Product Description

'Here is the point about myself and my co-thinkers. Our belief
is not a belief. Our principles are not a faith. We do not hold our
convictions dogmatically. We believe with certainty that an ethical life
can be lived without religion. And we know for a fact that the corollary
holds true - that religion has caused innumerable people not just to
conduct themselves no beter than others, but to award themselves permission
to behave in ways that would make a brothel-keeper or an ethnic cleanser
raise an eyebrow.' From the introduction to God Is Not Great.

In the tradition of Bertrand Russell's Why I Am Not a Christian,
Christopher Hitchens makes the ultimate case against religion. In a series
of acute readings of the major religious texts, he demonstrates the ways in
which religion is man-made, dangerously sexually repressive and distorts
the very origins of the cosmos. With robust 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.

God is Not Great marvels at the possibility of society without religion,
arguing that the concept of an omniscient God has profoundly damaged
humanity. Hitchens proposes instead that the world might be a great deal
better off without `him'.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #29418 in Books
• Published on: 2007-06-10
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 320 pages

Review
Put an -ism onto it, and whatever it is, noted polemicist and contrarian Hitchens (Love, Poverty, and War, 2005, etc.) is likely to decimate it. So he reveals in this pleasingly intemperate assault on organized religion.Hitchens opens by recalling an epistemological crisis. Why, if God was great, did he need to be praised "so incessantly for doing what came to him naturally"? If Jesus could heal the blind, why didn't he do away with blindness? Such doubts arrive to all proper questioners; sometimes they turn into C.S. Lewis or Malcolm Muggeridge, sometimes they turn into committed atheists. Hitchens, forthrightly in the latter camp, offers "four irreducible objections to religious faith" at the outset, namely that religion misrepresents human origins and those of the universe at large; that owing to this, religion combines "the maximum of servility with the maximum of solipsism"; that religion suppresses sexuality to a dangerous degree; and that religion is a species of wishful-thinking. And the author adds another twist of the knife: Religion makes people crazy, violent and ill-behaved. Just ask Salman Rushdie - or Giordano Bruno. Hitchens, a brave grappler quite obviously unafraid of giving offense, cheerfully takes on all comers, from mullahs to commissars to Mahatma Gandhi - and a noted televangelist who once challenged him with a thought experiment in which, in a foreign land, Hitchens is approached by a large group of men. Wouldn't he feel more comfortable, the televangelist asked, to learn that they had just left a religious service? Citing personal experiences in cities only beginning with B - Belfast, Beirut, Bombay, Belgrade, Bethlehem and Baghdad - Hitchens answers emphatically in the negative. And all that's before taking on Joseph Smith, and Mohammed, and . . .It's clear from page to page that Hitchens, a columnist for Vanity Fair, is having a grand time twitting the folks in the white collars and purple dresses, in the turbans and beehives. Like-minded readers will enjoy his arguments, too. (Kirkus Reviews)

Esquire US
'Thank God for Christopher Hitchens. For he has written the finest
of the down-with-God books.'

Johann Hari, The Independent
Dazzling... It shows Hitchens can still intellectually get it up, and
how...

Customer Reviews

Clever, Very Readable and Pretty Convincing Too
Firstly - I've read the US version of this book, "God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything", this is why I can write a review.
If you just want to comment on Hitchens/Atheism in general (either for or against) then please do it somewhere else!

I wasn't the greatest Hitchens fan but I have to admit that this book is something special. It's well written with lots of entertaining anecdotes and is easily more readable than Dawkins "The God Delusion". The pages fly by and his points are interesting and well made.

Obviously I was expecting a rabid attack on all things godly yet Hitchens turns out to be cleverer than that. He insists that people should be free to believe what they want - they just shouldn't try to force their beliefs on others. There's the expected examination of the Abrahamic religions here (yes, including Islam) but also critiques of other faiths too. Intelligent and inventive, this was far far better than the book that I was expecting.

Overall it's a great read with a convincing message that has convinced me to look at Hitchens back catalogue to see what other gems are hidden there...

I dare you to read this!

Superb and hugely insightful
Loved this book, the only downside is I think that few religious people will pick it up, when actually there's a lot in it that's just plain interesting historical fact. The story about the founding of the Mormons is worth the cover price on its own. He is also unafraid to tackle the non-christian religions, which is something of a gap in Dawkins. Worth reading Dawkins superbly written review of this book on his website as well, by the way.

I was honestly a bit reluctant to read it at first because I think Hitch too easily veers off subject when I've heard him on TV and radio, and maybe tries to be a bit too clever for his own good. This book though is like enjoying a brilliant, discursive lecture from a passionate master of his subject. This would make a superb present for the agnostic in your life, or the 'undecided' person / couple who is about to have a wedding or christening - maybe they'll reconsider ceremonies that feed the faith industry. It's great that there are writers like Hitch alive in this age.

Read it with an open mind
This book is a worthy companion to Dawkins "The God Delusion". Whereas Dawkins is a scientist, this author takes more of a historical perspective.

I have read a great deal of the current fashion of these type of books. I have enjoyed them all, but Hitchens is perhaps the best of all. He is fearless and expresses himself with great eloquence. You really have to admire his convictions, even if you do not agree with his every point.

Hitchens shows why he believes religion to be a consequence of our evolutionary childhood, why he believes it should not be considered a source of morality and all the ways in which it has demonstrated (he believes) its tendency to forster totalitarian malevolence.

It is unfortunate that many of the reviews posted are vitreolic arguements from pro- or anti-creationists. Clearly many people take great offence to their faith being questioned. But surely if ones faith is trully strong, they should be able to respond to such challenges in a positive way? It is scarcely likely that a book is going to change your lifelong held beliefs, so surely it can be read with an open mind as to understanding other peoples point of view.

The only criticism I would make of this book is that sometimes too much knowledge is assumed of the reader. At times I found myself having to contentrate quite hard as I was not overly familiar with the historical events.