brughiera 's review for:

God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything by Christopher Hitchens

4.0

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Hitchens is an erudite but polemical writer whose journalistic style will put off some readers. His sincerity on this topic comes through loud and clear, perhaps too clearly for many who might prefer a more nuanced presentation of the case against religion. While he acknowledges the worthiness of many religious individuals, his argument is against all religion. It is a convincing case down to the examination of the counter-argument of the damage caused by secular states such as Soviet Russia, which he exposes as having elevated personality cults and other observances to the status of religion. He even goes so far as to emphasize the true secular nature of many past thinkers such as Thomas Paine, Charles Darwin and Isaac Newton, showing how religious authorities have tried to obfuscate this. As the title suggest, this book presents the case against religion rather than focussing on the more positive approach of the case for atheism, which might leave a rather negative impression. Nonetheless, at a time when IS is brutalizing boys and destroying cultural heritage, the case is convincing.