Richard Dawkins on Outgrowing God

Richard Dawkins was fifteen when he stopped believing in God. Deeply impressed by the beauty and complexity of living things, he felt certain that they must have had a designer. Learning about the theory of evolution changed his mind. In his 2019 book, Outgrowing God: A Beginner’s Guide to Atheism, Dawkins provides an accessible primer to atheism for readers looking to rethink some of the big questions that shaped his own path towards seeing the magnificence of a world without God. In twelve fiercely funny, mind-expanding chapters, Dawkins explains how the natural world arose without a designer—the improbability and beauty of the “bottom-up programming” that engineers an embryo or a flock of starlings—and challenges head-on some of the most basic assumptions made by the world’s religions: Do you believe in God? Which one? Is the Bible a “Good Book”? Is adhering to a religion necessary, or even likely, to make people good to one another? Dissecting everything from Abraham’s abuse of Isaac to the construction of a snowflake, Outgrowing God is a concise, provocative guide to thinking for yourself.