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harivgnq 's review for:
God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything
by Christopher Hitchens
If you are looking for a book that intelligently analyzes the problem of God with insight and empathy, this book is not it. You can peruse the hundreds of videos on youtube.com to hear Hitchens' arguments against God and skip the book entirely.This is book written in a breezy, easily readable style, hurrying from one argument to another without really exploring anything in any detail.
If anything, this is just a perfect summer beach read, so one can come back from your vacation, smug with the feeling of having expanded one's mind, when in reality, it is closer to Fahrenheit 9/11 than The Grapes of Wrath.
Here is all you need to know. Hitchens presents the following 4 reasons why he thinks religion/ Faith in God has ruined everything
1. It misrepresents the origins of Man and the Cosmos. Really? Of all the arguments that Hitchens could come up with, this was in the top 4? So, religion misrepresents the Origins. So what? So did Science. Who knows, it might be wrong now! Hoe does this materially make the world a worse place?
2. Because of this original error, it manages to combine the maximum of servility with the maximum of solipsism. Ok, I agree with the servility and the solipsism part. But, that is not because of the “Original” error. The servility and solipsism is on account of
a. Lack of understating/ willful misrepresentation of natural phenomena
b. The nature of faith/religion itself. By definition, religion seeks to control every walk of life and explain everything
c. Natural instinct of the “Mammal” to seek security/ belong to a group
3. That it is both the result and cause of dangerous sexual repression. I am not sure religion is the only or even the primary cause of sexual repression. I would think repression is more due to chauvinism and male insecurity.
4. And that it is ultimately grounded on wishful thinking. We engage in wishful thinking every day. I did not realize wishing I could by a BMW at some point in life was such a heinous sin
To me, the biggest problem with religion is that it is used as the most handy excuse for persecution, bigotry, and oppression. By its very nature unevolving and shackles the followers to a set of rules that may be anachronistic and hence irrelevant. Hitchens gets to this point later, but, it is lost in all the drama!
He then expands the aforesaid objections in to nineteen chapters filled with anecdotes and pet peeves. There were some errors as well which threw me off. One such error was the statement that the president of India was assassinated by LTTE.
There were portions of the book that I did enjoy such as the take down of Rajneesh and Mother Teresa, the slapping down of Mormonism and Napoleon.
On the whole, the best I can say about the book is that it is lightweight and the worst? Hitchens says towards the end of the book that he has been writing this book all his life. To that I say, ”What a waste!”
If anything, this is just a perfect summer beach read, so one can come back from your vacation, smug with the feeling of having expanded one's mind, when in reality, it is closer to Fahrenheit 9/11 than The Grapes of Wrath.
Here is all you need to know. Hitchens presents the following 4 reasons why he thinks religion/ Faith in God has ruined everything
1. It misrepresents the origins of Man and the Cosmos. Really? Of all the arguments that Hitchens could come up with, this was in the top 4? So, religion misrepresents the Origins. So what? So did Science. Who knows, it might be wrong now! Hoe does this materially make the world a worse place?
2. Because of this original error, it manages to combine the maximum of servility with the maximum of solipsism. Ok, I agree with the servility and the solipsism part. But, that is not because of the “Original” error. The servility and solipsism is on account of
a. Lack of understating/ willful misrepresentation of natural phenomena
b. The nature of faith/religion itself. By definition, religion seeks to control every walk of life and explain everything
c. Natural instinct of the “Mammal” to seek security/ belong to a group
3. That it is both the result and cause of dangerous sexual repression. I am not sure religion is the only or even the primary cause of sexual repression. I would think repression is more due to chauvinism and male insecurity.
4. And that it is ultimately grounded on wishful thinking. We engage in wishful thinking every day. I did not realize wishing I could by a BMW at some point in life was such a heinous sin
To me, the biggest problem with religion is that it is used as the most handy excuse for persecution, bigotry, and oppression. By its very nature unevolving and shackles the followers to a set of rules that may be anachronistic and hence irrelevant. Hitchens gets to this point later, but, it is lost in all the drama!
He then expands the aforesaid objections in to nineteen chapters filled with anecdotes and pet peeves. There were some errors as well which threw me off. One such error was the statement that the president of India was assassinated by LTTE.
There were portions of the book that I did enjoy such as the take down of Rajneesh and Mother Teresa, the slapping down of Mormonism and Napoleon.
On the whole, the best I can say about the book is that it is lightweight and the worst? Hitchens says towards the end of the book that he has been writing this book all his life. To that I say, ”What a waste!”