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In the tradition of Bertrand Russell's Why I Am Not a Christian and
Sam Harris's recent bestseller, The End of Faith, Christopher
Hitchens makes the ultimate case
against religion. With a close and erudite reading of the major
religious texts, he documents the ways in which religion is a
man-made wish, a cause of dangerous sexual repression, and a
distortion of our origins in the cosmos. With eloquent clarity,
Hitchens frames the argument for a more secular life based on
science and reason, in which hell is replaced by the Hubble
Telescope's awesome view of the universe, and Moses and the burning
bush give way to the beauty and symmetry
of the double helix.
I Already Don't Believe in Santa Claus!!!!!Reviewed by Nik Edmiidz, 2010-03-06
Reading this makes you think that religion is a an abomination of
God at times, but then at other times it suggests that even these
manifestations are natural considering our mammalian
existence.
It makes judgments on gurus having faith in faith rather than a
divine-being, as if that is a bad thing. Of course it is bad, as
the book states, if the system of faith is deceitfully used as a
weapon of exploitation of smaller minds.
It talks of acquiring mortality from literature like Dostoyevsky -
I like that, but then I think of Tolstoy's spiritual-awakening
depicted through his fictional character Levin.
It shows how the ties between religion and genocide go hand-in-hand
similarly to the writings of Jared Diamond's Collapse: How
Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed.
There are many truly laughable lines in the book (or tragic
depending on your perspective) like:
Are you a Catholic atheist?
Chapter 7 is also good for laughs. There are also real words of
wisdom like:
Foolish to use blind-men as guides when the sun comes up.
And others on Christ in Chapter 8.
Chapter 6 on intelligent-design drives me crazy... Like reading a
24 page proof of the non-existence of Santa Claus...
The last chapter "The Need for a New Enlightenment" goes on to site
more examples of religious insanity, which I suppose, qualifies as
a proof of the "need", but I was looking for an actual proposal
about a "new enlightenment", from an atheist.
oh my god (or not)!!Reviewed by buddha18, 2010-03-05
First, other authors shouldn't read this. Hitchens write so well that they'll all want to hang up their pencils. Secondly, he's so on point. Third, but is he? We'll never really know. Or will we? I'd give it one more star if it was at all motivational. God or not, we have to be the change - (check out Live Like A Fruit Fly - also on amazon)
No child's behind left!Reviewed by Mr. Bond, 2010-03-04
Christopher Hitchens is a clever and funny man who makes a great
case against organized bigotry. His questions are something that
should be pondered by all of us. That being said, his book is no
more than a disgusting over-simplification of what people actually
believe. At times he's not very clear about who he's attacking. The
further into the book one reads, the more it becomes obvious that
Mr. Hitchens is terrified of the idea of God. He sees Big Brother
instead of what could possibly be the truth. I'm not a big fan of
C.S. Lewis and I wished that Hitchens would've spent more time
critiquing his arguments; but it really just sounded like he was
making fun of Lewis more than his philosophy. The gross
over-simplification deals also with the atheists he discussed.
Frankly, his comment on Nietzsche was painful to read. If he knew
anything of Nietzsche, he would not have so ignorantly back handed
his famous phrase "God is dead".
Pg. 67 (Hardback) "The decay and collapse and discredit of
god-worship does not begin at any dramatic moment, such as
Nietzsche's histrionic and self-contradictory pronouncement that
god was dead. Nietzsche could no more have known this, or made the
assumption that god had ever been alive, than a priest or witch
doctor could ever declare that he knew god's will."
Any philosophy 101 student could tell you that Nietzsche was not
claiming literally that God was dead. He was expressing his belief
that God was dead in the eyes of his contemporaries. That they
didn't understand what the beliefs they were claiming actually
meant. It's a metaphysical idea, not a literal one. Hitchens does
the same thing he accuses believers of doing; literally believing
in metaphysical books. Which is ironic because if Hitchens replaced
every religious idea claimed by others in his book with the word
creationists, I'd probably agree with his critiques infinitely
more.
P.S. The last line of Stephen Prothero's review said more than all
of the reviews on here combined.
Very interestingReviewed by Shinzy, 2010-03-01
This was a nice little book to read. I think it's well worth the
money I paid for it, full of interesting information about religion
and so fourth.
While I differ in opinion than the author, it still kept my
interest and actually managed to shape a few different views I
hold. I find it lovely that Hitchens also has done vast amounts of
research regarding religion- he definitely doesn't attack with a
lack of knowledge.
However, he seems to miss a point in regards to the destruction
that 'religion' causes, which I think is actually caused by those
with sociopathic tendencies more so than theistic behavior (they
may hold the beliefs, but holding power is what makes a
difference). But whatever floats your boat.
Too many big words.not a laymans' term book at all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Reviewed by Mark Twain Carol, 2010-02-25
I would really like to read this book....in Laymans' terms!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Very hard to follow....so technical.it's as if the author wanted to impress with all the big words he knows!!!!!! As for understanding, it may as well be written in Greek.............:( :(
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