The rational side of me sees it as quite redundant but the emotional side longs for the reassurance and security that religion can have.
Jitterbug it was exactly this sentiment that ha me holding on to my agnosticism for so long, but I have come to feel comfortable with more humanist principles and actually don't feel alone anymore. Personally it was my internal disquiet with religion that I think was causing my feelings of a lack of purpose, which is why for me discovering my atheism is like a rebirth.

Brontide I was thinking last night about what you said and I think the distinction would be that Dawkins would argue that science does not require faith, it requires an assessment of verifiable evidence. One of Dawkins' (and my personal) concerns with faith is that it tends to be seen as a virute in itself. People don't have to make a case for their faith; the fact that it is what they believe is seen to be enough to make it objectively valid. I used to have a debate with my stongly atheistic husband on this point. He would say "I have more respect for a man who saw his god for himself than someone who just "believes" or "feels" their faith, because at least the man was reliying on evidence". I know there are many ways to see/feel/experience a god and there are atheistic arguments which would question whether they were in fact "real: but do you get my drift? It is the idea that faith does not require any objective evidence that grates with me personally. There is a quote in the book that is appropriate here:"If somebody announces that it is part of his faith, the rest of society, whether of the same faith, or another, or of none, is obliged, by ingrained custom, to "respect" it without question".

But I do agree with you all that he takes a very strong, if not militant tone in his book. My DH and I were discussing it this morning - it strongly turned him against the book even though he was already an atheist before he read it. But to me its like "gay pride" marches, or the freedom rides of the 1950s - people have to be at the forefront and push the envelope. Very few great changes in human society are wrought by being polite and nice.

Has anyone read Peter Singer's "Animal Liberation", by the way? That is next on my reading list - I have always been too afraid to read it in case I turn into a vegetarian LOL!