In the wake of one religious sensation, The Da Vinci Code, publishers are scoring a second success with sceptics. Secularism is suddenly hip, at least in the publishing world. A glut of popular science books making a trenchant case against religion have soared up the bestseller lists both here and in America. The phenomenon represents a backlash against a perceived rise in religious fundamentalism and recent crazes for 'spirituality' by way of books such as The Da Vinci Code. Secularists are now eager to show that the empiricism of science can debunk the claims of believers.The God Delusion, the latest attack on religion by the celebrated atheist and high priest of popular science writing Richard Dawkins, an Oxford biologist, is leading the sceptical vanguard. Now at number five on America's Amazon.com bestseller list, Dawkins's book is also selling rapidly in the UK. 'In terms of sales it's vying with Jamie Oliver,' said Alister Babb, popular science buyer with Waterstone's. 'The God Delusion is selling four times as many as the next bestselling science book. I'm struggling to think of a comparison. I think you would probably have to go back to Bertrand Russell's Why I Am Not a Christian [published in 1957] for a similar sort of bestseller.'

The reference to Russell's polemic against Christianity is now a common refrain in the book world, with publishers eager to replicate the charismatic philosopher's appeal. Atlantic Books claims God Is Not Great: The Case Against Religion by Christopher Hitchens, which will be published next spring, is 'in the tradition of Why I Am Not a Christian'. Atlantic's publicity machine promises that Hitchens's book will be an 'acute reading of the world's major religious texts' and adds that it 'documents the ways in which religion is man-made, a cause of dangerous sexual repression and a distortion of our origins in the cosmos'.

View: Full Article | Source: Guardian Unlimited

I do not think it will change things in the USA very much. The Left Behind series sold very well and it did not change things much either.

its not supposed to change anything, people just copy that ,which sells well, its all about money and fame these days, thats why good stuff is created so rarely

Atlantic Books claims God Is Not Great: The Case Against Religion by Christopher Hitchens, which will be published next spring, is 'in the tradition of Why I Am Not a Christian'. Atlantic's publicity machine promises that Hitchens's book will be an 'acute reading of the world's major religious texts' and adds that it 'documents the ways in which religion is man-made, a cause of dangerous sexual repression and a distortion of our origins in the cosmos'.

View: Full Article | Source: Guardian Unlimited
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I agree ...to some extent religion seems man-made....there's alot of things about the bible that makes me start to question , I mean people say god is all good but yet he destroys anyone that either makes him angry or rebels against him,and another thing,why is got a "he" and not a she. THat fact that the bible is written on paper seems more likely that it could be all made up.And how honest is the people in religion,I mean there sexual abuse by preachers and abuse in genearal ,I ive seen alot of stongly religious people on the news acused of shocking crimes.And there are religious people that doen't believen all of religion,not only that ,the whole world doesn't share one religion there is so many believes in religion like Buddhism and Krishna.

I for one am looking forward to reading both novels.

I have that choice luckily, unlike some people.

I have to agree, sadly enough..

This kind of thing won't change the beliefs of the convinced but it's way past time to start talking about religion without bowing and cringing. There has always been a "hands off" attitude toward religion in USA and it was socially forbidden to question religion, or at least Christianity. Most if not almost all children brought up without hearing anybody question the religion they are taught are unlikely to question it themselves. Having at least a few voices explaining why religion doesn't make sense for modern societies will help to soften the granite-hard monoculture in USA.

They can write all they want against religion, but it wont change things in the U.S.

As I recall, the United States of America was build on a Christian foundation... the majority of US Laws were made in reference to the Ten Commandments during the early years.

If some fool were to remove this foundation... God help us all, they'll start passing laws that would be barbaric and highly unethical. Breakdown of society would be inevitable.

