When Napoleon asked the mathematician Pierre-Simon Laplace why there was no mention of God in his latest book, the French savant loftily replied: “Sire, I had no need of that hypothesis.” Like Laplace, Richard Dawkins famously has “no need of that hypothesis”. For Dawkins, the elegant simplicity of Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection is sufficient explanation for the diversity of life. In his latest book, he takes aim at all those who continue to believe in the implausible notion of a supernatural creator.

The God Delusion, when published in hardback last year, aroused the wrath of theologians and believers everywhere. Dawkins was accused of everything from simple-mindedness to indulgence in his own atheist variety of the very fundamentalism he was condemning. There is little surprise that his critics were both indignant and worried. Not only does Dawkins pull no punches in his assault on religious ideas (no mealy-mouthed evasions or expressions of regret for him), but he is also a brilliant and entertaining polemicist. Whether demolishing previous arguments for the existence of God, providing a succinct explanation of why natural selection suggests that there almost certainly isn’t a divine designer of the universe, or lambasting the often pernicious influence of religion on modern society, he is such a clever and witty writer that he carries readers effortlessly with him. After a reading of The God Delusion, an omnipotent and omniscient deity seems about as likely a being as the Tooth Fairy.

THE GOD DELUSION by Richard Dawkins

(Black Swan £8.99)

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