God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything

god is not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything by Christopher Hitchens "god is not Great" is a one of the most fascinating books you will ever read. A scholarly, passionate, and witty book that challenges religious dogma with panache. This 336-page book is composed of the following nineteen chapters: 1. Putting It Mildly, 2. Religion Kills, 3. A Short Digression on the Pig; or, Why Heaven Hates Ham, 4. A Note on Health, to Which Religion Can Be Hazardous, 5. The Metaphysical Claims of Religion Are False, 6. Arguments from Design, 7. Revelation: The Nightmare of the "Old" Testament, 8. The "New" Testament Exceeds the Evil of the "Old" One, 9. The Koran Is Borrowed from Both Jewish and Christian Myths, 10. The Tawdriness of the Miraculous and the Decline of Hell, 11. "The Lowly Stamp of Their Origin": Religion's Corrupt Beginnings, 12. A Coda: How Religions End, 13. Does Religion Make People Behave Better, 14. There Is No "Eastern" Solution, 15. Religion as an Original Sin, 16. Is Religion Child Abuse?, 17. An Objection Anticipated: The Last-Ditch "Case" Against Secularism, 18. A Finer Tradition: The Resistance of the Rational, and 19. In Conclusion: The Need for a New Enlightenment. Positives: 1. Hitchens writes with panache. 2. Thought-provoking does not begin to describe this book. 3. Hitchens is the ultimate intellectual entertainer. It takes a brilliant mind and command of the language to be able to convey such lucid thoughts. 4. Any book by Hitchens is a quote fest but this is his Magnum Opus. 5. Hitchens is able to put into words what many of us think. 6. Challenges many religious beliefs of various faiths. 7. The uncomfortable nature of religion and sex. Many poignant examples. 8. The truth about how agnostic cadets are bullied by "born again" cadres. 9. Violations against the Establishment Clause illustrated. 10. How religion and faith distort our whole picture of the world. Example, condoms and AIDS. 11. Debunks many religious beliefs with compelling arguments. As an example, destroys the absurd notion of a young earth. 12. A look back at some fascinating doomsday predictions. 13. The clash of science and religion and how religion thwarted scientific progress. 14. The arrogance of religion exposed. 15. An eye for evolution...you will understand my pun once you read this page-turning book. 16. The fallacy of Noah's Ark. We are all wet to believe such things. 17. The truth behind the ten commandments and what they don't say. 18. The "divine" authority to commit evil. A well developed theme throughout this book. 19. The religious dogma that lead to witch hunt. 20. Instruments of evil illustrated, oh my. 21. What archaeology hasn't uncovered. 22. Faith as a mask of insecurity. 23. No such things as miracles. 24. Many apologetic arguments destroyed. 25. Religion as a political source of control. 26. This book lead me to watch the Oscar-award winning documentary, "Marjoe". A tale of American evangelical hucksterism. Highly recommended. 27. How some religions were invented by opportunists. 28. The cruel practice of slavery and its misguided religious justification. 29. The impact of Dr. King. Fascinating take. 30. Many religious icons presented in a different light. 31. Colonel Robert Ingersoll, enough said. 32. Cruel creeds at work throughout the planet. 33. Vicarious redemption as only Hitchens can express it. 34. Dictatorships and their tools of oppression. 35. Apartheid and its connection to religion, racism and totalitarianism. 36. The lack of evidence for "intercessory" prayer. 37. Very few people are as well read as Hitchens, but what sets him apart is his ability to relay topic-appropriate narratives with flair and this book exemplifies that. 38. Well researched and referenced book. Negatives: 1. This is not an even-handed book and Hitchens makes no bones about it. Hitchens did not write this book to give you the positives about religion so if you are looking for a fair assessment, you must look elsewhere. 2. His brutal unrelenting honesty will rub those who oppose his views in a bad way. 3. I have no problems going after immoral dogma, but I do have some reservations about equating immoral dogma with immoral believer. I think that distinction gets lost in this book. 4. Clearly religion doesn't poison everything as evidenced by many of the good works of religious believers. That much we can say for certain, however I do have a problem with good acts in conjunction with proselytizing. Hitchens has done a very good job of clearing this issue up after the book was released. 5. Having to wait for Mr. Hitchens next great book. In summary, this is one of the most thought-provoking books you will ever read. Hitchens establishes the premise of his book and he never relents. He never holds back and does so with an intellectual passion rarely seen. Fascinating, witty, enlightening, and irreverent but never boring. In the proper context, this is a "bad" book that is good for you. Highly recommended. Further suggestions: "Cruel Creeds, Virtuous Violence" by Jack David Eller, "Why I Became an Atheist..." by John Loftus, "God's Problem" by Bart D. Ehrman, "Godless..." by Dan Barker, "The God Virus" by Darrel Ray, "The End of faith" by Sam Harris, "The Religion Virus" by Craig A. James, "The God Delusion" by Richard Dawkins, and "God and His Demons" by Michael Parenti.

