The God Delusion - Reviewed

My rating for this book - 7/10.

So, I finally finished Richard Dawkins' book, The God Delusion. Yes, yes, I know - it took me 2 months to read, but to be fair, June was not a reading kind of month for me with the new house and all. Anyway, I finished it. I figured out very quickly that the book wasn't what I expected. All the hype about it when it first came out, all the talks I've heard Richard Dawkins' do - I was expecting some sort of blasphemous book that blows religion out of the water with scientific rationalism. I mean, this book is supposed to be about how ridiculous religion is, right?

Well, it is and it isn't. Out of the 370+ pages, I'd say about 100 are devoted to religion and the other 270 are devoted to Dawkins' love affair with Darwin, the majesty of science, and nods to every good book or good friend he's ever read or known. For the most part, you'll read 25 pages of PURE SCIENCE and 2-3 pages explaining how that PURE SCIENCE is relevant to different facets of religion. The problem is that you have to keep reading and reading until Dawkins finally gets the point. There's definitely some excellent parts, but you have to FIND them. I enjoyed a piece about how people think praying for an ill family member or friend will help them get better. But as it turns out, prayer does nothing and some sick people who KNOW they are being prayed for get sicker due to "performance anxiety."

In some ways, I think Bill Maher did a better of pointing out the ill ways of religion in the movie Religulous than Dawkins. Both men focus on organized religion and I hope that in the future, someone will come out and address individual "belief in the supernatural" and how that harms society.

When I got to the end of The God Delusion, I was expecting a lot more from the final chapter, "The Mother of All Burkas." But let me tell you, it didn't wrap the book up, but rather explain how humanity only experiences a very small piece of the world, just like someone wearing a huuuuge burka (representing all that is and can ever be and ever was), peering out through a 1 inch slit. Great, what does this have to do with religion other than mentioning a burka metaphor? ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. Except, of course, Dawkins is once again praising how amazing the world is, how fulfilling science is, blah blah blah.

This book gets a 7/10. And that's being generous. It's a good topic, the book gives some very good substantial scientific arguments against God and organized religion, but if you're looking for a religious witch-hunt, you won't find it here. The book does not live up to the man who wrote it.

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....

Way to teach kids INTOLERANCE

I had to read the book Crash by Jerry Spinelli to teach the book to a small group of 7th grade students. Jerry Spinelli is a Newbery Award winner for Maniac Magee, a book I'm sure you've heard of. But this book, Crash, which won a few respectable book awards is just awful!

The book is about a boy named Crash, a nickname he received after he "crashed tackled" into his cousin when he received a new football helmet for Christmas. Crash torments his neighbor, Penn Ward - a nerdy vegetarian Quaker who doesn't believe in violence, gets his clothes from a thirft shop, and has a pet turtle who rides around in Penn's only toy, a wooden train or something. Throughout most of the book, Crash is boasting about his football abilities and when he's not doing that, he ridicules Penn Ward while feeling entitled to dance/befriend the prettiest girl in school to the point at which he resorts to force to get her attention. UGH!

The supposed "redeeming" point for Crash is when he makes a connection between his ailing grandfather and Penn's great-grandfather who wants nothing more than to see Penn run at the Penn Relays. Crash, who is faster than Penn, purposely loses a qualifying race to Penn so that Penn can go to the Penn Relays. Great, so for 120 pages, Crash is a huge, egotistical, ignorant ***hole and the reader is supposed to feel happy that he's changed for the remaining 30 pages. NO. I hate this character with a passion. I hate what he stands for and I hate how I'm supposed to believe this character has really changed! Please...it was nice that he lost the race, but there's no way in hell that these guys are going to be friends. Crash will continue to harass Penn for being a Quaker and a vegetarian. And if he is nice to Penn, it's only for the sake of keeping the prettiest girl in school as his girlfriend. How shallow.

I felt this book almost taught intolerance and selfishness to my young reader's minds. For example, Crash criticizes Penn for being Quaker and not believing in violence of any sort. He takes advantage of the poor guy, soaking him with a watergun and Penn just stands there and takes it. During the literature circle discussions that occurred after reading the first 8 chapters, one of my students exclaimed, "Penn deserved it. We live in a violent world! Learn to live with it!" What a good way to teach kids religious tolerance let alone peace!

I give this book a 3/10. It's a complex story and a fast read, but it has a lot of bad blood that's hard to overlook.

