‘How religion poisons everything’
At some point in their life, everyone has questioned the religious indoctrination instilled into them as children. For many, this is an ongoing process, done with a measure of guilt, lurking fear of everlasting punishment because they dared to question, and the need to rebel against outmoded dogma kept personal lest they be shunned by those around them. The road to a promised heaven is strewn with thorns of man’s own making.
In his book ‘God is not great’, Christopher Hitchens opens a window and sheds a glaring light onto the world’s three major religions: Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. This light reveals a tortured history based on lies, inconsistencies, and contradictions, subjected to ongoing ‘correction’ to fit the views of those dispensing faith and salvation. Obey, don’t question, stay ignorant, and you’ll be saved is the mantra. Like a bee, Hitchens flutters from one topical flower to another and briefly exposes his views on the beginnings of each major religion, the historical evils committed, and are still being committed, in the name of god, and why religion in developed societies is slowly dying. He often descends into rambling tales of personal experiences that stray from the topic at hand, superficially treats serious topics such as abuse of children by pedophile priests, Vatican corruption, and spends too much time delving into works of past thinkers that would be better done in another book. Given that serious discourse about any one major religion can occupy a single hefty book, let alone attempting to dissect all three, Hitchens succeeds well to expose readers to the shortcomings of each, and provides a lot of material for serious thought in the hope that his input will remove or at least alleviate any lingering guilt an individual may have in questioning his or her brainwashing.
‘God is not great’ fails to address two major issues. The book does not discuss how organized religions have failed mankind in modern times. Nothing is said about the simmering strife in the Middle East where all sides use religion to promulgate their cause. The reader is left scratching his or her head at the schism between the Catholics and the Protestants, exemplified by ongoing hatred in Ireland. Aren’t we all the same under God? The Vatican is silent on these issues, perhaps because they hope the two sides would annihilate each other, while Islam seeks total eradication of every infidel, and far-right rabbinical extremists seek a similar fate for those who do not share their position.
The book does not offer readers an alternative should they abandon their religion because they found it shallow and unsatisfying. It does not discuss philosophies such as Buddhism, Taoism, or Confucianism, to name a few, an individual could embrace and follow to fill the gap left by abandoning his or her childhood teachings.
Religion is a complex topic and something deeply personal. With ‘God is not great’, Christopher Hitchens has made a brave attempt to briefly highlight glaring issues with the world’s three major religions and provide material for thought and further individual research. Despite some internal flaws, this is a book well worth while reading and should be embraced by everyone who has questioned his or her beliefs.
This book is available on Amazon.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Christopher Eric Hitchens was a British and American author and journalist. He is the author of 18 books on faith, culture, politics, and literature. He was born and educated in Britain, graduating in the 1970s from Oxford with a degree in philosophy, politics, and economics. In the early 1980s, he emigrated to the United States and wrote for The Nation and Vanity Fair. Known as one of the ‘four horsemen’ (along with Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, and Daniel Dennett) of New Atheism, he gained prominence as a columnist and speaker. His epistemological razor, which states that “What can be asserted without evidence can also be dismissed without evidence” is still of mark in philosophy and law.
Hitchens’s political views evolved greatly throughout his life. Originally describing himself as a democratic socialist, he was a member of various socialist organizations in his early life, including the Trotskyist International Socialists. He views all religions as false, harmful, and authoritarian. He endorsed free expression, scientific skepticism, and separation of church and state, arguing science and philosophy are superior to religion as an ethical code of conduct for human civilization. Hitchens died from complications related to oesophageal cancer in December 2011, at the age of 62.
