"God is not Great" by Christopher Hitchens

[holyhelianthus]

http://www.amazon.com/God-Not-Great-.../dp/0446579807

anyone read it? i saw the author on Anderson Cooper and found what he had to say thought provoking. i don't agree, but i don't have to. as a religious person myself it might be interesting to read the perspective of the 'other side'. any reviews?

[mama ganoush]

i haven't read it, but the two recommended books by Sam Harris-The End of Faith and Letter to a Christian Nation are amazing.

[nicole lisa]

BF is whipping through this right now. Must be good cause every spare moment he gets he's hiding away with it . I'll read it next.

We're big Christopher Hitchens fans here, though.

[Imogen]

I just bought Sam Harris's The End of Faith two days ago... I will also keep a look out for Christopher Hitchen's new book too.

I also read recently Richard Dawkin's The God Delusion, which was also enjoyable.


Peace
Carol

[jempd]

I haven't read it--it just came out and is still expensive. I have read Hitchens's articles and although I don't often agree with him I think he is smart and a good writer. I am not religious and am interested in the point of view that it's not only not helpful but harmful, but even I am skeptical about the subtitle of this book, which is And How It Poisons Everything. Everything? That's awfully ambitious, to fit that into one book, even for Hitchens, who is nothing if not ambitious. But I guess I will read it, or at least part of it, before I criticize it because I believe firmly in actually reading (or seeing, if it's a movie) a work before offering up criticism so that it's my own and not parroted from the media or anyone else.

[SirPentor]

I've got it waiting for me to pick up at the library. I'm really looking forward to it.

[domesticzookeeper]

Originally Posted by jempd

Everything? That's awfully ambitious, to fit that into one book, even for Hitchens, who is nothing if not ambitious.

Sounds like he has a bit of a god complex :

[SirPentor]

I started reading this over the weekend and thus far it's excellent. Has anyone else started it?

[KaraBoo]

oooooo, gotta get this book. I've read Sam Harris' books and Richard Dawkin's as well.

[SirPentor]

OK, I'm a little farther into it and I'm becoming dissapointed. Thus far it's excellent in terms of providing intelligent, witty, interesting ways to say that religion is bad. Kind of a feel-good book for hard-core atheists.

But where I don't like it is when it starts citing things that appear crazy to me without any effort to substantiate it. For example, if I read it correctly there's a passage that says the current estimates say that unmolested kids in Ireland are the minority. But he gives no source. It's frustrating.