Im just glad that the U.S is a God fearing country.

the Usa was created so every could have there own religous view, so ever through the congress is god fearing right now, not every one is god fearing

This is false. USA was deliberately constructed to have permanent separation of church and state. Many early settlers came to the Colonies to escape the religious persecution that was the norm in Europe. Almost every country was rigidly controlled by one branch of Christianity or another. Huge wars were fought over which religion to force on the loser's nation. Being of the "wrong" religion in most countries meant a life of suffering and abuse.
The Founders knew that once any one religion gets control over government, things get very, very bad. They built the Constitution to prevent any religion, including Christianity, from becoming the "state religion", exactly what the televangelists and Bush want so badly. Forcing religion on anyone is exactly ANTI-American. This nation was based first and foremost on freedom of religion. That means being free to choose your religion and being free from anybody else forcing their religion on you.

By the way, most of the Founders were not Christian. They were Masons.

http://www.earlyamerica.com/review/summer97/secular.html
'...according to the historian, Robert T. Handy, "No more than 10 percent-- probably less-- of Americans in 1800 were members of congregations.'
'The Founding Fathers, also, rarely practiced Christian orthodoxy. Although they supported the free exercise of any religion, they understood the dangers of religion.'

This is not and has never been a Christian country. To pretend that it is a Christian country is anti-American and unpatriotic.

As for passing barbaric laws, this is the same old lie, that religion invented and controls morality. That too is utterly false. I've known lots of religious people and a few atheists. The atheists were much more likely to defend an innocent stranger from unjust abuse than were the Christians. The atheists thought long and hard about gods and morality. The Christians mumbled quotes from their book and didn't bother to practice their own primary commandments if they even knew what they were.
No. Morality has nothing to do with religion. People know the difference between right and wrong. It's not hard to figure out. If doing X hurts me, I shouldn't do X to anybody else.
Religions often get twisted to say that doing X is wrong...unless you're doing it to somebody of a different religion. Then it's "just" war.
There's nothing fundamentally bad about religion. It's when it gets far removed from its original inspiration and gets corrupted by generation after generation of greedy, hating, power-mad people that it becomes terribly harmful.

Remember that one of the most religious people in USA, George W. Bush, lied over and over to his own people and the rest of the world in order to invade a sovereign nation that was not a threat to USA. Iraq had never attacked USA, had no significant ties to al Qaida, as Bush knew, and was tightly controlled by the overwhelming forces of several nations acting together. Where is god-fearing Bush's morality? Where is his refusal to kill as his book makes very clear is an absolute requirement? Just how is turning his other cheek? How is he loving his enemy?

"I mean people say god is all good but yet he destroys anyone that either makes him angry or rebels against him"

Gosh, that has to be the most unintellegent thing I've read today, and that's really saying a lot. Have you considered how many individuals and nations that have made Him "angry or rebelled against Him" that don't happen to be lying in ashes? But don't let me stop your generalizations. You'll believe what you want and buy into anyone that might offer evidence to the fact, but try to at least insert some logic into your belief system. For example, you mention the pedophiles in the Catholic Church. Now, that is very disturbing and probably makes me as angry as anything I can think of, though I am not Cathilic. But, I submit to you that the church is not a museum of saints but more of a hospital for sinners. Don't look at a church and get in a ruffle because there are sinners sitting in the pews. News Flash, we know we're sinners, that's why we're there. Again, that doesn't in any way excuse the aforementioned priests, but keep in mind the percentage you are talking about within the religion as a whole. Also, research the number of Christains, like myself, that give of our time and money for the less fortunate before you reach a conclusion. Then again, I'd hate to ruin your cemented image.

richard dawkins is the man,
this book will not have to make any big changes .
but hopefully just enough people to read it to set off even more questions.
things like the da vinci code dont make change but they do make people more aware!
thats the key to understanding and knowing how certain groups throughout history have minipulated our lives.
these kinda books are a .godsend ha ha ha ha

All civilizations must have social capitol to exist, a commonly agreed upon morality and ethics. For obvious reasons this is not something you want the government of the month to decide.
Religion makes sense for modern society, it is just fundementalism which does not.

