Richard Dawkins: The God Delusion & Sam Harris: Letter to a Christian Nation

Clearly both of these books are closely related but have different foci and styles.

Harris’s book is aimed at the USA and while there is much that makes the case against belief in God, the effects of belief on society, this is all done in terms of the USA. Its a short, very clearly written book that gives a good overall summary of its topic and with intriguing hostorical information about how religion has become such a central aspect of American life, in spite of the nature and characteristics of the founders.

Dawkins’ is on a differnt scale. it is a very vividly, sometimes slightly over-written in terms of its style. At times one has the feeling that he is allowing a whip-smart rhetorical trope to stand in place of an argument - but such moments are rare - such mements are more for spoken debates rather than ina book but these moments are few and far between and do not detract form the relentless and superbly clearly explained points that he makes throughtout the book. and it It is something of a primer on the case against religious belief and would greatly appeal to late teens who are in the process of establishing/querying their own beliefs. Bertrand Russell had a similar effecton me at that age with his writings on this topic - and both of these authors are wonderful elegant stylists which makes reading the books a pleasure. I think too that this elegance of style can also help to make the case itself more convincing - how something is said, of course, can be just as important as what is said. But style is very rarely placed above well-thought-out content.

Great books to recommend to those in intelligently questioning mode.