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God Is Not Great: The Case Against Religion | 
 enlarge | Author: Christopher Hitchens
Publisher: Atlantic Books
Category: Book
List Price: £17.99
Buy New: £5.99
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Rating:  79 reviews
Sales Rank: 2327
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 320
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.4
Dimensions (in): 9.2 x 6.2 x 1.3
ISBN: 1843545861
EAN: 9781843545866
ASIN: 1843545861
Publication Date: June 10, 2007
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| Customer Reviews: Read 74 more reviews...
 A Comprehensive Argument against Religion August 18, 2008
Mr. David M. Gostyn (Eastbourne, Sussex)
I was a convinced secularist before I started buying books on the subject. The first book I tried was Dawkins 'The God Delusion' and I found it rather disappointing. Perhaps the key reason is that Dawkins is a scientist while I am, if anything, a historian. Dawkins spent too much time for my liking showing how Darwin's theories are the answer to all the questions that religious people claim that their religions solve. The book was a struggle for someone like me who does not start with a good understanding of natural selection.
Hitchens on the other hand has produced a book that completely met my needs. The book gives a thorough account of the attitudes and beliefs of various religions, and, most important, their histories, the crimes that have been committed by them.
I must make it clear that I don't mean crimes committed by individuals who happened to profess some particular religion, I mean crimes committed by and in the name of the religion itself. The harmful effect that religions have on the young, the way they have persecuted anyone who is different, the hate that they irrationally generate, ....
Everyone with a modicum of education knows how the Catholic church forced Gallileo to deny what he knew to be true, and that the Dutch Reformed church supported apartheid. But I certainly did not know that Catholic support for the Nazis was so strong that when Hitler died Irish president de Valera dressed formally and went by stage coach to offer his condolences to the German embassy in Dublin. The book is full of accounts of religions' wickedness.
Indeed, the book presents the case against religion so forcefully that it is as if Hitchens is a barrister prosecuting religion in a court of law. Every crime, every fallacy, every wickedness is exposed. It is almost inconceivable that anyone who reads the book with other than a completely closed mind will be a believer by the time he finishes.
Unlike the Dawkins book, there is not one passage where the text makes difficult reading. As Dawkins himself is quoted as saying on the front cover (at least of the paperback edition) 'If you are a religious apologist invited to debate with Christopher Hitchens, decline.'
The case against religion could not have been more clearly or more comprehensively presented. An excellent book.
Terse, But Vehement, Argument Against Religion That Deserves A Wide Readership August 9, 2008
John Kwok (New York, NY USA)
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
Veteran journalist Christopher Hitchens' latest book, "God is not Great", deserves both the ample praise and popular interest that it has garnered so far. Though some may regard it as a terse polemic that is quite hostile towards religion, it is nonetheless a well-written, well-reasoned one that's often quite persuasive. Hitchens has made a most compelling case alerting us to the danger posed by religious indoctrination through a careful study of the principal religious texts of the three great monotheistic faiths whose origins lie in the Middle East: Judaism, Christianity and Islam. In this regard, it is more valuable as a book highly critical of organized religion than Richard Dawkins' "The God Delusion", since Dawkins has the more enviable, and quite difficult, task of defending the religious rationale for Atheism, while also demonstrating just how modern evolutionary biology remains a fine example of valid, modern science. Hitchens dispenses with Dawkins' favorable advocacy of Atheism completely, using his book instead to show how a blind, strict adherence to religious dogma tends to stifle, not to promote, one's interest in critical reasoning. Without question, Hitchens' assertion is one that will leave many readers quite unsettled in their personal thoughts, even if they've prepared themselves for the worst by duly noting the very title of this book.
Hitchens presents his case on the evil nature of devout religious faith in the opening chapters of "God is not Great". He begins with a persuasive first chapter, noting the relevance of logical, rational thought as one that's substantially far more preferable than blind adherence to one's religious faith, pointing out the high cost in human lives as the tragic consequence of following religious dogma, drawing upon his personal eyewitness accounts of both the earliest phases of the Lebanese civil war to sectarian strife in Ireland, referring often to that pernicious invention of humanity known as GOD. A theme he explores further in the next chapter, the provocatively entitled "Religion Kills", where he recounts his own experiences covering the religiously-motivated civil war in mid 1990s Yugoslavia, and demonstrates how religious dogma has inadvertently led to the deaths of patients who could have been treated of their ailments if they had not opted to remain so devoutly committed to their faith by refusing proper medical treatment. Then he explores the validity of the longstanding religious taboo against pork, by noting the pig's importance as one of humanity's earliest domesticated animals, praising both its keen intelligence and ability to exist on an omnivorous diet. Last, but not least, he takes a long, hard look at religion's metaphysical claims and the classic "Argument from Design", which has reared its long-repudiated "head" once more as the "scientific theory" known as Intelligent Design. His elegant refutation of Intelligent Design is among the most lucid I have come across from an educated lay-person like himself.