Modern nations have laws. Laws that do not require religion for their creation or maintenance.

I agree that nations need commonly agreed upon morality and ethics. Your statement suggests that those things can only come from religion. That is false. Morality and ethics have nothing to do with religion. Just because lots of religious people claim to have invented morality does not make it true.

Well said. And add to the generational corruption, individuals who think they alone have received the word of God, instructing them to commit horrendous things in his/her name.

Well said mate...

I think human nature is being ignored in this debate.

We have examples of countries that have experimented with getting "rid of" religion in modern times.

Germany substituted a pagan mythology for religion in the 1930s and 1940s. We know how that worked out.

Soviet Russia substituted Marx, Lenin and Statlin for the holy trinity. We know how that worked out.

In the socialist west, notably western Europe, secularism is rampant. The result? Declining birthrates, rampant homosexuality, importation of Islamic underclass to fund the socialist machine. End result? Check the birthrates. Western Europe won't be secular for long. It will be Islamic. Do the math.

In the United States, abortion and birth control will eliminate the very class of people who put it in place. The people who are reproducing are the church going Roman Catholics and Protestants from conservative faiths. Liberal Protestant faiths are literally "dying out". They are not reproducing, and when they do, their offspring see little reason to attend a church that tells them everything they do is OK.

People go to church to get guidance on the ideal or model life and behavior, not for validation that how they are is good. What purpose is a church that tells you whatever you do is good, that there are no moral absolutes, that everything is relative? If this is the religion that the secularists are talking about, I couldn't agree more. The faster churches like that die out, the better.

Personally, I don't feel the need to attend any church. I believe in a supreme being, whom I choose to call God. Man or woman? I like to think God does not have a gender. I personally think that the type of person who would want to be a priest or rabbi or pastor, may have some personal issues in the first place. Helping people, that is one thing, wearing weird clothing, arcane cult objects, condeming others when you are a sinner yourself, that is certainly another.

I think where people get confused about the USA and the founding fathers is that the founding fathers were very intelligent men (with very intelligent women behind them). I certainly believe that they, at least the majority, believed in God. What I also believe, is that they understood that religion, and the people that control it, can certainly be a force for evil. Only a blind, ignorant fool, now or then, would think or believe that only his or her particular form of religion is the only path to salvation, or has all the answers. That is why there is no "Church of the USA" like the "Church of England" or whatever you call it over there. That is why all these references to God on the money here, or in our pledge, are recent inventions.

Although I believe in God, I certainly don't want prayer in the public schools of the USA. In fact, I hope the public schools go away. The founding fathers did not create a public school system. This, also, is a recent invention, esp. the role of the Federal Government. The sooner we get everyone but local, and I mean local, government out of schools, the better.

Christmas is Christmas. The government needs to stay out of it. I don't want the government involved in ANY religious holidays or symbols, i.e., don't have government displays of Muslim, Jewish, Christian, or Pagan symbols or documents, other than in museums. There is no reason for the government to be involved. On the other hand, government INTERFERENCE in religion needs to end now.

Remember, at least in the United States of America, it is freedom OF religion. Not freedom FROM religion. That is for the people to choose themselves. Not government, one way or the other. Not promote, not discourage.

"Germany substituted a pagan mythology for religion in the 1930s and 1940s. We know how that worked out.
Soviet Russia substituted Marx, Lenin and Stalin for the holy trinity. We know how that worked out."