What can I write that hasn't already been said about the character that is Christopher Hitchens. Yes he is a contrarian, his humor can be dark, incisive, and cutting to those who agree with him and mean-spirited and strident to those who don't. But this book isn't written to gain new converts, it is mostly candy for atheists. Mr Hitchens says in the book that he doesn't think religious belief will ever end and he isn't in the business of telling people what to think. He is looking for the rational crowd to be more outspoken to ensure that this voice is heard. A book like this shouldn't have to be written. To most rational people, a book on this subject is directly equivalent to a dense treatise on whether Santa Claus can plausibly deliver all those presents in one night. But this book does provide a place for us all to vent our frustration at the dominant role that ludicrous beliefs have had in the public square. But while I don't think he will gain many converts, the New Atheists have definitely initiated a call-to-arms to be more vocal about our ridicule of religion. This may be the lasting impact of books such as this. The fact that Christopher Hitchens won't gain new converts isn't a discredit to his arguments, it is merely a statement on the inertia of changing peoples minds on a topic they hold near and dear. Most people are taught from their impressionable years onwards that religious claims are true. Religion provides false but comforting answers to questions of death, suffering, meaning and justice. The atheist can't exactly go door to door to say, 'surprise there is no god', 'when you die, you are gone for eternity', or other not-made-for-Hallmark statements. But like the author, I prefer the reality we find ourselves in. We only have one chance in this world. Each kiss to your wife, kind word to a friend, good deed done, every sunset on the beach, could be your last. As William Burroughs once said, 'Life is a vacation from two eternities, who wants to waste those precious years worrying about what happens when you get back to forever". I find the description of reality and the creation myths of the world's religions to be boring and uninspired. I side with the Reverend Carl Sagan in a spirit of wonder and awe at the true nature of our universe and our evolution. If only religions had tapped in to the true magnificence of our universe, instead of the narrow path they had chosen. But our hopes about the reality of the universe have no bearing on their truth. I believe that there are two options, either god is evil or he doesn't exist. Thankfully the latter is true and we are spared an oppressive god who disproportionately starves poor African children, sends tsunamis after poor villages and decides who wins football games. I can hear the grumbles already, that god gives suffering to test our faith, to break us down so we can come to believe in him. Aren't there more subtle ways for an all-powerful deity to teach us lessons, isn't this method of inflicting suffering on the world to get a point across a bit barbaric and why does god disproportionately teach lessons to those who are poor and dark-skinned. Either way, I could go on and on but this topic kind of bores me. There are no good arguments for a belief in god. But this is a very entertaining book about a great writers favorite topic, you can't go wrong. You should be thoroughly entertained by this therapeutic romp at the expense of the absurdities that have dominated the social sphere underneath the domain of religion. But most rationalists won't get anything new from it.

