Here is the book summary per Wiki:
Dawkins writes that The God Delusion contains four “consciousness-raising” messages:
1. Atheists can be happy, balanced, moral, and intellectually fulfilled.
2. Natural selection and similar scientific theories are superior to a “God hypothesis”—the illusion of intelligent design—in explaining the living world and the cosmos.
3. Children should not be labelled by their parents’ religion. Terms like “Catholic child” or “Muslim child” should make people cringe.
4. Atheists should be proud, not apologetic, because atheism is evidence of a healthy, independent mind.
Dawkins instead takes issue with the theism present in religions like Christianity, Islam, and Hinduism. The proposed existence of this interventionist God, which Dawkins calls the “God Hypothesis”, becomes an important theme in the book. He maintains that the existence or non-existence of God is a scientific fact about the universe, which is discoverable in principle if not in practice.
Dawkins summarises the main philosophical arguments on God’s existence, singling out the Argument from design for longer consideration. Dawkins concludes that evolution by natural selection can explain apparent design in nature.
He writes that one of the greatest challenges to the human intellect has been to explain “how the complex, improbable design in the universe arises”, and suggests that there are two competing explanations:
A hypothesis involving a designer, that is, a complex being to account for the complexity that we see.
A hypothesis, with supporting theories, that explains how, from simple origins and principles, something more complex can emerge.
This is the basic set-up of his argument against the existence of God, the Ultimate Boeing 747 gambit, where he argues that the first attempt is self-refuting, and the second approach is the way forward.
At the end of chapter 4, Why there almost certainly is no God, Dawkins sums up his argument and states, “The temptation [to attribute the appearance of design to actual design itself] is a false one, because the designer hypothesis immediately raises the larger problem of who designed the designer. The whole problem we started out with was the problem of explaining statistical improbability. It is obviously no solution to postulate something even more improbable”.
In addition, chapter 4 asserts that the alternative to the designer hypothesis is not chance, but natural selection.
Dawkins does not claim to disprove God with absolute certainty. Instead, he suggests as a general principle that simpler explanations are preferable (see Occam’s razor), and that an omniscient or omnipotent God must be extremely complex. (Dawkins argues that it is logically impossible for a God to be simultaneously omniscient and omnipotent.) As such he argues that the theory of a universe without a God is preferable to the theory of a universe with a God.
Religion and morality
The second half of the book begins by exploring the roots of religion and seeking an explanation for its ubiquity across human cultures. Dawkins advocates the “theory of religion as an accidental by-product – a misfiring of something useful” as for example the mind’s employment of intentional stance.
Dawkins suggests that the theory of memes, and human susceptibility to religious memes in particular, can explain how religions might spread like “mind viruses” across societies.
He then turns to the subject of morality, maintaining that we do not need religion to be good. Instead, our morality has a Darwinian explanation: altruistic genes, selected through the process of evolution, give people natural empathy. He asks, “would you commit murder, rape or robbery if you knew that no God existed?” He argues that very few people would answer “yes”, undermining the claim that religion is needed to make us behave morally.
In support of this view, he surveys the history of morality, arguing that there is a moral Zeitgeist that continually evolves in society, generally progressing toward liberalism. As it progresses, this moral consensus influences how religious leaders interpret their holy writings. Thus, Dawkins states, morality does not originate from the Bible, rather our moral progress informs what part of the Bible Christians accept and what they now dismiss.
The God Delusion is not just a defence of atheism, but also goes on the offensive against religion. Dawkins sees religion as subverting science, fostering fanaticism, encouraging bigotry against homosexuals, and influencing society in other negative ways. He is most outraged about the teaching of religion in schools, which he considers to be an indoctrination process. He equates the religious teaching of children by parents and teachers in faith schools to a form of mental abuse. Dawkins considers the labels “Muslim child” or a “Catholic child” equally misapplied as the descriptions “Marxist child” or a “Tory child”, as he wonders how a young child can be considered developed enough to have such independent views on the cosmos and humanity’s place within it.
The book concludes with the question whether religion, despite its alleged problems, fills a “much needed gap”, giving consolation and inspiration to people who need it. According to Dawkins, these needs are much better filled by non-religious means such as philosophy and science. He suggests that an atheistic worldview is life-affirming in a way that religion, with its unsatisfying “answers” to life’s mysteries, could never be.
