couldn’t understand. I must admit, I was not raised in a fundamentalist or evangelical environment. I attended the liberal United Church of Christ which focused mostly on the good news of the New Testament and, with appreciation, this denomination does not spend much time on the “do not(s)” of Christianity and focuses primarily on what humans can do to make a better world. I did not have to confront the nonsense of fundamentalism until I was an adult. However, even as a young child, most of the Old Testament seemed ridiculous and unsettling. There was too much killing, raping, human sacrifice, slavery, hell fire and brimstone for me. For most of my childhood, it was simply easy to ignore it all.

The next point at which I had real misgivings was when, as a young woman, it was made clear to me that my “boyfriend” was the head of the relationship and final arbiter of all decisions. All of this authority is derived from biblical scripture—written by men—to produce more happy and successful relationships and families free from conflict and strife. Once again, how convenient. Religion empowers men over women because, well, because it’s convenient and self-serving. Why men and not women? Well, beyond the obvious self serving motivations, men are always portrayed as being closer to God in all aspects. Women are an unfortunate requirement for perpetuation of god-like man—free to breed but never to think. Not of value beyond that. For millenniums we were property when not queens but always in need of being fixed or controlled in some way.

This, as well, always struck me as utter nonsense after all, I am clearly more intelligent than most of the men I have known. Why shouldn’t leadership be awarded to the most prepared to make decisions, the most intelligent, and the most rational? I cannot remember a single time in my life when I ever was personally involved with a man who was better prepared to make decisions than I was. Once in a discussion with a man I had known for many years, I was confronted with his view that much of current social strife was the result of the Women’s Movement of the 1970s as women established legal, moral, political, and social independence. Thus, fatherless families are the result of the ascension of women to the equal status of men… and society’s willingness to embrace that new role.

At that moment I was sipping some wine with the intention of seriously trying to listen to his concerns. My reaction was uncontrollable and I was actually surprised by it. I nearly choked on the wine and proceeded to spit it out defiling the kitchen counter followed by uncontrollable laughter. The reason men do not live up to their moral responsibilities is because women don’t have to submit to abuse and dependence anymore! His explanation for this view is that such emancipation was “unnatural” and upset the stability of society that was set up by god. This is the rationale of one who claims to be morally superior. He “knew” what was best based upon what the Bible said. To be honest, I was never quite sure if his assertions were just a reflection of convenience—men should be the head of all—or whether he really believed it due to his early indoctrination into conservative Protestant religious beliefs. Nevertheless, I could never again look at him without thinking about what a fool he was.

As a result of this and similar comments, I am no longer in touch with who I thought was an old friend. His belief in the righteousness of repression was simply not a difference that could be overcome or accommodated. In fact, such a feckless human being does not argue for faith or religion or the existence of god, but rather provides undeniable evidence that our evolutionary journey is far from over. Such thinking cannot possibly be a product of divine intention; it’s all too human. So, throughout the various stages of my life I have been confronted with certain realities—the dominance of divine belief and its obvious fallacies. In the end, I had to accept the reality and reject the absurdity of believing in the existence of any god or the dogma of any religion.

Now, Professor Dawkins, your work and the work of others such as the remarkable Christopher Hitchens and Sam Harris has provided extensive structure to my “instinctive” childhood conclusions. I feel profoundly relieved that I am not alone in my thinking and reading The God Delusion provided the necessary evidence for me to embrace my own psychological emancipation. As a Ph.D. and professor myself, I help students focus on scientific method of examining evidence and use critical thinking to support or question their “beliefs.” It’s a delicate balancing act at times. Knowing I am not alone is helpful. However, living in religiously and politically conservative central Florida, USA, I usually feel very isolated. Thanks for your website and the opportunity to join, however remotely, with others.

All the best to you all!

Sincerely,

Marcy Everest

Permalink - Posted Monday, 30 August 2010 at 10:48 PM

was raised Catholic, and it took me 19 years to realize what I had actually been believing in (or indoctrinated into). I had become atheist before I read The God Delusion, but your book has helped me to defend my beliefs in a much more clear and thoughtful way. Thank you so much for writing this wonderful piece of literature and for supporting atheists across the globe.

