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This is not the kind of book a born again evangelical would generally read, so it wasn't until I became an atheist that I read this, and my review is based upon that perspective. After having read a few other books: specifically The God Delusion and Losing My Religion while doing a lot of deep thinking about my life and the truth about the things I've believed for many years, I've come to the conclusion that Jesus and the Christian story is a myth, and Hitchens has it correct when he says "religion poisons everything".
I went through a very hard transition in the last couple years, my marriage crashed and burned, and due to some tragic moral failings upon my part I ended up in jail. Having been a part of a large Southern California church (part of the larger Vineyard movement) I thought from believing everything I'd been taught from the pulpit and being a member of the community that I'd be received back into fellowship and that the larger church and leadership would at the very least not hinder reconciliation with my spouse.
Boy was I wrong.
While the New Testament teaches principles using stories like that of the Prodigal Son, the modern white suburban evangelical corporate church is run like a business, and it wasn't long before living in my deep anguish lead to actually being arrested again for the supposed crime of "annoying" a Christian pastor. So much for "turning the other cheek" or "blessing your enemies", the corporate church acts like any other business (except they are tax exempt).Read more ›
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I have been a closet atheist (even though I hate that term) for most of my life. I never believed in god and I never really liked the god I kept hearing about in church or from friends. For some reason, I was afraid to be open about my distaste for theism in general.
Christopher Hitchens changed me.
I didn't even know who the man was until after his death in 2011. It was his recorded debates that I watched which got me interested in what he had to say. He made all the points that I was not smart enough to conceive, but with which I completely agreed. His writing style is a bare-knuckled no-holds-barred exposé on the whole of religious dogma and the institutions it has created. If you're an atheist, he will raise points and make comments that will have you nodding along, but if you're a theist (in which case this book is a must read) he will leave you with questions which, thus far, cardinals and theologians across the world have no managed to tackle successfully in their numerous debates with Mr. Hitchens.
The Hitch, and this book, have opened my eyes to something much more powerful than non-belief. Anti-belief. This book exposes religion for what it really is; a force of tyranny and oppression. Because of the man who wrote this book, I'm not longer content to sit by while people who claim to have a direct line to some higher power indoctrinate children and oppress women and those with non-normative sexual identities. Because of Hitch, I no longer feel like I need to hide what I believe out of fear of being discovered as an atheist. I'm content with it. More than that, I'm liberated by it.
It takes a very special kind of person to change your life. Christopher Hitchens did that for me. How could I not recommend the cornerstone piece of his writing? Regardless of your beliefs, you owe it to yourself to face his scrutiny. If your faith is strong, what have you got to lose?
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Hitchens is a good writer. He has an engaging style and a sharp and biting wit. That being said he is sloppy on his facts and does not tell the whole story. He is highlighting the bad and ignoring the good in one group (religious people) and doing the opposite for another group (atheists and agnostics).
He did an excellent job of highlighting everything wrong with religious people, though he made things sound worse than they really were by omitting several important facts. There is lots a material to work with. I felt that he didn't do as well defending infamous non-religious people such as Stalin.
In reality he simply pointed out that people in positions of power (religious, political, or any other type) can do very bad things, and also showed that religion and political power are a very bad combination.
His sloppiness with facts was highlighted by my expertise with one of his targets, the LDS church. He got some general points correct about some historical issues with the church, but got dates wrong (blacks were given the priesthood in 1978, not 1965), exaggerated the view on blacks (he said they were not allowed to go to heaven, where as the church always believed that they could be exalted), and plain got facts wrong (he claimed no one ever saw the gold plates, whereas there are 11 official witnesses whose testimonies are printed with every copy of the Book of Mormon that never recanted their claim of handling the plates).
I've also ready many of the other sources that he used and always drew different conclusions than he did. My reading of history shows that there are bad people in scattered throughout history and the worst kind are those that do bad things in the name of religion. This does not mean that God is bad; it means that people are bad.
Hitchens does remind me though of the importance of separating church and state. This is made very clear.
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This item: God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything
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