An appendix gives addresses for those “needing support in escaping religion”.
While my own religion has changed quite a bit over the many years and often ventured into “agnostic,” it has never ventured into “atheism.” My near death experience in 1988 changed all that and brought me into being a Christian, but also understanding Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism, and many other religions. Once you experience Him first hand, there is no denying that God exists. In many ways, the physical body is more of an illusion than the human soul.
I’m not writing this to sell you my path or my own individual religion. Follow Jesus and live His teachings and you will find the same things I found. But do it your own way. I do not recommend a having a physical death experience in order to grow spiritually as I did.
For me, everything that Jesus taught is dead on accurate and explained my personal experience better than any other religion, but it did not discount the other religions. It took me to a higher level of understanding where they are all true. Yes, they all also have inaccuracies but those are very minor in comparison to the wisdom of understanding they provide.
First, my experience provided me with the knowledge and continued experience that my soul or spirit is a real physical tangible object that exists beyond my physical body. Note that I did not say separate from my physical body as it is not separate. My soul created and continues to create this physical body. It is far greater than the physical body and the physical body exists within my soul as long as it has life. (At its smallest point the human soul is about 30 ft in diameter and it expands the higher you go.)
Experiencing my soul allowed me to examine it in detail and apply the teachings of Jesus as an operating manual. Christianity is the best operating manual for the soul available. For me, this is not just theory, but a continued experience of my soul as a physical tangible object.
Upon perceiving my own soul, I began to perceive the souls of others. To know their thoughts and memories of past experiences. Differentiation between the thoughts and experiences of others and my own became very difficult and discernment was a difficult lesson to learn. It still continues to be a difficult lesson as the only way to stop experiencing the physical and emotional pain of others is to rise above it. How do you rise above it? Embrace Jesus which is what communion is all about.
That is where Jesus and the Holy Spirit come in. They teach us to rise above the level of consciousness at which all our problems were created and exist. For me, this is all science as I see the immediate impact upon my soul as I rise and descend in my own awareness. There is direct cause and effect and a resulting change in perception of reality.
Sin is real. I define sin as anything that creates an obstacle to Love within my soul. Why is Love so important? It’s the glue that holds the soul together so it can rise to higher levels. Love serves as the cement that holds the foundation of our soul together so it becomes as solid as a rock in order to build higher by growing. That’s why Jesus taught what he did.
“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ This is the first commandment. Why? Loving God for the soul is very similar to a plant loving sunlight. It can’t grow without it. Loving God is what causes our souls to grow to higher and higher levels of awareness and understanding. Once you are “Born of the Spirit,” you begin to perceive from your soul or spirit rather than just your five physical senses. This creates a new reality. The reality that I described above in that you now perceive your own soul and the souls of others in detail. My Father’s Mansion has many rooms and you can grow to traverse and perceive them as you grow. This is why Jesus used the parables of seeds many times.
The second commandment by Jesus, Loving thy neighbor as thyself is the process of removing the obstacles to Love from our souls which are the anchors or ballast that inhibit us from doing a better Job at the first commandment. It’s the cleansing process so more Love can exist in our souls which allows us to grow closer to God. (Commandment #1) It really is that simple.
When this is experienced, there is a completely new science of understanding how God works by understanding the anatomy & physiology of the human soul. Yes, the human soul has an anatomy & physiology just as the physical body does. When you understand it, you then understand how Jesus performed His miracles. They are natural attributes of the higher level of consciousness attained by growing and becoming “One with Jesus,” just as He became “One with His Father.” This is why Jesus said, “The things that I do and even more you too shall do in Me.”
The only way you can fully understand the soul or spirit is to experience it as without the experience there is no point of reference for gaining understanding. To experience it, you must go within.
Let Dawkins and the others go their own way and you follow your own journey. It’s as though they are sitting in a house and arguing that there is nothing that exists outside their house. How can you argue with them unless you venture outside your own house. Follow your religion and experience the world of the soul. It’s far more complex than the depths of the oceans or the outer realms of space.