Fascism and socialism substituted totalitarianism for democracy.
Both suppressed religion not out of lack of Faith but rather refusal to share power.
Stalin:
http://atheistalliance.org/library/nelson-...m_communism.php
Hitler:
http://www.ffrf.org/fttoday/back/hitler.html

"In the socialist west, notably western Europe, secularism is rampant. The result? Declining birthrates, rampant homosexuality, importation of Islamic underclass to fund the socialist machine. End result? Check the birthrates. Western Europe won't be secular for long. It will be Islamic. Do the math."
Part of your argument refutes your entire argument. You say Europe is too secular and is importing religious people. You say that is a bad thing. Your entire argument is that having lots of religious people in a nation is a good thing but in this case you're saying it's a bad thing.
Oh, and let go of that homosexuality issue of yours. Your Bible has a thousand words forbidding the killing of human beings for every word saying homosexuality is bad. Get over it already. This is really very tiresome. Stop being closed-minded, hating bigots and just get on with your lives.
Of course the easy answer to the parts of your argument that don't contradict the others is to point to the highly religious Muslim nations. Those who have allowed religion into government soon find themselves governed by religion. In some nations, that works fairly well. In many Muslim nations, oppression and violence are parts of everyday life. These sad problems are caused by religious people in the name of religion.

"In the United States, abortion and birth control will eliminate the very class of people who put it in place. The people who are reproducing are the church going Roman Catholics and Protestants from conservative faiths. Liberal Protestant faiths are literally "dying out". They are not reproducing, and when they do, their offspring see little reason to attend a church that tells them everything they do is OK."
I can't speak to the relative rates of birth of the sects you mention but once again you refute your own argument. You are saying that being under the control of religion is causing one group of people to die out. Is being religious good or bad? I can't tell from some of your arguments.
I've never been a liberal Protestant but I'm shocked that they tell people that "everything they do is OK". These LPs say that rape and murder are OK? Really? They say that torturing captives is OK? Oh, sorry. It's the Conservative Christians who say that torturing prisoners is a good thing to do.

"People go to church to get guidance on the ideal or model life and behavior, not for validation that how they are is good. What purpose is a church that tells you whatever you do is good, that there are no moral absolutes, that everything is relative? If this is the religion that the secularists are talking about, I couldn't agree more. The faster churches like that die out, the better."
"...whatever you do is good, that there are no moral absolutes, that everything is relative..."
Once again I'm stunned that any churches are saying that there are no such things as universal morals, that there are no right and wrong, that "everything is relative". Could you please attach some links to these bizarre churches? I'd like to see who is advocating these horrible things. Are they the ones claiming that their religion teaches them to be forgiving and tolerant while in reality they have no problem killing tens of thousands of human beings and denying rights to many of their fellow citizens?
Oops, sorry again. The Conservative Christians are the ones doing those things.

"Personally, I don't feel the need to attend any church. I believe in a supreme being, whom I choose to call God. Man or woman? I like to think God does not have a gender. I personally think that the type of person who would want to be a priest or rabbi or pastor, may have some personal issues in the first place. Helping people, that is one thing, wearing weird clothing, arcane cult objects, condeming others when you are a sinner yourself, that is certainly another."
I mostly agree with you here. I just can't get past that existence of gods issue. No evidence, you see.
If there was a single god that created everything, the very notion of gender makes no sense. A female can't create life without a male and vice versa.
Certainly a god with infinite power and knowing everything there is to know wouldn't be impressed by priesthoods.

"I think where people get confused about the USA and the founding fathers is that the founding fathers were very intelligent men (with very intelligent women behind them). I certainly believe that they, at least the majority, believed in God."
This is true. Many of the Founders believed there was some sort of god or gods. Most of the Founders were not Christians, however.

"What I also believe, is that they understood that religion, and the people that control it, can certainly be a force for evil. Only a blind, ignorant fool, now or then, would think or believe that only his or her particular form of religion is the only path to salvation, or has all the answers."
I'm mostly with you here but I'm afraid you underestimate the numbers of religious people who do indeed believe their particular form of religion is the only correct one and all others are the worst things ever invented. They feel so strongly that they have no problem murdering and torturing, believing that they're actually doing good.

