[Christopher Hitchens]God Is Not Great : How Religion Poisons Everything(pdf){Zzzzz}

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 case
against 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 and
reason, 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 symmetry
of the double helix.

Product Description
From Booklist
*Starred Review* God is getting bad press lately. Sam Harris' The End of Faith(2005) and Richard Dawkins' The God Delusion (2006) have questioned the existence of any spiritual being and met with enormous success. Now, noted, often acerbic journalist Hitchens enters the fray. As his subtitle indicates, his premise is simple. Not only does religion poison everything, which he argues by explaining several ways in which religion is immoral, but the world would be better off without religion. Replace religious faith with inquiry, open-mindedness, and the pursuit of ideas, he exhorts. Closely reading major religious texts, Hitchens points to numerous examples of atrocities and mayhem in them. Religious faith, he asserts, is both result and cause of dangerous sexual repression. What's more, it is grounded in nothing more than wish fulfillment. Hence, he believes that religion is man-made, and an ethical life can be lived without its stamp of approval. With such chapter titles as "Religion Kills" and "Is Religion Child Abuse?" Hitchens intends to provoke, but he is not mean-spirited and humorless. Indeed, he is effortlessly witty and entertaining as well as utterly rational. Believers will be disturbed and may even charge him with blasphemy (he questions not only the virgin birth but the very existence of Jesus), and he may not change many minds, but he offers the open-minded plenty to think about. June Sawyers
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Review
"[A] pleasingly intemperate assault on organized religion..." -- ―Kirkus Reviews

"An intellectual willing to show his teeth in the cause of righteousness." -- ―The New Yorker

"Thank God for Christopher Hitchens." -- ―Esquire Magazine

One hell of a religious read." -- ―New York Post

Publisher: Twelve (1 May 2007)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0446579807
ISBN-13: 978-0446579803

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

Mesmerizing in its expanse
By Jayanth
First of all. There are several out there, that aren't able to view this magnanimous work without a sense of confirmation bias seeping in. Theses people will tell you that Hitchens' grandiose work is based solely on out-of-context quotations, and manipulation of facts meant for other things.

He precisely goes on to demolish this line of thinking in one of the chapters, and his rock-solid consistency in quoting and citing his universe of sources, and little-known but undoubtedly relevant facts about the facts that he is stating itself is a joy, a delight to take in.

If you do not like writers to include their characteristic writing style, then I suggest you pick up a newspaper for soulless prose. Because, Hitchens will make sure his voice booms thru the pages, conferring him with immortality.

Other than that, you can hope for a finely constructed series of postulates(if i may call them that) for the statement, "Religion poisons everything". He literally means EVERYTHING.

Finally, if you do not come out, reading this book, becoming an atheist, or atleast have your notions of faith, religion, and respect ifor anyone with a "holier than thou" world view thoroughly shaken and make you want to examine your beliefs and views much more closely, then you haven't understood, or paid attention at all.

The greatest debater of our times.
By amit jain on 29 July 2014
The Richard Dawkins praise at the cover rightly describes the book and in general Christopher Hitchens.

Although he is not the greatest of writers, all of his arguments are spot on and you can see his passion in this cause in all of the arguments. Lot of things he mentioned were a revelation to me. About Japan's role in WW2, India's partition story. etc

Even though I have been an atheist for a long time, It will hard for any theist to not convert to atheist after reading this book and "The God delusion" with an open mind.

A must read if you are an atheist/agnostic.