Richard Dawkins-The God Delusion

The God Delusion

A 2006 best-selling, non-fiction book by English biologist Richard Dawkins,

professorial fellow of New College, Oxford, and former holder of the Charles Simonyi Chair

for the Public Understanding of Science at the University of Oxford.

In The God Delusion, Dawkins contends that a supernatural creator almost certainly does not exist and

that belief in a personal god qualifies as a delusion, which he defines as a persistent false belief held in

 the face of strong contradictory evidence. He is sympathetic to Robert Pirsig's statement in Lila that

 "when one person suffers from a delusion it is called insanity. 

When many people suffer from a delusion it is called religion".

As of January 2010, the English version of The God Delusion had sold over 2 million copies.

 It was ranked No.2 on the Amazon.com best-sellers' list in November 2006. In early December 2006,

it reached No.4 in the New York Times Hardcover Nonfiction Best Seller list after nine weeks on the list.

 It remained on the list for 51 weeks until 30 September 2007. The German version, entitled Der Gotteswahn,

had sold over 260,000 copies as of 28 January 2010.

The book has attracted widespread commentary, with many books written in response.