The Dawkins Delusion

In The God Delusion Richard Dawkins lauched a no-holds-barred attack on all types of religion. In The Dawkins Delusion Alister McGrath demonstrates some of the faults with Dawkins' book. In particular he shows how Dawkins clearly goes over the top with some of his claims, and that most religions are nothing like the stereotypes which Dawkins describes. The trouble is that that's about all there is to this book. McGrath criticises Dawkins for not being particularly scholarly in his attack, but this book is hardly a scholarly rebuttal - there's too much indignation for one thing, and what is worse there's no index

Also McGrath uses some pretty weak arguments at times, for instance the claim that Dawkins stance actually helps the Intelligent Design movement - ignoring the fact that Dawkins had dealt with this claim in his book. The Dawkins Delusion might make a good antidote for those in danger of taking Dawkins too seriously, and at times there is some reasonable argument - in particular the first half of chapter 4, looking at the evil done in the name of religion. But overall I get the feeling that a small amount of good material was quickly expanded to give a book length response to Dawkins.