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A review by kevin_shepherd
God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything by Christopher Hitchens
5.0
“In dark ages people are best guided by religion, as in pitch-black night a blind man is the best guide; he knows the road and paths better than a man who can see. When daylight comes, however, it is foolish to use blind men as guides.” ~Heinrich Heine
Straightaway, Hitchens starts by asking the right questions. Like, ‘Why would a benevolent, omnipotent, and omnipresent deity insist on being constantly praised and prayed to?’ And, ‘If God’s earthly emissary could restore sight to a blind man, then why not just alleviate blindness altogether?’ And, ‘Why do so many among us claim to have definitive knowledge of God’s intentions yet those intentions are consistently (and often violently) at odds with one another?’
The Bloodletting (Religion Kills)
“The level of intensity fluctuates according to time and place, but it can be stated as a truth that religion does not, and in the long run cannot, be content with its own marvelous claims and sublime assurances. It MUST seek to interfere with the lives of nonbelievers, or heretics, or adherents of other faiths. It may speak about the bliss of the next world, but it wants power in this one.” (pg 17)
A complete accounting of the atrocities committed in the name of God would be an enormous undertaking. Therefore Hitchens limits his illuminating examples to his own personal experiences. Even so, his years as a journalist brought him into contact with so much death and destruction, all in the name God, that he further confines himself to the letter “B”…
Belfast. Beirut. Bombay. Belgrade. Bethlehem. Baghdad.
“It is not possible for me to say, Well, you pursue your Shiite dream of a hidden imam and I pursue my study of Thomas Paine and George Orwell, and the world is big enough for both of us. The true believer cannot rest until the whole world bows the knee. Is it not obvious to all, say the pious, that religious authority is paramount, and that those who decline to recognize it have forfeited their right to exist?” (pg 31)
9/11, 2001
Leave it to the likes of “Reverend” Pat Robertson and “Reverend” Jerry Falwell to turn the immolation of three thousand human beings into an event of pious opportunism. It was all, of course, God’s retribution for homosexuality and legalized abortion. Obviously. Even the sanctified “Reverend” Billy Graham piled on, proclaiming personal knowledge that all who were murdered were now safely seated in paradise and would not return to their loved ones even if they could. *This was, as Hitchens points out, a statement eerily similar to bin Laden’s deific exaltations.
“…religion is not unlike racism. One version of it inspires and provokes the other.” (pg 35)
A Brief Digression on Vaccines
Once upon a time, thanks to the work of a few dedicated scientists, it became possible to immunize people against a “ghastly malady.” In several nations inoculation teams were hard at work so that people need not be killed or made wretched and incapacitated by this “hideous disease.”
In order to be effective, the vaccine had to be administered twice, with a booster and a confirmation of immunity. There was, after much suffering and despair, now a general air of hope and optimism.
And then began the rumors. Religious fundamentalists planted the seeds of doubt by insinuating that the vaccine was actually an insidious government plot. Those who submitted would be stricken with dire health issues and severe medical consequences. As a result, some segments of the population declined inoculation. This was a problem.
“…it takes only a few uninoculated people to allow the disease to survive and revive” (pg 44)
Within months, the epidemic was back with a vengeance. The year was 2005. The disease was polio.
“The attitude of religion to medicine, like the attitude of religion to science, is always necessarily problematic and very often necessarily hostile.” (pg 47)
The Reticence of the Rational
Hitchens dismantles the metaphysical claims of religion (chapter five) and the weak arguments for “intelligent design” (chapter six). He calls out the hostile and nightmarish God of the Old Testament (chapter seven) and the exponentially worse God of the New Testament (chapter eight). And if you, by chance, think the Koran is unassailable, think again (chapter nine). Buddhism and Hinduism are also called into account (chapter fourteen). Hitchens was nothing if not an equal opportunity heretic.
