GOD IS NOT GREAT --- HOW RELIGION POISONS EVERYTHING by Christopher Hitchens. Twelve Books/Hatchette Book Group USA, 2007
INTRODUCTION (cover)
This book is a case against religion and a description of the ways in which religion is man-made. It will redefine the debate about religion in public life as it reports on the malignant force of religion in the modern world. The book makes the ultimate arguments against the unscientific "faith-based" opinions about religious ideas. It argues for a close and learned reading of the major religious historical texts.
The book tells the personal story of the author's own dangerous encounters with religion and describes his intellecutal journey toward a secular view of life based on science and reason. Here the "heavens" are replaced by the Hubble telescope's awesome scientific view of the universe, and biblical stories, such as Moses and the burning bush, are replaced by the beauty and symmetry of the Double Helix which is the shape of all DNA.
The major point is that "God did not make us. We made God!"
The subject of religion, which in reality is a diverse subject consisting of thousands of "organized religions" and hundreds of "cults," is a distortion of our human origins, our human nature, and the awesome cosmos.
The book dramatically argues that we damage our children and endanger our planet Earth by indoctrinating children with traditional religious explanations about spiritual reality. Whether you are a lifelong believer, a devout atheist, or someone who remains uncertain about the role of religion in your life, you need to think about the rational ideas and point-of-view of this book.
1) Putting it mildly (p1-14)
2) Religion kills (p15-36)
3) A short digression on the pig --- or, "why heaven hates ham" (p37-42)
4) A note on health, to which religion can be hazardous (p43-62)
5) The metaphysical claims of religion are false (p63-72)
6) Arguments from "divine design" (p73-96)
7) Revelation --- the nightmare of the "Old" Testament (p97-108)
8) The "New" Testament exceeds the evil of the "Old" Testament (p109-122)
9) The Koran is borrowed from both Jewish and Christian myths (p123-138)
10) The tawdriness of the miraculous and the decline of "Hell" (p139-154)
11) "The lowly stamp of their origin" --- religion's corrupt beginnings (p155-168)
12) A coda --- how religions end (p169-172)
13) Does religion make people behave better? (p173-194)
14) There is no "Eastern" solution (p195-204)
15) Religion as an "Original Sin" (p205-216)
16) Is religion "child abuse" (p217-228)
17) An objection anticipated --- the "last-ditch case against secularism" (p229-252)
18) A finer tradition --- the resistance of the rational (p253-276)
19) In conclusion --- the need for a "new enlightenment" (p277-284)
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS (p285-286)
REFERENCES (p287-294)
INDEX (p295-307)
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Christopher Hitchens is a contributing editor to Vanity Fair and a visiting professor of liberal studies at the New School in New York. He is the author of numerous books. See www.twelvebooks.com for more information about his books and ideas.
The New School, previously known as New School University, is an institution of higher learning in New York City. Some 9,300 students are enrolled in graduate and undergraduate degree programs in the social sciences, humanities, public policy, design, and music. It was founded in 1919 as the New School for Social Research through the financial backing of heiress Dorothy Payne Whitney. Its founders included the historian Charles Beard, economists Thorstein Veblen and James Harvey Robinson, and philosopher John Dewey. It is comprised of a number of academic units, including both traditional faculties and a well-known international think tank, called The World Policy Institute. The school is located near Greenwich Village in Lower Manhattan.
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