Francis Maginn
Texas, USA

Permalink - Posted Saturday, 28 August 2010 at 08:25 PM

SGT Christopher Knight

Dear Mr. Dawkins,
I won’t say that it was you that converted me to Atheism as I believe religion did a mighty fine job itself. What you did do was encourage me to take a stand against such a violent as well as dangerous institution using my musical skill as the conveyer of the messege (I won’t promote any band website as that’s not why I’m writing this). You present your argument with intellect and points that can be, unlike the bible, proven beyond belief such as your point in the "The God Delusion Debate" with John Lennox concerning morality being found already within people rather than needing the bible to coach us along. I was raised Catholic attending a Catholic School and mass every Wednesday and Sunday, and even with all the force fed faith, at a young age I still managed to question what I was being taught. Something must truly be wrong when a ten year old boy realizes God isn’t real but Santa very well might be as to me presents on Christmas where proof enough. As I said that’s the intellect of a 10 year old but sadly enough, text written by an uneducated people years after the supposed crucifixion of Christ are considered PROOF ENOUGH without actually presenting any PROOF AT ALL. I’ll stop before I rant as I usually catch myself doing, I just want to thank you for what you’re doing from the bottom of my heart. You give minds like mine a reason to fire back against an ever recruiting belief system.

SGT Christopher Knight
U.S. Army, USA

Permalink - Posted Saturday, 28 August 2010 at 08:22 PM

conversion

Dear Mr. Dawkins,
I hope that by some chance you will read this. I can imagine there are so many emails requesting your attention. I will try to be as succinct as possible: having been raised Catholic until the age of 22, was then visited by Jehovah's Witnesses and was baptized as one in 1995. There were over the years many things that did not gel for me and as JW's are taught or as I see it now, brainwashed to believe that they have the absolute 'truth' about God and the Bible, that was not acceptable. I believe that things are either truthful or not. There is no grey area with the status of mankind. We either exist as products of evolution or by creation. If there is another alternative, I am currently unaware of the reason. I am not one of these who think sitting on a fence with both in view is possible. I feel that I am sure we did not evolve as a result of creation initially and then changed due to a God that chose to leave us to our own devices.

Last year a friend who was also a Witness, opened my eyes to goings on within the organisation, and it really threw me. I was devestated and felt such a void in my life. I then decided not to stay within the organisation. What many don't realise about Witnesses, is that you are so reliant on their teachings and interpretation of the Bible, and dictation with regard to how you live your life, that I now found myself questioning everything, including the existence of God himself. Living in a world that is comsumed with religion, and the need to worship a deity or believe it necessary to credit our extistence to a greater being, I felt overwhelmed and didn't really know where to start. Having my mind back though was refreshing and a situation I found exciting.

My friend Fabiola, who was in a newly found reality herself after leaving the JW's, met me one day and said she was reading your book, The Greatest Show on Earth. She asked me whether I was familiar with you, and as you have been quoted derogatorily in Witness publications, I affirmed knowledge of you and said I was surprised she was reading your book. She told me it was the most amazing book she had read, and her literary knowledge was vast. The next day I purchased your book, of the same title and started reading. It was like having an epiphany. I have studied general science, astronomy, aspects of geology and forensic science, and have a love of science in general. I found your lucidity and attention to detail momentous. A few days later I bought The God Delusion, and my belief is that it should manditorily serve as a text book for all secondary schools. I have insisted my friends read it. As you have been viewed as an enemy of witnesses as an advocate against God, so many will not read your books, but I will continue to strive to educate them as to the necessity of opening their minds and hearts to the only alternative to the madness of religion.....pure unadulterated rationale and logic.

There were so many things I hadn't realised that you mentioned in the book The God Delusion, I have bought all of your books and am looking forward to devouring them. If you ever come to Ireland to give talks or semenars, I would love to see and hear you in person. Please keep up the good work and enlighten many more...it is a long road to true enlightenment.

Your fan and admirer,
Joy Farrelly

Permalink - Posted Saturday, 28 August 2010 at 08:20 PM