Lowest Price God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything

I am a Christian. I did not find this book offensive. I gave it a five star rating.

Yes, that's certainly an odd thing to do but I really had no other choice. As far as Hitchens' writing style goes, his editorial background does certainly show through, in fact his rants are a tell tale giveaway that when he's passionate about something he drops back into the magazine and article world he knows and is familiar with, but there's nothing wrong with that. Generally speaking the content this book is well adapted to its readers. It makes the same popular atheist arguments that atheists and, well just about anyone who is opposed to Christianity, can throw out. It covers the "God myth", the evils of organized religion, particularly Christianity, and so on and so forth. In short it is a wonderful read for Christians if they can put aside the strong feelings they have and actually read what Hitchens has to say, which is nothing very new or original to a Christian who actually knows and talks with atheists.

Yes, Hitchens does make a very large number of claims that I would love to, and quite frankly would enjoy to, argue against but, ultimately, for the Christian, Hitchens is a child playing in his father's shop when it comes to theology and a few other disciplines. That is not to say that Christopher Hitchens is not an intelligent man, he produced a book and even in this day and age there is some credit to be given for that, but at the end of the day he knows nothing about Christianity. He entitles one chapter "The Koran is Borrowed From Both Jewish and Christian Myths" and, to be frank, this is hardly a revelatory deduction for the Christian for whom all religions apart from Judaism and Christianity are simply shadows of the truth. More fascinating, however, is the lack of discussion regarding the myth of the "absolutism of science". If you happen to be interested in that myth just try studying the progression of gravitational theory from Newton to Einstein to the present day. The lack of discussion over the revision of gravitational "law" is simply astounding, the word law in and of itself implies that what it declares it absolute and not subject to revision.

When discussing "Religion Kills" Hitchens is again completely silent on the other side of the argument. Namely that the three people who organized the largest killings in history (Mao Zedong, Joseph Stalin, and Adolf Hitler) were all committed atheists. To be frank this is a massive hole in Hitchens' argument as the hundreds of millions of people who suffered and died at the whims of these three rulers and the governments they enthroned might have a different opinion about whether or not it is simply religion's nature to kill or if it is the effects of sin upon our universal humanity. Yes, "Religion Kills" is a very passionate and controversial title and it could be proven, if only atheists were actually the peace loving compassionate people Hitchens would make them out to be.

Yes, Christians should be frustrated by Hitchens' writings but they, along with anyone else he may offend, must understand that he has chosen to view the world through narrow lenses that will justify outbursts that condemn the entirety of religious practices based upon isolated incidents perpetrated by people who, upon closer study, would be revealed to not subscribe to any of the values of the faith they claim to believe in.Get more detail about God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything.