Book – God is not great : How religion positions everything

Book – God is not great : How religion positions everything 

Author: Christopher Hitchens

Score: 10/10

Year: 2007

Publisher: Twelve Books

ISBN 978-0-446-50945-9

Pages 341 (377 including all references & index) 

Language: English 


Hitchen's book about religions and atheism is quite different than that of Dawkin's God delusion, and completes it quite well. Indeed, contrary to Dawkins who is a scientist, Hitchens's a journalist and employs a much more accessible language, but that doesn't mean that it's necessarily easier to read.

Here, we have an emotional level that Dawkins' book hadn't offered, through Christopher's own life stories, questions and all that he witnessed during his journalistic work. We see even crueler details about religious barbarisms of repressions, violent acts of war and excisions, which sometimes make specific chapters quite un-digestible and slow to read.  

Actually, I must caution and display a trigger warning, as some of the details/topics are indeed, very triggery.

Nonetheless, it's a very interesting and important book to read, discovering or re-discovering facts about damages to society and humanity which all religions have caused and/or perpetuated. 

I hope that my blog readers will dare to read and possibly learn truths, which may shatter beliefs and throw them where they belong : in the prehistory of humanity, and in its garbage-disposal. 

If you want to know details about the specific 19 chapters, I have taken notes during the process of reading this book in the past few weeks. 

Before you do that, know that the actual book is 341 pages, completed by acknowledgements (pages 343-344) ; extensive References (345-354) & an Index (355-377).

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Details on each chapter : 

In the first chapter, "putting it mildly", Mrs Hitchens describes how, as a boy, he came to doubt the religious teaching he had received, and defines what atheism is and isn't, because a lot of people confuse the terms. Thus, just like I would say, he explains that atheism isn't a belief  and atheist principles aren't faith - precisely because we deny the doctrines which are embedded in these terms. Among other things, he points to the importance of humility in accepting that we don't know everything, instead of the arrogant but wishful explanation that god is behind everything.

In the the second chapter, Hitchens discusses many examples of how "Religion kills". This part can be difficult, especially if you had any illusions about religious belief as a positive influence, as these examples will shatter them to many pieces. (in my own case, I knew already and had already redefined myself as an atheist, despite my upbringing). 

Chapters 3 and 4 deal with religion's food and health rules, proscriptions and many negative outcomes from religious practices that we would otherwise see as barbaric, if they hadn't the label "faith" attached to them...
I didn't fully read chapter 3 as it related to the role and fear of the pig in religion, and how both Judaism and Islam refuse to eat this animal, and compared with other religions and views on animals. My own view is that I am vegan and therefore didn't care to read grotesque details of animal suffering for food.

Chapter 4 is very heavy as it deals not only with health and how religious practices refuse some aspects of modern science and medicine, but also details horrific customs in regards to repression of sexuality - especially women's, which is feared in all religions, which created so much taboo, pain and cruelty, that a portion of this chapter was horrendous to read, even though I was aware of the majority of it. 

Moving on, the fifth chapter discusses how the metaphysical claims of religion are false, or, we should rather say, the claims of religionS are false, and as demonstrated, there is no way to compromise scientific knowledge with faith, explored in this chapter and also the following one, about arguments from design, which clearly shows how Life must be the result of natural selection and evolution as initiated by Darwin, which explains our current condition much better than any god creating it.
Indeed, if god had, we shouldn't have the numerous redundancies and flaws in DNA and life conditions, whilst evolution not only explains these very logically, but also shows that part of life is quite random and accidental - and, according to theories, if the tape had to be replayed, results would most probably be quite different from the ones we know. 

Chapter 6 counters the arguments from design, showing that only science can explain the current status of Life, the Earth and space, whilst a god would created all this would leave us with far too many holes. 

Chapters 7-9 deal with the 3 current monotheistic religions, and explain the unverifiable nature of each, by showing the true facts of revelations to illiterate people - and how their stories were written and composed many years, even centuries, after the supposed facts.
These chapters also show the borrowing each subsequent religion had from its immediate predecessor/s,  as absolute and logical proofs that all religions are man-made - further attested by the variants of each "sacred text". 

The tawdriness of the miraculous and the decline of hell is the tenth chapter, dealing with the repetitive need of religious doctrine to include miracles and promis eternal damnation as punishment for sins. A bit more focus regards the canonization of the so-called saint, mother Theresa, a figure so revered by many, but not by atheist, and specifically not by Hitchens, who would later consecrate a whole documentary to show the damage this perso has caused. 

Chapters 11, the lowly stamp of their origin : religion's corrupt beginnings, and 12- A coda : how religions end, are related, but unequal in lengths. This is because fewer religious mouvements have truly had ended, whilst new sects/cults/ religions are born all the time. 

Many people think that religions make or help humans to be more ethical, just, noble, and act in peaceful ways. Chapter 13, Does religion make people behave better? proves that these assumptions are all wrong, as it gives examples of absolute barbarism, cruelty and power-hunger that religions have created, promoted and executed. This chapter is therefore like the second chapter, difficult to read, as it describes horrific acts of violence. 

To those who believe that the eastern religions and philosophic currents are any better, the 14th chapter there is no "eastern" solution proves the contrary, through examples of violence from Buddhist and Hindu groups, showing they also have their own levels of violence, and murders.

The 15th chapter, Religion as the original sin explores how inventing religions and organizing them has always been a form of sin, as it pervaded so many aspects of human lives, by sacrificing infants or adults, male or female, or animals, as payments to sins and asking the local god or gods for their forgiveness through these sacrifices. The logical and yet daring question of the 16th chapter follows very naturally Is religion child abuse? and the manifold answer is a resounding Yes, as showcased and explained by Hitchens throughout the book, and in this chapter specifically targeting circumcision and genital mutilation, as well as sexual repressions throughout history and especially of monotheistic religions which are current.   

The last ditch-case against secularism, or the 17th chapter, answers preemptively questions regarding atheist society replacing religious ones, by showcasing how even in apparent atheist but totalitarian nations, or attempts towards these goals, that by their very nature, they were religious currents in cult of personality and just as abusive of people's rights - and that they weren't really atheist in their origins. Furthermore, Hitchens shows how the Church has allowed massacres and coming of such powers, endorsing and enforcing them each for their own reasons, even nazism, fascism and stalinisme, thus allowing the murders of countless humans. 

The last 2 chapters, a finer tradition : the resistance of the rational and the need for a new enlightenment both conclude the book with further examples of religion's poisons, through the mutual borrowings of invented non-events as Hitchens calls them, and proposes that the quest to enlightenment must pass through questioning religious dogma, much like the earlier rational free-thinkers humanity met in our recent and more distant past.