"That is why there is no "Church of the USA" like the "Church of England" or whatever you call it over there. That is why all these references to God on the money here, or in our pledge, are recent inventions."
Agreed.

"Although I believe in God, I certainly don't want prayer in the public schools of the USA. In fact, I hope the public schools go away. The founding fathers did not create a public school system. This, also, is a recent invention, esp. the role of the Federal Government. The sooner we get everyone but local, and I mean local, government out of schools, the better."
I don't agree. Some local governments have tried very hard to force fairy tales into public school science classes, pretending that their fantasies have any comparison to science. Clearly larger control is needed over something as critical as educating the young.

"Christmas is Christmas. The government needs to stay out of it. I don't want the government involved in ANY religious holidays or symbols, i.e., don't have government displays of Muslim, Jewish, Christian, or Pagan symbols or documents, other than in museums. There is no reason for the government to be involved. On the other hand, government INTERFERENCE in religion needs to end now."
Agreed, except that I don't know what you mean by government interference in religion. Can you link us with some examples of government interference in religion?

"Remember, at least in the United States of America, it is freedom OF religion. Not freedom FROM religion. That is for the people to choose themselves. Not government, one way or the other. Not promote, not discourage."
You could not be more wrong. Of course freedom of religion includes freedom from religion, if so desired.
Once again, I'd like to hear about government discouraging religion. Are you referring to keeping religion out of government funded science classes? Keeping religious symbols off of government property?
The last time I looked, religion was alive and well in USA. I see religious symbols all over the place. Not on government property, of course, but I have yet to hear of a single case of government discouraging the placing of religious symbols on private property. What have you been hearing? Has there been an invisible war raging in this country that only the religious can detect?

I am curious about the definition of "sin"? As I understand it, we sin when we willfully disobey God's commandments. Having studied a variety of religions, as well as serving a 2 year mission for the Mormon church, I am somewhat confused at how a person is supposed to arrive to the promised kingdom. According to God, he cannot look upon sin with the least degree of tolerance. According to the most common interpretation of the mainstream christian bibles, we just need to confess Jesus name and we are spotless. To put the question at it's most basic form, here is a small outline:

1. God creates humans, (we don't really know why, that's just what he does.)

2. God gives the humans some commands, and tells them that if they do not obey the commands, that they will burn in hell forever.

3. Christ comes along and we are now told that if we do not confess his name, we will go to Hell to roast in eternal flame. (those are modern christian's words, not Christs.)

4. Given the astronomical number of humans that have inhabited the earth, and will in the future, ######9 of the humans that God created will never have heard of Jesus and will therefore burn in endless agony, floating in a lake of brimstone and fire.

5. God is omnipotent, omniscent, and omnipresent, so he knows the future and the past, because they are one eternal round to him.

CONCLUSION: God knew that he would be damning almost everyone to a lake of fire when he put them on the earth in the first place. Being all powerful, he could have created beings that would obey his every word and would turn out exactly as he wanted them. I guess that the final answer is that God is a sadistic morbid being that enjoys watching the suffering of his creations.

As a side note, what exactly do the people that go to heaven do for eternity? Do they just feel some kind of drugged up bliss and sing praises for eternity? I was just curious.

You're in for a shock then. Each and every single day in the US of A the christian faith is failing miserably. It's base is losing and the foundation is shaking. Demographics of religion in the US prove this.

The founding fathers of the US left religion out of the government for good reason, it just causes harm and is bad for freedom.

I'll be looking for the God Delusion tomarrow so I can read it.

Although this has already been said I’d like to drive it home once more. The found fathers were deistic masons. They did not believe in a personal God, they believed in an entity who created the universe and then stood back and watched. No Jesus, no miracles, no burning bush and no flood. It was during the age of enlightenment and deism was all the rage.

I’d like to add: Although the book of Leviticus says male (sorry boys) homosexuality is wrong and evil, it also says anyone who wears polyester (clothing of more than one thread) will be damned.