A Niche of Time To Read

It's been a while since I've posted here, mainly because I haven't been reading anything substantial. I got a new job in January and poof, my free time to read disappeared. But I have finished one book in the past 2 days due to having to teach it to a couple of 6th grade students:

Holes by Louis Sachar is a great read! It reminded me of a more reader-friendly Lord of the Flies, except there's adults involved and upheld rules. The reason why it reminds me of Lord of the Flies is because it's about a group of boys removed from civilization. There's many books out there that examine a microcosm of the greater world, removing people from civilization and watching what they do. It certainly makes it an easier book to write! The 6th grade class that read it seemed to enjoy it, except for a few students. Well, you can't please everyone!

I'll give it a 9/10. I'm deducting a point because the whole great-great-great grandfather and great-great grandfather and all the lineage was too hard for me to follow. I couldn't figure out who was who without having to flip back and so, of course, the ending for me required even more research. Which Stanley Yelnats does the suitcase belong to? How is he related to the little boy, also named Stanley Yelnats?

My current read, a book I can only read at home, is The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins. Dawkins is articulate, bold, and reasonable in his arguments against a supernatural god. I was not impressed with his beginning chapter on Einstein's religious beliefs. Okay, so people misconstrued Einstein's religious beliefs - who cares? Perhaps that chapter is more for the religious scientist reader. For someone like me, it's out of place. One of my favorite sections so far is "Undeserved Respect."

Unfortunately, I have some things I need to get done so I'll have to write about it later.

Nineteen Minutes

So, I had to give up my Elizabeth I and Marilyn Monroe biographies. I walked out of the library with 1 new book - Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult. This book was recommended to me by one of my colleagues, a 5th grade English teacher. It's about a school shooting. As scary as they are, there's something alluring about reading a fictional story about one. I'm 100 pages in and I'm enjoying it. We'll see how the other 300 pages go :-)

A Handmaid's Tale

I finished this novel just a few minutes ago. I thought I wasn't going to finish it tonight, but then I ended up reading for a solid 2 hours. I just kept looking forward and saying, "Oh, I only have another 10 pages. I can do this..." I didn't realize that the Historical Background on A Handmaid's Tale was actually part of the story. I thought it was going to be something about Margaret Atwood researched something to write the book, but then I realized - wow, this part is important! It basically explains what exactly was going on. Poorly. After such a detailed, interesting, breeze of a novel, I was hoping for some explanation of chronology, the wars, what religion had to do with everything.....alas, no luck! But it wasn't as disappointing as Teacher Man. I'm not as let down since I didn't really know what to expect for an ending. All "Historical Background" aside, I was satisfied. I can make up a nice, neat little ending. The Black Van is part of the underground. Offred manages to escape somewhere else, somewhere better. I liked that Serena Joy and the Commander were scared at the end. I liked that Nick turned out to be a good guy...so far as we know. (But working for the Eyes! My goodness!)

I'd rate this book 9/10.

(I'll be rating books I finish from now on.)

Too Many Books, Strangely Too Little Time

While on vacation, I picked up more books than I could read. This was surprising considering all the time sitting in the airport, sitting in the airplane, sitting in the hotel room, sitting sitting sitting waiting waiting waiting. My biggest obstacle: the tv. The TV screams, "Look at me! Listen to me! Me me me!" and it makes it really hard to read. I suppose books and TV have been at odds with one another ever since TV was born.

Nonetheless, I finished one book...and it wasn't even a book I completely enjoyed. It was Teacher Man by Frank McCourt. When I was in grad school, a fellow student raved about this book. The professor agreed - it was a wonderful book about teaching. And as I read it, it seemed to be more about Frank McCourt's personal life rather than teaching. He shared a few stories about his students, but moreso about his personal life stories he shared with his students. Okay, they were amusing, but as a reader, I expected to read about teaching, not a personal life autobiography of sorts. I guess that's why I didn't enjoy it. The disappointment overshadowed what was probably a good book.

I'm currently reading A Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood. It's been on my "MUST READ" list for at least 2-3 years. I love dystopian novels - 1984, Fahrenheit 451 - I could read them all! As soon as I actually had some quality time to read the book, sitting in a hotel bed in Vancouver with my husband (who's reading Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson), I whizzed through 50 pages in less than an hour. I have to return the book in 3 days. I hope I'll find the time to read the rest before I have to return (or renew) it.

I still have 2 books left and both have been renewed once. One is a biography of Elizabeth I and the other is a biography of Marilyn Monroe. These are lengthy books, requiring time and attention to detail. I guess I'll renew them again...as long as I can renew them to read them. I don't want to give them back and then forget that I wanted to read them. Or *gasp* someone else take them out for weeks at a time so that it won't be there when I'm finally ready.

What can I say - I'm a greedy reader and library user.