God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything | Christopher Hitchens

God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything | Christopher Hitchens | Couldn't put it down

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God Is Not Great: ...

	God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything Christopher Hitchens Twelve Books, Hachette Book Group, 2007 - 307 pages average customer review:based on 794 reviews view larger image
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A Meticulous Study of Relgionists Falacies

For many years I was convinced I was an Agnostic---I just didn't know. After reading this book, I am convinced that I was a coward, afraid to question the religious pundits who use religion to control us. I am now proud to say I have been enlightened, and can truly call myself an Atheist.

Couldn't put it down

No hasty generalizations in this book. One can't say enough about Hitchens' experience in the field and well read basis for his conclusions. He answers the surface dilemma of deciding which form of government causes the greatest social harm, religious types or so-called atheist regimes. Were not the late Hitlers, Stalinists, Maoists, etc., megalomaniacs demanding god-like submission like the religious leviathons before them? The deification process springs from the same psychological source and the two mentioned forms of government should be recognized on the same footing. Only the historically recent secular forms of government which separate church from state, protect minority opinions, free thought and free speech can guarantee peaceful co-existence, justice, and eventual survival as a species.

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god, revisited

Hitchens is the master at making atheists' 'beliefs' believable. Without the familiar histrionics of the intolerant and faith-based believers, he --if somewhat pedantically--sets forth hundreds of objective facts from the earliest religious history to the present hegemonies of the three great (an undeserved encomium; I would say, generously, 'giant') religions, without substantive challenge from the devout or argument-from-design faction. Believe in god or not (I now lower case him, after reading Hitchens), Hitchens gives you a qualified intellectual choice, not an inculcated conditioned response.

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Talk Radio for Atheists

Unlike Dawkins' The God Delusion or Dennett's Breaking the Spell, Hitchens makes no effort to be conciliatory towards religionists. Even though, he has many good points, I doubt that many religionists could get past the strident tone. Hitchens pulls no punches in attacking the New and Old Testaments, the Koran, and eastern religions.

For atheists this book is a fun read, although I would still recommend Dawkins or Dennett for more careful arguments. I especially like the insights in Chapter 17: The Last-Ditch "Case" Against Secularism, where Hitchens confronts the Hitler/Stalin/etc. fallacy.

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My Favorite Contrarian Takes on the Lord

I would just like to say that one must read Hitchens for what he is: a contrarian. In terms of the subject matter itself, I might contest his thesis that "Religion poisons everything" by pointing out that religion is a rather broad topic that involves some fundamental and perhaps unavoidable aspects of human nature. If he had gone the distance and followed Kurt Vonnegut into the land of "homo sapiens poisons everything", I might have enjoyed this contrarian screed even more.

I think this book is served well by a comparison to Dawkins' "The God Delusion", as Hitchens seems to be more perceptive of human issues and less mechanistic in his thinking. The fact that Hitchens doesn't waste the reader's time with long-dead proofs of God's existence and lame attempts at evolutionary ethics makes it easy for Hitchens to look good in comparison.

With regard to Sam Harris, I don't think Hitchens compares so well. Harris is just as courageous as Hitchens, but he is admirably honest in his thinking. Harris is, in contrast, hesitant to sell himself as an atheist, as he believes that specific issues are more important than the big war over God. Hitchens is more like Nietzsche: a marvelously entertaining wrecking ball, though not quite as effectively murderous and less dogmatic.

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