The remainder of the book is devoted to his own determined assault upon religion, in which he questions the wisdom of adhering closely to religious dogma; it is an assault that should be regarded as persuasive, given the extensive evidence he provides. The questions he asks are provocative. Just how evil are the two testaments that comprise the Christian bible (Readers will be stunned to read that the New Testament may be far more bloody in its orientation than the earlier Old Testament; itself one not noticed for subtlety in its depiction of heinous crimes and harsh punishments meted out to those who are guilty.)? Is religion absolutely necessary to ensure that people act decently towards others? Is religious indoctrination a form of child abuse? Should we regard religious belief as an "Original Sin"? To what extent is Islam a truly independent monotheistic faith, and not one whose teachings have been borrowed extensively from both Judaism and Christianity? Finally Hitchens concludes on an optimistic note, urging the birth of a new Enlightenment - one that he believes could be the destiny of everyone, not just an intellectual elite - based on "the proposition that the proper study of mankind is man, and woman", and emphasizing the "pursuit of unfettered scientific inquiry". An optimistic note, which, unfortunately, may be lost to some readers who've become hostile to Hitchens' assault upon religion, but an assault which is worthwhile if only to underscore the pernicious nature of religious dogma in stifling both critical reasoning and the pursuit of well-reasoned rational inquiry. Without question, Hitchens' "God is not Great" is one of the most important books not only of 2007, but also of this decade.
 Very disappointing. July 5, 2008
Mr. Richard J. Pask (Weymouth, Dorset United Kingdom)
0 out of 9 found this review helpful
As with Dawkins' 'The God Delusion', I read this book extremely thoroughly to see what all the fuss was about, but was again extremely disappointed inasmuch as all of the arguments are subject to powerful and long standing, well established counter-arguments. For a far more challenging read, which does not, incidentally, set out to destroy anyone's belief in God, but ends up making any thinking believer examine their beliefs very carefully, I recommend Dr Peter Vardy's (a lecturer in Philosophy of Religion) 'The Puzzle Of God.'
Have you really read the book? June 18, 2008
Alex F (Norwich, UK)
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
It is obvious from many of the comments ie: by those who have given the book 1 & 2 stars, these reviewers have not actually read the book! If they had, they would have criticised it more specifically. Instead they simply rant against Mr Hitchins. What are they afraid of? That they find it such a threat should be reason enough to encourage anyone thinking about buying the book to go ahead and find out what it is that he says that worries them so much! I guarantee you won't regret reading it.
Brilliantly written and researched. The book simply lays bare the contradictions in each of the faiths and their supporting literature - allowing you to draw your own conclusions.
I would recommend believers of every faith to read this book - because if you do, and reach the end - with your beliefs still intact, then you have truly proven that your mind is unshakable and you will be a credit to your fellow followers! Hey, what a challenge!!
I have just finished listening to the unabridged audio version of the book (highly recommended) and consider it ting important enough to want to now also own a hardback copy for my personal library.
I strongly suggest everyone read this book - believers and non-believers. 10/10 Mr Hitchins!
Do we revive or not? June 16, 2008
G. Dodgson (UK)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
After reading the book and having being brought up in a church going family I would think that if it prompts more of the regilious zealots out there to have cardiac arrests then hence my title. I found that at least it makes religion quite clearly a man made thing and as such it would be flawed as each interpretation and revision would bring each bigots extremism to the fore. I would not dare impose my own views above anyone's else however it does show that those who have faith are blind, if not only for their rants we would think them at some form of mental health risk. Well an open mind I believe is one way for humanity to move forward from the old school of fire and brimstone rhetorics which the faiths have promulgated. I agree that the 'church/faiths' 'money/self' interest had actively through fear maintained their stranglehold of the 'ignorant' philosophy and humanism must be promoted. So if the old faiths believe that self choice is important to complete the credo then let all read this type of book before coming to a false conculsion.
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