God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything
by Christopher Hitchens
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Book Summary Information
Author: Christopher HitchensEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2009-04-06
ISBN: 0446697966
Number of pages: 336
Publisher: Twelve
Book Reviews of God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything
Book Review: GOD IS NOT GREAT, NEITHER IS THIS BOOK
Summary: 1 Stars
The title of the book is creative and captivating so I fell into buying it, but what's (also) not great is the book itself. The author does not offer any new insights in the debate against religion. Moreover, he ignores (or chooses to ignore) the many powerful rational arguments of modern religious apologists; there is no mention of any of these; making an attempt to answer them would have made the reading worthwhile. His constant mocking of religion just because of its history of inhumanity does nothing to counteract the claim of religion defenders, that Jihadists are not true Muslims and that Crusaders were not true Christians. Ironically, Hitchens fierce stand against religion as irrevocably fundamentalist, without the deep analysis mentioned above, makes HIM a fundamentalist (albeit secular).
The book is also full of factual errors. Hitchens claims that the Old Testament "never mentions human solidarity and compassion at all" (dozens of verses show the contrary), that it "says nothing about rape" (how about Deut 22:29), and other false statements. He criticizes phrases like "an eye for an eye" as if they were ever meant to be taken literally, obviously ignoring hundreds of interpretations of Jewish Oral Law which became the norm, instead of the literal text. On page 111 (paperback edition) the author quotes Maimonides as cursing Jesus, something he never did (the paragraph he refers to, is the opinion of an obscure Rabbi in the Talmud, relating to any Jew who becomes an apostate, not Jesus in particular, and the Talmud consists of thousands of personal opinions, by many Rabbis, most of those opinions not authoritative). On page 224 he again mocks Maimonides for his opinion that "circumcision was probably instituted because it brings about a decrease in sexual desire", forgetting that Maimonides was a medieval physician who attempted to find a rational explanation to the ritual, being his thought on the matter, the medical opinion at that time, in disagreement with the Bible itself, which clearly states that it is to be performed as a sign of the covenant with God, period (circumcision in Hebrew is "Brit" which means covenant). On page 206 Hitchens says that pious Jews "are trying to breed the red heifer mentioned in Numbers 19" This is nothing but his invention as Jews would not know what to do with such heifer as the details of its sacrificial ritual have been lost, to be revealed again only with the coming of the Messiah.These are only some examples of many.
The book has some historical errors, as when it states (twice in the book) that "Jews borrowed and plagiarized Hanukah from the Christians". The story of Hanukah occurred 160 years before Jesus was born. Moreover, the day of Jesus' birth (Christmas) was not established until the X century! Jesus himself celebrated Hanukah...And philosophically, both events are contrarian in nature, whereas Hanukah celebrates the restoration of the Law, Christmas celebrates its abolition. Hitchens says that Spinoza's body was stolen after his death and desecrated by his tribe members (the Jews), again, an invention; we know that Spinoza is buried in the churchyard of the Nieuwe Kerk on Spui in The Hague.On page 272 Hitchins gives a false reason as to why Albert Einstein refused the offer of becoming the first president of the State of Israel. The author equals all religions in their degree of inhumanity throughout history, which is absurd.
Finally, Hitchen's lack of scholarship is also evident as for example (among many!), on page 156 he criticizes the Old Testament for the contradiction of forbidding Adam to eat from both, the Tree of Knowledge ("he would die as punishment") and the Tree of Life ("so he would live forever"), but nowhere does the text say that Adam was forbidden to eat from the Tree of Life! As a matter of fact, his punishment for eating from the Tree of Knowledge was expulsion, in order to -among other things- prevent him from eating from the Tree of Life; by doing this God's fulfilled his threat of killing Adam -albeit not immediately- by not giving him the possibility of eternal life. On page 207 Hitchens claims that Abraham was to sacrifice his son in "expiation of his own crimes" once again an invention by the author as the text itself states that it was only to test Abraham of his faith in the One God. On page 261 Hitchens criticizes the Old Testament's cruelty by telling the story of Elisha and the 42 youths, but he fails to include the many discussions and interpretations on this subject (i.e. that Elisha only cursed them and the bears were coincidental...moreover, the Talmud states Elisha was later punished for treating them so harshly). Hitchens claims he once got an applause when he attacked the Orthodox Jewish prayer that thanks god for not making you a woman or a Gentile; even Jewish Orthodox children know that the reason is not antifeminism or racism, but to thank god for the obligation of fulfilling all Commandments (613), whereas women are only obliged to fulfill about half, and Gentiles only 7. In the afterword, the author apologizes for having affirmed previously that Orthodox Jews have sex through a hole in the sheet; somebody must have straighten him out on that one. He is to apologize too for not having "made his homework" for this book as we have shown. Maybe if he does,he can write in the future a more convincing sequel. If to all said, you add that the book is extremely boring, it is difficult to understand the hype ("NY Times bestseller"!)
Summary of God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything
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 symmetryof the double helix.
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