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God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything View on Amazon View on iTunes (iBooks) View on iTunes (AudioBook) |
Christopher Hitchens, one of the most brilliant and prolific journalists of his time, according to the London Observer, tackles his biggest subject - religion's increasingly malevolent role in the world.
Hitchens is known for his unique brand of intellect and wit, and this shines through in his descriptions of religion. He asserts that god is manmade and goes on to explain the various ways in which religion is immoral with examples like indoctrination of children, sexual repression and the proliferation of violence and ignorance. He also holds religion responsible for a distortion of what evidence has established to be our origins, as well as the cosmos.
Hitchens suggests a new and true enlightenment, one that is brought by science and reason, and spoke of a realm in which there is hope and wonder not in the surreal but in a strand of DNA and in gazing at the sky through the Hubble Telescope.
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I think that a journalistic and sociological take on religion would be really interesting. This book looks really interesting, but I'm hoping it won't be too negative - I'm not sure how much an theist can hope to gain by just slamming religion at this point.
It seems like it could be an interesting. I am interested in the realm he speaks of in a strand of DNA.
Lol, I believe he's speaking about a mental space, or a frame of mind if you will.
I think it's more likely that he is talking about realm being the hope and wonder being in the science of DNA.
...precisely.
Hitchens sounds a little too anti religion for my taste. I am sure he has a lot of interesting things to say, but the injection of wit into any book only serves to muddy it up.
I just downloaded the iTunes Audio book for this one and will listen to it on my way over to Chicago. Maybe it will make me forget that I am driving through Indiana.
I also find articles regarding Science of life and in general interesting regardless if it is what I would also like to believe or not. It could be a worth reading kind of book in general.
I started reading this book, yes, I have it on my shelf, but it is definitely anti-religion. We all know that religion is bad and it has done and continues to do many harmful things to the human race. There is only so much beating you can do on a dead horse. Surely, Hitchens brilliant mind could have come up with something much better than this book.
That was my thought exactly! Religions is bad, blah blah blah, let's move on to something that will really grab the reader's attention.
I had a lot of questions, and THIS book opened me up to the ideas of Atheism. So happy I read this book, and wish we still had Mr. Hitchens with us.
This book is a must read for both the believer and the non-believer. At first, I thought it started with an attitude but it seemed to mellow a bit as a read it. This could also be a personal perception. What makes it a must read is that it does not focus on a single religion but used lots of examples from several. It of course addresses the big three in many situations. Another aspect is that he uses relevant and recent events that clearly show how religion is a threat to freedom. It will be an eye opener to the reader. I thoroughly enjoyed and would recommended it
I liked it. I liked Hitch. This book is Hitch to the bone. It was his voice in my head as I read. Yes, it's anti-religion. So am I. And I think that the more we come to understand those institutions as the machines they are, the safer the planet will be.
I was a Christian when I read this book. Hitchens was the first non-theist who has ever presented an argument I couldn't refute. I am no longer a Christian thanks to this book and the bible study fueled by it. I love Hitchens. He tells it just like it is, and in a way that never offended me, even though he basically called me a blind moron in a roundabout way. I just agreed with him.
What about your family: how did it react to your decision?
My family doesn't know I don't believe in God. My husband and I live with his parents, and will for 2 more weeks before moving into our own place. We are guilted by his mom into going to church every sunday morning, sunday evening, and wednesday evening. We declined the offer to go to church today and are now getting the cold shoulder just for missing one service. I am not prepared to deal woth the backlash of coming out as atheist, especially while I live with her. My family is very religious too, and I don't know how they will react, but it will likely involve a lot of ridicule and patronizing, with a lot of dissapointment and anger. But they'll find out eventually I suppose.
I understand.
You are in for a rough time in your life; I speak from experience.
I dedicated 35 years of my life to church and it was traumatic to leave - my wife and my sons at first were astounded and angry, but in time they all left this constricting conscription and are now free.
I rescued myself from this den of thieves, and helped others along the way to rescue themselves, too.
This is some important achievement in my life.
I tell you this: RESCUE yourself from religion while you are young, no matter what, but be gentle to your family, too.
They also have issues - hidden in their hearts - and have no answers for anything objective.
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I wrote several books about my religious life and stuff like that - my latest one was published this month and it is free - from free-ebooks.net - look for "God Told Us To Tell You" - you need to register as a member of this site, but the books are for free.
I promise my readers that by page 50 [book has 350 pages] if they are objective with their thinking, they will have lost faith in religion.
This is my first book I write under a pseudonym, because it is perhaps too harsh on my adversaries [I have a few!].
Have a great day.
Actually, the other day, my sister and I were talking, and we discovered that we are both atheists. Neither of us knew the other was. That made me feel better becuase she is so young and smart and has such potential that religion would just bring down. She want's to go to college to study botany and do research on how plants communicate with each other. She tells me all kinds of fascinating things I never knew. Know if she believed what my parents do, she would think that plants are just food and they don't talk to eachother or have sould, so don't waste your time on them. My parents are older, my dad over 60 and my mom 50, and are too set in their ways to ever change. My mom has at least recognized that what eery church teaches is different, and none of them are right the way she reads the Bible, so she isn't a sheep at least, but she would just ignore any evidence that it isn't true at all.
I need to get this book!
Have you thought of watching anything by Richard Dawkins with people you could learn from the reactions of others with you while its on you could always say it was an accident if they object and change channels