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''The God Delusion'' is a 2006 best-selling non-fiction book by English biologist Richard Dawkins, professorial fellow of New College, Oxford,〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=The Third Culture: Richard Dawkins )〕 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'' (1991) that "when one person suffers from a delusion it is called insanity. When many people suffer from a delusion it is called religion."〔; 〕 With many examples, he explains that one does not need religion to be moral and that the roots of religion and of morality can be explained in non-religious terms. In early December 2006, it reached number four in the ''New York Times'' Hardcover Non-fiction Best Seller list after nine weeks on the list. More than three millions of copies were sold.〔 The book has attracted widespread commentary, with many books written in response. ==Background== Dawkins has argued against creationist explanations of life in his previous works on evolution. The theme of ''The Blind Watchmaker'', published in 1986, is that evolution can explain the apparent design in nature. In ''The God Delusion'' he focuses directly on a wider range of arguments used for and against belief in the existence of a god (or gods). Dawkins identifies himself repeatedly as an atheist, while also pointing out that, in a sense, he is also agnostic, though "only to the extent that I am agnostic about fairies at the bottom of the garden". Dawkins had long wanted to write a book openly criticising religion, but his publisher had advised against it. By the year 2006, his publisher had warmed to the idea. Dawkins attributes this change of mind to "four years of Bush" (who "literally said that God had told him to invade Iraq"〔Richard Dawkins, ''Brief Candle in the Dark: My Life in Science'', Bantam Press, 2015, page 171 (ISBN 978-0-59307-256-1).〕). By that time, a number of authors, including Sam Harris and Christopher Hitchens, who together with Dawkins were labelled "The Unholy Trinity" by Robert Weitzel, had already written books openly attacking religion. According to the Amazon.co.uk retailer in August 2007, the book was the best-seller in their sales of books on religion and spirituality, with Hitchens's ''God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything'' coming second. This led to a 50% growth in that category over the three years to that date. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「The God Delusion」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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