“Religion has run out of justifications. Thanks to the telescope and the microscope, it no longer offers an explanation of anything important. Where once it used to be able, by its total command of a world-view, to prevent the emergence of rivals, it can now only impede and retard-or try to turn-back the measurable advances that we have made. Sometimes, true, it will artfully concede them. But this is to offer itself the choice between irrelevance and obstruction, impotence or outright reaction, and, given this choice, it is programmed to select the worse of the two.” (pg 282)
Straightaway, Hitchens starts by asking the right questions. Like, ‘Why would a benevolent, omnipotent, and omnipresent deity insist on being constantly praised and prayed to?’ And, ‘If God’s earthly emissary could restore sight to a blind man, then why not just alleviate blindness altogether?’ And, ‘Why do so many among us claim to have definitive knowledge of God’s intentions yet those intentions are consistently (and often violently) at odds with one another?’
The Bloodletting (Religion Kills)
“The level of intensity fluctuates according to time and place, but it can be stated as a truth that religion does not, and in the long run cannot, be content with its own marvelous claims and sublime assurances. It MUST seek to interfere with the lives of nonbelievers, or heretics, or adherents of other faiths. It may speak about the bliss of the next world, but it wants power in this one.” (pg 17)
A complete accounting of the atrocities committed in the name of God would be an enormous undertaking. Therefore Hitchens limits his illuminating examples to his own personal experiences. Even so, his years as a journalist brought him into contact with so much death and destruction, all in the name God, that he further confines himself to the letter “B”…
Belfast. Beirut. Bombay. Belgrade. Bethlehem. Baghdad.
“It is not possible for me to say, Well, you pursue your Shiite dream of a hidden imam and I pursue my study of Thomas Paine and George Orwell, and the world is big enough for both of us. The true believer cannot rest until the whole world bows the knee. Is it not obvious to all, say the pious, that religious authority is paramount, and that those who decline to recognize it have forfeited their right to exist?” (pg 31)
9/11, 2001
Leave it to the likes of “Reverend” Pat Robertson and “Reverend” Jerry Falwell to turn the immolation of three thousand human beings into an event of pious opportunism. It was all, of course, God’s retribution for homosexuality and legalized abortion. Obviously. Even the sanctified “Reverend” Billy Graham piled on, proclaiming personal knowledge that all who were murdered were now safely seated in paradise and would not return to their loved ones even if they could. *This was, as Hitchens points out, a statement eerily similar to bin Laden’s deific exaltations.
“…religion is not unlike racism. One version of it inspires and provokes the other.” (pg 35)
A Brief Digression on Vaccines
Once upon a time, thanks to the work of a few dedicated scientists, it became possible to immunize people against a “ghastly malady.” In several nations inoculation teams were hard at work so that people need not be killed or made wretched and incapacitated by this “hideous disease.”
In order to be effective, the vaccine had to be administered twice, with a booster and a confirmation of immunity. There was, after much suffering and despair, now a general air of hope and optimism.
And then began the rumors. Religious fundamentalists planted the seeds of doubt by insinuating that the vaccine was actually an insidious government plot. Those who submitted would be stricken with dire health issues and severe medical consequences. As a result, some segments of the population declined inoculation. This was a problem.
“…it takes only a few uninoculated people to allow the disease to survive and revive” (pg 44)
Within months, the epidemic was back with a vengeance. The year was 2005. The disease was polio.
“The attitude of religion to medicine, like the attitude of religion to science, is always necessarily problematic and very often necessarily hostile.” (pg 47)
The Reticence of the Rational
Hitchens dismantles the metaphysical claims of religion (chapter five) and the weak arguments for “intelligent design” (chapter six). He calls out the hostile and nightmarish God of the Old Testament (chapter seven) and the exponentially worse God of the New Testament (chapter eight). And if you, by chance, think the Koran is unassailable, think again (chapter nine). Buddhism and Hinduism are also called into account (chapter fourteen). Hitchens was nothing if not an equal opportunity heretic.
“Religion has run out of justifications. Thanks to the telescope and the microscope, it no longer offers an explanation of anything important. Where once it used to be able, by its total command of a world-view, to prevent the emergence of rivals, it can now only impede and retard-or try to turn-back the measurable advances that we have made. Sometimes, true, it will artfully concede them. But this is to offer itself the choice between irrelevance and obstruction, impotence or outright reaction, and, given this choice, it is programmed to select the worse of the two.” (pg 282)