Thoughts on God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything
OP - September 27, 2015, 07:45 AM
I just finished reading God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything by Christopher Hitchens. I'm sure this book has been discussed on the forum before but I can't find any search functionality to find old threads and needed to get some thoughts out of my head.
I have never before felt so much anger, vitriol and almost repulsion from a book before, especially the first couple of chapters. Most of the arguments presented by Hitches I have come across before, but he is fantastic at articulating his points and leading from one to another.
Some of my favourite excerpts from the book:
On the miracle of Christ's birth:
"The Greek demigod Perseus was born when the god Jupiter visited the virgin Danaë as a shower of gold and got her with child. The god Buddha was born through an opening in his mother’s flank. Catlicus the serpent-skirted caught a little ball of feathers from the sky and hid it in her bosom, and the Aztec god Huitzilopochtli was thus conceived. The virgin Nana took a pomegranate from the tree watered by the blood of the slain Agdestris, and laid it in her bosom, and gave birth to the god Attis. The virgin daughter of a Mongol king awoke one night and found herself bathed in a great light, which caused her to give birth to Genghis Khan. Krishna was born of the virgin Devaka. Horus was born of the virgin Isis. Mercury was born of the virgin Maia. Romulus was born of the virgin Rhea Sylvia."
On Abraham's willingness to sacrifice Ishmael:
"He was praised from the clouds for showing his sturdy willingness to murder an innocent in expiation of his own crimes.
On religion being man made:
"Nothing proves the man-made character of religion as obviously as the sick mind that designed hell, unless it is the sorely limited mind that has failed to describe heaven—except as a place of either worldly comfort, eternal tedium, or (as Tertullian thought) continual relish in the torture of others."
On religion in general:
"What can be asserted without evidence can also be dismissed without evidence."
And my absolute favourite line:
'“The voice of Reason is soft.” But it is very persistent'.
What I found extremely fascinating were the insights on Communism, Budhsim, Mother Teresa and Gandhi. These are topics I never really associated with religion (the first two being more philosophical topics and the last two I always thought of just as nice people). The hypocrisy of Teresa, Gandhi, the Pope and people in general is astounding. I would argue that it is tribalism at it's finest but I'm not sure I'm convinced of that, I think it's something more innate.
Having said all that, I don't think it's religion. Religion certainly helps (just like guns do with killing people), but I think People poison everything. We have innate selfish, self-destructive tendencies. We ruin perfectly good things in the face of adversity. Once we latch on to an idea, or a problem no matter how minor or solvable, we try to escape it and replace it with other, self-made problems, sacrificing so much in the process.
People are fickle, one day we are madly in love with something or someone, the next day we turn our backs on them. Because we can't be bothered, are bored or simply having a bad day. If someone offers a solution, a comforting word or tells us what we really need, (be it god, or something more worldly), even better! Then we have our very own special branch of arrogance where once we've made a choice, we convince ourselves that it is the best path and absolutely what we wanted and nothing in the world could make us happier. Often, we never back down and convince ourselves that whatever fallacy we are committing is the right thing to do, even if it goes against all our instincts, conscience and ideals.
We do this at a baser level, and once we do this as a society, religion is born. And we've created our very own personal hells.
Topic: Thoughts on God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything