Although I have not read
The God Delusion, I have read many of his other works. I tend to stay away from the "religion-bashing" aspects of his work.
For those interested, his
website has links to numerous articles discussing the book, including from the Guardian and the Economist, as well as a BBC interview.
For Archer: Dawkins has been a prolific "pop-sci" author on evolution for many years. He is quite a good writer, and well worth reading.
The Blind Watchmaker,
Climbing Mount Improbable, and
The Selfish Gene are all what I would consider classics of the genre. On the other hand, he HAS gotten himself into trouble - both with scientists and laypeople - on occasion. For instance, he was sort of "forced" to write
The Extended Phenotype to "correct" misunderstandings and misinterpretations (his words) contained in
The Selfish Gene. In
Phenotype he both backed off from some of his earlier assertions, and expanded on others, making it a substantially better book all around.
Other books I have read of his include
Unweaving the Rainbow (a counter to the "believers'" assertion that only through the supernatural can one have a sense of wonder),
River Out of Eden (about life evolution from the point of view of the flow of genes down through the aeons), and
The Ancestor's Tale (using the metaphor of Chaucer's
Canterbury Tales to "backtrack" the lineage ending in humanity to its origin as a single cell). Of the three, the latter is probably the best of the lot. I personally rank Dawkins just below Sagan and Azimov, and certainly on a par with Ehrlich and Diamond (and just ahead of Gould), as a scientist who is capable of describing highly complex subjects and concepts to laypersons in an engaging and understandable manner, while at the same time retaining the "hard science" of the most recent research.
Edited to add: There is a lengthy discussion of
The God Delusion at
iidb.org, although most of the thread is discussing Dawkins, rather than the book. Still, there might be some interest there.
Edited by Quetzal, : No reason given.
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