God Is Not Great: Christopher Hitchens

Christopher Hitchens died last year and until he died I had never heard of him. I read eulogies from his fellow journalists and then heard no more until last week when, by chance, I came across some video clips of Hitchens speaking about his views on religion and I found them fascinating. I then found that Hitchens had written a book, God is not Great: how religion poisons everything. I bought the book and have now read it. Firstly, I have only read a couple of chapters of Richard Dawkins The God Delusion and I have to say that Hitchens did a far better job than Dawkins. Religious people do not like God is not Great. Not because it tests their faith but because of what it reveals about what goes on in the name of religion. Hitchens tells us, almost in passing, that he has received death threats, nasty phone calls and threats of violence for holding his view that he believes that religions poison everything. Having been born and brought up in a country where freedom of speech is taken for granted, I wonder at who it could be that would so object to someone's views that they threaten murder. That's for their conscience! As for the book, it is entertainingly written and full of stories aimed at the three main monotheisms: Christianity, Jewry, Islam. He regales us with story after story of the things that clerics hiding under these three banners get up to and have got up to for millennia. Hitchens reveals a great number of sources too: he's not just letting off steam. I have to say that I read this book for the overview it provided and not to learn the deep and detailed information that Hitchens sometimes goes into: it's there if you want it, of course. I like Hitchens' style as it is keen, ascerbic, funny, witty, well sourced and contains many words that I had never come across before. At least it will improve your vocabulary. I have to say that another motivation for reading the book is that I arrived at a similar position to Hitchens vis a vis religion over the last two or three years having seen religious brainwashing and its consequences at first hand. No God will work in that way with those people: something else is most definitely going on and I could support these things no longer, having realised what was happening. I imagine there will be people who read this mini review and who might feel angry with me for having written it: well, that's for you to come to terms with. I am glad I read the book, I learned many things about religions that I did not previously know and Hitchens gives a message that we all ought to consider. You do not have to agree with him! What's wrong with the book? Well, Hitchens has a mission, to clarify why he thinks religions poison everything. He gives no time to the good that good people in religions often do. He does not attempt to redress any imbalances in his arguments at all in this respect. If he were alive to answer this point I am sure he would ask, why on earth should I? Overall, if you are deeply committed to your religion you might not want to read this book but I think you should suspend your faith, read it and then explore fully what Hitchens has to say. Don't dismiss this book with anger in your heart! If you give Hitchens a fair hearing and stick to your guns then fine. I recommend this book to everyone but if your English reading skills are weak, it will be difficult for you: Hitchens' English language skills are highly developed and he's writing for an educated audience. No offence to anyone, just a friendly warning! DW

Unfortunately I have only come to know of Hitchens after his death. But what an utterly insatiable and total demolition of the theory of god. Hitchens approaches religion from the perspective of the faithful followers of the cults and gradually dismembers each and every argument that the proponents of the main monotheisms use to defend their perverse and inexcusable destruction of humanity. The book arms the reader in preparation for those unavoidable confrontations when faced with a religious bigot and their twisted subjugation of all who fail to follow in their footsteps. He dismembers the theory that god is great and piece by piece diminishes even an hesitant sympathy for the main religions of the world. His assault is relentless, his breadth of knowledge is frankly astonishing and he appears to have read, retained and for the most part dissected entire libraries of books, writings and information including not only every philosopher you can think of but a good few the reader will most likely never have even heard of. Hitchens cannot be credited for transforming me into an atheist for that was my leaning from the tender age of 11 or 12. But I must credit him the most respect for managing to transform me from a passive aggressive atheist into an utter militant atheist. He reinforces the wonderful concept of atheism that cuts to brow of the god suckers, who demand 'respect' for beliefs. I and indeed Mr Hitchens cannot respect for a moment the utter contemptuous beliefs of religions which cannot afford my beliefs true respect and who each in their perverse manner damns me to an eternity of suffering. Thanks to Hitchens every conversation with a theist is now commenced with a realignment of the boundaries of debate, namely that I do not respect, for a blind moment, your utterly insane belief in a god so lets not start on the footing that you expect that, and for the record, before you start reciting passages of your holy book to me let us start from the basic evidential burden namely that you cannot, for a moment, produce evidence that your jesus ever lived, or that the old testament drenched in blood as it is, was even written within 5 generations of the fabled life of the theoretical man that you pander to. contempt for religion, as Hitchens rightly points out, should no longer be manifested respectfully or idly. those raising the sword of their gods and saviours must be challenged in the most demeaning and openly honest manner and that is what Hitchens does in this marvel of a book which I have read in a week since buying, then re-read and am now starting my third round. Everything is dragged out in this no limits expose of the god brigade, everything from the crusades, witch hunts, middle age wars, the highly doubtful lineage of Mohammed, the abject support if not encouragement of child sexual abuse in christianity and the continued encouragement of this practice in islam, the subjugation of women, whom Hitchens rights recognises as gods lesser creation for even the English word for History refers to a males dominated start. The manner in which the female has been cursed by the believers in god, female and male genital mutilation (as Hitchens states, if god is so perfect then why does humanity need to adjust these natural sexual organs of the human race?), mental abuse and the horrendous crimes committed in the name of religion and god right up until this very moment in time. He disseminates the religious argument which claims that some openly atheist dictatorships committed worse atrocities than those committed under the umbrella of gods and rips to shreds the Nazi's and Stalinists and Communism to show that at every human mutilating stage of their gory histories they each rode upon and relied upon the abject support of the Vatican and the perverse catholic church. Frankly, in my view, I would love to see a theist read the book and look me in the eye afterwards. It is a damnation of all that is marketed as god. Hitchens makes wonderful analogies and observations, like 'god certainly has never favoured Africans' given the treatment they received. And even better is the faith that the slave and the slave driver both had in the same god - what greater evidence that religion is man made than the mere fact that both pray to the same god whereas one of these groups is the oppressed and the other the oppressor, therefore where in this equation of twisted faith lies the forgiving god? Was the annihilation of the jews not a religious mandate? and what of the conduct of the jews ever since they occupied palestine? Three sects, each plagiarised to pblivion off one another, occupy a single hill in what is not occupied Palestine and all three scream and kill to the tune of their supposed chosen diety. It's a pathetic scene demonstrative of how humanity is stunted in the dark ages of superstition and black magic. The drawing of the blood routines that dominate all the main monotheisms, the masked tolerance of the church, the suppression of all forms of natural human emotion and feeling from love to devotion to masturbation and anal sex. In the illustrious words of Hitchens 'the most prolific masturbating homosexual in history has not managed to commit the atrocities of the clergy'! Even the apparently friendly monks don't escape a damning crtique of their abuse of humanity. But don't be fooled, Hitchens always gives credit where it is due. It is time that humanity woke up to the repulsive regressive retarded belief in a god or a life after death and hailed the new messiah Christopher Hitchens! and a final word to those who claim that he is biased. Yes he is biased, extremely biased too. But biased in the sense of a mother who knows that the milk being fed to her child is rancid and screams and protests to try and save the child from swallowing that rancid milk!

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!

Now this is a very interesting book. The writhing is that of a British Academic, so you know it will be in a style that marries two worlds of past, those being Shakespeare and Harry Potter. It gives a personal account of religious history and how man has created this myth of God. Great book for atheists and people of faith. One of the better ones I've read on the subject.

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.