The quick jump to atheism mirrored with his tendency to consider evolution and specifically, natural selection as a done deal, was what bothered me. I'm up for any kind of reading, but after coming out of the jw, I have a pretty strong bs meter and that set it off.
I think you may have missed a small link in there that would temper your feelings towards what Dawkins is saying. When he speaks of probabilities, you are infering that he is speaking in absolutes. He doesn't claim to be absolute even in his own atheism. If you will remember back, he mentions that he is one step removed from being comletely atheist on his seven point scale, but is leaning towards that last step. In otherwords, he finds the probability of a god existing to be insignificant - but, there still is the possibiliy. It is just a very small one that pales into insignificance. He does the same with evolution in this book. He treats it as the most likely probability, not a done deal as you mentioned (I feel you are not reading this part of the book without bias). Now, it helps one a great deal to have read his previous work, "The Blind Watchmaker". It is very convincing, and that is one of the vehicles that Dawkins has chosen to explore his views on evolution. He does not need to explain an entire book's worth of information inside another book, just to clarify his point when he brings up evolution in "The God Delusion". Nobody does that sort of thing. I would suggest that if you need clarification on why he is so confident in evolution as being the most probable explanation for why life is here, pick up his previous work.
On another front, when you started the I'm an Atheist thread, (I think that's what it was called), I could tell that there were some understandings that you were taking away from the book that weren't what Dawkins intended when you were discussing (and praising) the book. I didn't comment on it at the time, because it seemed vague to me and I couldn't quite put my finger on what I felt you had misunderstood. So I stayed silent. I hope this helps you a little.
I am going to put out another thought - just between friends as it were. I mean this with all respect and friendship. You can throw away everything I'm about to say if you like, but I think you should hear it. I have taken part in threads where you were very upset (too upset given the circumstances) and I tried to console you, and others where you were very happy (actually excited such as The Atheism Thread and too excited given the circumstances). This thread has its own "feel", and it is one I recognize, just like I recognized the special tone of the other threads. I recognize these tones in these threads because of my own mental state. You have been through a great deal in your life. I think this may be triggering a bi-polar state in you which you are expressing in your threads. Very sad/depressed, swinging to very happy/excited, with a dose of grumpiness thrown in on top (like this thread, though I'm not sure grumpy is the right word at the moment- maybe combative).
I say these things because I am bi-polar and I see myself in you. I really, really hope that doesn't offend you becaue I want the best for you.
