We are all atheists...

Hot Tip: Costco now has...

...the just-published trade paperback edition of Richard Dawkins's The God Delusion, for $9.99. I picked up my copy this morning and just finished reading its ten-page "preface to the paperback edition," which has left me revved up and excited to read this "entertaining, wildly informative, splendidly written polemic" a third time!

The book's catchy fold-out front cover features (besides the quotation above from the Sunday Times of London) a quotation from the author:

We are all atheists about most of the gods that humanity has ever believed in. Some of us just go one god further.

As I recall, Dawkins put this another way in the book. Something like, Going from polytheism to monotheism was an advance, and so is subtracting one god more.

There's a bumper sticker I haven't seen yet that states (the new preface tells us):

Blasphemy is a victimless crime.

Reminds me of what I sometimes think when told I'm being prayed for:

There's no one listening.

Of course, for all the readers this blog has [that is, doesn't have] I might as well think a similar thing whenever I click the "Publish Post" button...But if even a few visitors to Moristotle are encouraged to come out of the closet and stop hiding their disbelief....

Out of the closet? That's another reference to Dawkins's new preface, which lists some of the objections to his book that start with "I'm an atheist, BUT...":

You are only preaching to the choir. What's the point?
"Converts' Corner" on RichardDawkins.net gives the lie to this premise, but even taking it at face value there are good answers [sic]. One is that the non-believing choir is a lot bigger than many people think, especially in America. But, again especially in America, it is largely a closet choir, and it desperately needs encouragement to come out. Judging by the thanks I received all over North America on my book tour, the encouragement that people like Sam Harris, Dan Dennett, Christopher Hitchens and me are able to give is greatly appreciated.

Read the book! Read the book!