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Richard Dawkins was fifteen when he stopped believing in God.
Deeply impressed by the beauty and complexity of living things, he'd felt certain they must have had a designer. Learning about evolution changed his mind. Now one of the world's best and bestselling science communicators, Dawkins has given readers, young and old, the same opportunity to rethink the big questions.
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.
Richard Dawkins is author of The Selfish Gene, voted The Royal Society's Most Inspiring Science Book of All Time, and also the bestsellers The Blind Watchmaker, Climbing Mount Improbable, The Ancestor's Tale, The God Delusion, and two volumes of autobiography, An Appetite for Wonder and Brief Candle in the Dark. He is a Fellow of New College, Oxford and both the Royal Society and the Royal Society of Literature. In 2013, Dawkins was voted the world's top thinker in Prospect magazine's poll of 10,000 readers from over 100 countries.
"Outgrowing God is another sally against his oldest foe, the Almighty"
– The Times
"Books of 2019: The scientist and controversial commentator on religious and cultural questions presents an accessible, "junior" version of The God Delusion (2006)."
– Guardian
"His contagious enthusiasm renders the basics of natural selection newly astonishing."
– The Guardian
"Books of 2019: Richard Dawkins has always had it in for the almighty and he's back to take another pop at the poor bloke. Here he outlines what he believes is the real meaning of life."
– The Times
"Dawkins new book is special in the terrain of atheists’ pleas for humanism and rationalism precisely since it speaks to those most vulnerable to the coercive tactics of religion. As Dawkins himself says in the dedication, this book is for “all young people when they’re old enough to decide for themselves”. It is also, I must add, for their parents."
– Professor Janna Levin, Claire Tow Professor of Physics & Astronoy at Barnard College of Columbia University
