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God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything

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Author: Christopher Hitchens
Publisher: Twelve Books, Hachette Book Group
Category: Book

List Price: ~~$24.99~~
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Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 307
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.1
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6.4 x 1.1

ISBN: 0446579807
Dewey Decimal Number: 200
EAN: 9780446579803
ASIN: 0446579807

Publication Date: May 1, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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•	God: The Failed Hypothesis. How Science Shows That God Does Not Exist
•	The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason

Editorial Reviews:

Product Description
In the tradition of Bertrand Russell's Why I Am Not a Christian and Sam Harris's recent bestseller, The End of Faith, Christopher Hitchens makes the ultimate caseBRagainst religion. With a close and erudite reading of the major religious texts, he documents the ways in which religion is a man-made wish, a cause of dangerous sexual repression, and a distortion of our origins in the cosmos. With eloquent clarity, Hitchens frames the argument for a more secular life based on science andBRreason, in which hell is replaced by the Hubble Telescope's awesome view of the universe, and Moses and the burning bush give way to the beauty and symmetryBRof the double helix.

Customer Reviews: Read 95 more reviews...

4 out of 5 stars

Bitter, but Fascinating January 8, 2009
All of religion's smut, dirt, shortcomings, and fallacies are exposed, and in the most concise manner. This book is very informative and thorough, but I do wish the talented Mr. Hitchens hadn't sounded so bitter and enraged whilst writing this brillant piece of work (though he was more composed than Sam Harris). Highly recommend this piece for the Agnostic and entry level Atheist.

1 out of 5 stars

reads more like 'WHY I DONT LIKE RELIGION' December 14, 2008
0 out of 8 found this review helpful

It goes on for 300 pages.Some of the oldest philosophies are HINDU/BUDDIST.He offers 8 pages of text ovet 9 pages of the book and while he may have a publishing deal/best seller[s] HE DOESNT GET THOSE 2 RELIGIONS!br /He also doesnt seem to know much of the real history of the dreaded UNITED NATIONS.br /Atheism is a belief system.It might have better to offer than this.br /HE ATTEMPTS TO TAKE 6000? YEARS OF HINDUISM AND REDUCE IT TO 'OSHO'...the druggie with rajnesshpurim in oregon and the 100? rolls royces.

3 out of 5 stars

A 101 for the beginner atheist December 10, 2008
After reading Richard Dawkins' The God Delusion last year, I wanted to give a few other atheist manifestos a read - not really with the intent of learning anything particularly new, but just out of interest in the different views. Dawkins' was heavily scientific, to be expected from a scientist, so I assumed - rightly - that Hitchens' would lean more towards the historical and philosophical. Although there's nothing new or particularly inspiring here, he does have a way with words and uses his sharp wit to deliver a rain of relatively gentle blows upon the shoulders of the worst aspects of religion. br / br /As mentioned there wasn't really anything ground-breaking for the well-informed atheist, but it's a decent read for anyone newly interested in the discourse on religion and its significance in today's world, and provides a little 101 on some of religion's more illustrious moments in history. He does make some very salient, always-worth-repeating points about the fact that true morality and good deeds come from the heart and have nothing whatsoever to do with any religion, and vice versa. br /br /I got a little bored with the conversation on fascism and communism, but again I think that's because it's old, oft-treaded ground already. Hitchens does not mince words when it comes to calling out certain world leaders and icons, past and present, for their participation in and proliferation of some of religion's more irresponsible consequences. Even those who are traditionally left out of other atheists' rants are not spared here, including the Dalai Lama, St. Francis, Mother Theresa and Gandhi, in a list of those who have manipulated masses of people in ways that, in Hitchens' view, did almost as much harm as good. In his conclusion, he states unequivocally that in today's educated, enlightened world religion truly has no further justification for itself, and that indeed, in some of its more fanatical manifestations is actually an enemy to be fought by the intelligent, rational and genuinely ethical. He repeats a famous quote by Spanish painter Francisco de Goya to illustrate the need to think first, then believe: "The sleep of reason breeds monsters," ("El sueno de la razon produce monstrous.") - always a worthy point, if rarely taken. br /

3 out of 5 stars

Disappointed with Delivery December 8, 2008
As an Atheist familiar also with the works of Harris and Dawkins, I found Hitchens attempt to be quite disappointing in comparison. The primary problem was not content but in his organization and delivery. He writes they way you would expect a journalist... the longer book format doesn't work for him. I reread some of Dawkins' just to make sure my memory wasn't faulty, and it was clear that Dawkins' style is much better organized and coherent. Hitchens seems to jump all over the place. I also didn't like that the endnotes were not marked in the text. I like his magazine work... He should stick to it.

4 out of 5 stars

don't be put off by the title December 8, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful

I would have preferred to give a 3.5...br /br /I don't like the title, its cumbersome and a little um, fierce. That being said, I do agree with the title, just not sure it should be the title. I liked this book; its one of the easier reads of the atheist/anti religion books that have come out in the last couple of years. The points I appreciated the most: religious indoctrination of children is abuse, there is no "eastern" solution, religion doesn't make people behave better. br /br /I would have liked to see a greater exploration of a few things, for example the child abuse idea.br /br /There were a few places in the book that it seemed the writer was so pissed he got a little off topic and stopped making sense for a moment. However, I am glad that he let his ire show, I have a lot of that myself and get really tired of all this tiptoeing around out or respect for people's beliefs when the beliefs are so patently false and harmful.

Copyright 2007 White Hat Communications.
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