God Is Not Great : How Religion Poisons Everything Paperback

It arrived in a timely fashion.

Christopher Hitchens is the most intelligent and well read person on the planet. He also has a remarkable, apparently photographic memory, and can recall on demand most of what he has read. He has put to rest every argument for religion that has been thrown at him by a variety of religious leaders, and he was willing to take on any debate with any of them. This book is a culmination of those arguments. He speaks, not from emotional partisanship, but from historical facts. I would recommend this book to anyone, and especially to those who think a myth is factual.

This Is An Excellent First Book On Atheism and It’s Not To Long! He Had An Excellent Mind! It’s Organized Like The Bible starting at Genesis. It has one area that deals with a Bible Text that Doesn’t Exist! Don’t Let That Throw You! The Rest Of The Book Is Excellent!!!

Awesome!

The late Christopher Hitchens was the most confrontational among atheist writers, yet also, I think, the most informed. In this book he presents ample evidence against religion, including the violence it has engaged in. He says that religion is "man-made" and demonstrates considerable evidence to prove this point. The book also contains many words that were new to me such as solipsistic and adumbrate. At the same time I think the author fails to answer key questions such as why, if religion is false, do some six billion people in the world believe in one? He also fails to credit religion with the good that it does. Also a lot of his negative examples are from events that happened a long tome ago and are no longer practiced by any relation. I rate the book at four stars instead of five because of these shortcomings,. Believers will find their faith challenged by this book and atheists will find ample evidence for their beliefs. I agree that religion is man-made but am an agnostic regarding the possibility that there is a supreme being.I highly recommend it to everyone.

There is a Greek saying with a double meaning: "Πίστευε, και μη ερεύνα" = "Believe, do not search". But if you move the comma it becomes: "Πίστευε και μη, ερεύνα" = "Believe or not, search". This book belongs to the second category and challenges everyone to abandon their certainties, beliefs, and dogmas, and put everything to the test of Reason.Of course, there are always those who claim that Faith is outside the territory of Logic and Reason and thus should be left alone to its own "divine" rules. If you belong to this category, "good luck", is all I can wish you - you're gonna need it.If you belong to the rest of us who like to think with our own minds, through trial and error, then welcome one of the most brilliant books ever, that aims to set humanity free of the chains of doctrine and "divine truths" that have plagued this planet for thousands of years.I can never thank people such as [the late] Christopher Hitchens for their courage and painful hard work to shed some light into the darkness of human prejudice.I will forever be in your debt, Sir!

Irrefutable, much as I try.

I never really appreciated Christopher Hitchens as a writer until I read this book. I've seen his commentary from time to time, but I've concluded that Hitchens is best when he has time to write and articulate his thoughts in written form.In "God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything", Hitchens shows the degree to which he truly understands the dogmas of various religious traditions and with a combination of wit and eloquence exposes them with a light of reason that crumbles them at their foundations. Using concrete examples, Hitchens gives case study after case study where religion is the culprit in worldly dysfunction. Hitchens shows clearly that he has read the holy books and understands them better than the majority of those who believe in them. As Dawkins does in "The God Delusion", Hitchens shows what an utterly contemptible individual is the monotheistic God of Islam, Christianity and Judaism. He even throws in some other whacky religions (his segment on Mormonism is priceless) to boot and discusses how some religions flourish and grow and others wilt, and what the root causes are.More than anything, Hitchens greatest accomplishment in this book is to show the absurdity of belief and the danger of believing nonsense in a dangerous world of deep challenges and weapons of mass destruction. This book will likely go down as one of the great standard works for those who find faith not only wanting but dangerous. Add this book to your collection of The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins, The End of Faith by Sam Harris, The Demon Haunted World by Carl Sagan and Breaking the Spell by Daniel Dennett, and read them thoroughly, and you should be inoculated against the mind virus that is religious superstition.