Review: God is not Great by Christopher Hitchens The title of the book did not appeal to me but Hitchens' reputation had already filtered down to me long before the time I began to read his books. I found Hitchens' style of writing easy and relaxed and to the point especially on a topic that is normally heavy and dull. Hitchens soon showed why the God of Moses, the God of Jesus, the God of the Jews and Christians (and Islam) is not great although most Jews and Christians (and Muslims) consider that their God who created the Universe as well as man must be omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent which is in accordance with the stories in the Torah, the Bible and the Quran. But with the benefit of modern science, freedom of expression, and liberated concepts, Hitchens slowly dismantles the pillars of faith in his book. The religious misrepresentation of the origins of man and the cosmos is still maintained by fundamentalists (of all three Abrahamic faiths) who manage to keep the maximum of solipsism grounded on wishful thinking or some other convoluted reinterpretation of words. Fundamentalists will not concede that when religion was first conceived in the dark ages, the only source of information was derived from the limited knowledge of the clergy of religion, but as the light of knowledge appeared it was foolish to still use such a blind man as guide. But faith will still use the familiar guides of old for fear of upsetting the memes he was groomed with from childhood. The Abrahamic faiths as organised religion has a doctrine, and history of violent, irrational, intolerant tribalism and bigotry invested in ignorance and hostile to free inquiry, contemptuous of women and coercive toward children, has a lot to answer for. The reality that religion and churches, temples, and mosques were manufactured by man is totally ignored in order to mystify the gullible ignorant people to accept some mystical ethereal figure that there is some supernatural power who controls their destiny. This ethereal figure painted as some omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent spiritual figure who created and rules over us, but strangely is never present when you need him most when disaster strikes, led to challenges whether he is actually omnipotent, or simply unwilling, or even a malevolent in his intent. This has led to the next logical conclusion: "The absence of evidence is the evidence of absence." It is a Must read for those with and those without faith. ............................................................................................................................................. As a tribute to this great author I would like to quote this from his wife, Carol Blue: CAROL BLUE: Yes. Freedom of speech was everything to Christopher. He believed in an absolute First Amendment. His voice, both written and spoken, was everything to him and he writes in the article that you referred to - or in the snippet that appears in Mortality - about the - how the spoken word and the written word dovetail and are kind of synergetic. And so it was very odd for this man with the most perfect voice who could command the attention of anyone, any time, anywhere suddenly sitting at the dinner table surrounded by children and relatives trying to cut into the conversation. It was very odd. Luckily, it didn't last for very long. His voice popped back in just as he was filing that Vanity Fair piece that became part of the essay of Mortality.

Having finished reading this book the first thing I would point out to a potential reader is that the subtitle provides a better description than the main title. Hitchens goes to great length to point out the many and varied crimes of institutionalized religion. This is something that not even the most devout Catholic would deny. The crusades, the inquisitions, burning people alive and other horrible and immoral acts fill the history of religion like a syringe filled with poison. Hitchens' main point, and also something that I thing most people of any religion would agree with, is that these acts shouldn't be forgotten or forgiven simply because they were done in the name of any particular religion. Immoral acts are immoral no matter who does them. Indeed in the varied reviews that people have given of this book, critical reviews nearly always forget to even mention these crimes and immoral acts. They might get caught up with something as pedantic as the wording of a scriptural quote. To me this seems like a rather pathetic argument. It's much like a murderer in court saying "Look, forget about him saying I killed all those people - he said I wore brown shoes when I was clearly wearing black!". It picks at minute details to distract from the larger ones. That's not to say that reasonable religious readers will agree with this book wholeheartedly. Hitchens makes no attempts to hide the fact that he does not believe in God, and feels there is absolutely no compelling reason to do so. He even goes on to point out that if you were to practice your religion and beliefs in the comfort of your own home, he wouldn't have the slightest problem with it. He does, however, object to the god described in the old testament as an immoral monster. Overall there is a lot to take from this book, regardless of your personal views on the matter. Its focus is perhaps less controversial than The God Delusion in that the crimes detailed are a matter of historical record and considered horrific mistakes even by the most conservative of church-goers. If I had to make only one complaint about this book it would be that I didn't always feel that the examples given fell exactly in the subject of the particular chapter where they were placed. The examples were compelling and important to know about, but sometimes I feel they would have been better used at different points in the book to support some other argument. I would recommend this book to anybody regardless of their beliefs if only so that they can be aware of the wrong that can be done in the name of religion and do their best to avoid it ever happening again.

Todas las religiones merecen análisis y justo escrutinio sin nublarlo con sentimentalismos o posturas dogmáticas, exactamente fue lo que hizo Christopher Hitchens en este excelente libro, fue un erudito preocupado y ocupado por una mejor humanidad, llevando en alto la razón y la verdad.

Um grande estudo mostrando porque religião não tem nada de divino ou sobrenatural, tendo sido contruida por seres humanos. E que causou e continua causando um mal imenso!

Not an easy read. Almost every chapter needs re reading to understand fully the depth of the authors knowledge and understanding of the subject. Loving every page, a truly amazing book.