Christopher Hitchens – God is Not Great

Posted by redosiris on 24 September, 2010 · 1 Comment 

Although I agree with the sentiment of this book and the central point that religion has caused more harm throughout the world than good is a justified one, I struggled with Hitchens’ own way of arguing his point. As with many of the professional liberal philosophy elite he gets couched in silly arguments without looking at the greater picture and boils things down to personal experience rather than actual fact.

That said, Hitchens can be passionate and vehement in his denunciation of his subject, which is “violent, irrational, intolerant, allied to racism, tribalism, and bigotry, invested in ignorance and hostile to free inquiry, contemptuous of women and coercive toward children”.

In his admonishing of faith, he sticks broadly to the three “main” Abrahamic faiths; Christianity, Judaism and Islam. There is an interesting chapter on the formulation of religions which pokes fun at some of the “new” faiths on offer these days, but also shows how easily these obsessions can spiral out of control.

In Chapter 18 the authors takes on Buddhism and Hinduism to a point but never strays too far from the easy targets the book centres around. One of the finer points of the book is Hitchens explaining how religion is not a necessity towards a moral life and goes on to highlight some of our greatest moral authorities throughout history as either atheists or agnostics including Paine, Einstein, Spinoza and Socrates.

There is also a very readable chapter on the religious leanings of Hitler and Stalin, whom religious people claim to be examples of amoral atheists. This chapter begins with the cutting statement that “it is interesting that people of faith now seek defensively to say they are no worse than fascists or Nazis or Stalinists”.

Some religious scholars have criticized the factual inaccuracy of his statements, and are probably correct in labeling it as a polemic rather than a factual account of religious global activity. Broadly, it’s a decent book about an unending argument over whether there is a God or not, and whether that God is good, but I think if I was going to recommend a book of its kind it would have to be the God Delusion by Richard Dawkins who comes at the discussion from a purely scientific background rather than political commentary and enlightenment politics, and although both writers agree on the fundamental points, Dawkins is more convincing since he doesn’t get couched into political rhetoric about an apolitical terror. Dawkins ground is more solid whereas Hitchens is awaiting the philosophical earthquake that will swallow his, at times childish arguments.

Filed under Non Fiction, religion, Reviews · Tagged with Abrahamic Religions, Agnosticim, Atheism, Buddhism, Catholicism, Christianity, Christopher Hitchens, Faith, God, Hinduism, Hitchens, Islam, Judaism, Non Fiction, Religion