The "Why Am I Still Reading This?" Moment

I've been reading Richard Dawkins' The God Delusion, during the magical amount of time I've been bestowed at the end of the school year. I have to say, though, that while I've meticulously read 190 pages of this book, I'm beginning to have that "Why Am I Still Reading This?" moment. I'm not sure who Dawkins intended to have read his book. Was it the small audience of religious scientists? Was it athiests who wanted some substance to support their lack of belief? Was it religious people ready to open their minds or simply...curious? The two latter audiences will struggle to get through the chapters. Dawkins loves quoting everyone. EVERYONE! And everything has some weird analogy that bleeds into other chapters...an analogy you'll forget after blubbering through another 20 pages. For example, "skyhook," and a "PAP" agnostic...huh?!

The book reads more like a well-crafted research paper that goes on for 300 pages and has some entertaining moments. But I don't think it's meant for the average person. It's for the science community, religious or atheistic. For the average person, get the Cliffsnotes version by watch Richard Dawkins talk about his book on YouTube. It's a lot less painful and a lot more entertaining.

When I first started reading this book, there was a small section that really, really drew me in. Dawkins was talking about how religious groups get undeserved respect and are even consulted in political policy. I was excited. But that was 160 pages ago. There has been no "OMG! REALLY? I MUST READ ON!" moments since then and yet I keep reading. Maybe it's because I'm already this far in that I feel like if I give up now, it'll be a cop out. The titles of the upcoming chapters sound interesting, but then again, the chapter I'm on now "The Origin of Religion," sounded interesting and yet, has turned out to be nothing like what I expected. It's about memes...great. I was hoping for something more anthropological, but no, Dawkins only wants to focus on what he thinks will be DARWIN'S idea of how religion functions. I would like a count on how many times the name Darwin appears in this book, kind of like the count of the word "fuck" in The Big Lebowski. Darwin, Darwin, Darwin....