Book Review: "God is not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything", by Christopher Hitchens (13/4/1949, 15/12/2011)

Genre: "Religion and Philosophy"
   Non-fiction

This book also has the things I love in books: big words, complex sentences (euphuism, basically), and deliberations on relatively unknown and interesting topics.
How can one refuse reading one of the multiple magnum opus's of "One of the most prolific, as well as brilliant journalists of all our time"? -London Observer
This is the man who has been arguing for decades against the crimes committed in the name of religion, arguing for decades for the liberation of women, the "only known cure for poverty, [...] the empowerment of women and the emancipation of them from a livestock version of compulsory reproduction", arguing for decades against the present ingratiation, condescension, and manipulation from those that people put so much trust in and regard for, to be struck down over and over again, but pulled back like an abusive relationship with one with infinite power.
One of the main problems major religions share with abusive relationships is the placement of guilt, a cycle seen here:

I mean really, the "Rhino Position"? Seriously?

The Premise: This book has the same approach and topic(s) that Sam Harris' book, "The End of Faith" has, however, this book focuses more on religion in general, than Harris' "action analyses" (reporting on the actions instigated through faith), specifically the "Desert Trinity" (Abrahamic Religions). Harris is more an Islamic antagonist, as said before, and Hitchens is anti-religion, i.e. anti-theist.
Thusly, Hitchens presents his arguments against religion's influences, how fucked up their history is, and how insulting it is that people ignore the roots of their "favorite" Sunday pastime.
So really, what Hitchens really wants readers to pull from his book, is that organized religion's beneficial usages can no longer merit the atrocities they still commit, for these beneficial acts can be performed completely separate from any religious influence, and that the rest of religion anachronistically pervading is no longer justifiable.

The "cultural differences" bullshit pulled is no longer valid.

Religion: 

The advent of Hitchens' major explosion into the mainstream American public circuit can also be directly correlated with the events of 9/11 (even though he and Dawkins have been in the debating and "Skeptic Circuits" for ages), however, Hitchens differed from the other three Horsemen in his support for the Iraq War, regardless, his book shines in the a(nti)theist respect.

Hitchens chooses a myriad of topics in his book arguing against religion, such as: "Why Heaven Hates Ham", and "There is no 'Eastern Solution'".

The main overarching argument Hitchens posits, both implicitly and explicitly, is that religion just doesn't work, or make sense. And he does not isolate his criticisms to any religion, he even posits instances where sects of Buddhist retreats subject their people to "sadomasochistic rituals" in order to breed fraternity (specifically women). 

Major points of Hitchens' arguments focus on presenting the absurdity and cruelty of a Desert Trinity's God (of which Hitchens is one of the most redoubtable enemies to in our history), and its effects on humanity as a whole, the subjugation of women, the abuse of children, and incapacity of practicing its own philosophies it indefatigably attempts to use to rectify their past and present atrocities.

"Putting it Mildly"

The intro to his book, Hitchens discusses how he believes religion has survived so long, as that it is a crutch (As Madalyn Murray O'Hair would say it), used to alleviate fears of mortality, and interpolate nonsense to explain the unknown.

"Religion Kills"

  This section of the book is dedicated to present affairs of violence committed in the name of religion, namely the fatwa declared on his friend Salman Rushdie, as well as other instances; one of which is in response to a radio host asking him if he were to feel comfortable seeing approaching people retiring from a religious service, Hitchens gives a resounding No. He also brings up his analyses of the Serbian and Croatian "ethnic cleansing" segments, of which he assigns it more a "religious cleansing", for both sides isolated and prejudiced almost entirely on Islam or Christianity.

 "A Short Digression on the Pig; or, Why Heaven Hates Ham."

He talks about "porcophobia" (his word), the fear and avoidance of ham or pork in Judaism and Islam; going so far as to remove "The Three Little Pigs", "Miss Piggy", and "Piglet" from "Winnie the Pooh" in Islamic ruled states, for fear of the images removing the innocence of their children once seen. Of which he hypothesizes is a result of archaic sacrificial rites' fears and the similarities in tastes of pork and human flesh.

"A Note on Health, to Which Religion may be Hazardous"

Hitchens is an anti-theist, there's no arguing about it, but he was also a humanist, thusly, his antagonism extends beyond the violence of religion, an into the retardation of society it commits. 

"Bring me the Children"

It is here that he addresses how Muslim extremists propagated conspiracy theories about the polio vaccine in their countries (as well as India), leading people to believe it would make them immoral and brainwashed to the distributors.  Polio was almost eradicated. Until religion reared its fucking head with a vengeance. Like herpes. It's always there, sometimes it's innocuous and superficially dormant, but sometimes it flares up and it's just hideous to look at and you don't want to touch it. (Unless it's a little boy, apparently)

He continues on towards genital mutilation, i.e. "circumcision" for the western world.  Specifically Jewish and Muslim circumcision rituals performed even now (now banned in Germany), and further onward towards female genital mutilation in multiple parts of Africa.

"The Metaphysical Claims of Religion are False"

One major distinctive factor between Hitchens and the other three, is his pugnacious debating style, and specifically how well he conducts himself in such situations. This chapter is a testament to that fact. In it, he explains that faith has no more material to hold believers anymore, all attempted explanations of the universe via religion can now be explained empirically, and making a "leap of faith" in these matters isn't a single leap, it is multiple leaps, and the length and difficulty of the leaps is inversely proportional to the gaps religion once held now being filled by science. 

This is all up to Chapter 5 of 19 Chapters

This is one book I wish to willingly omit talking about the next 14 chapters because it would simply ruin it for new readers, they're all so beautiful, and I could do no justice by writing four to seven sentences about each.

So I'll just sum it all up the best I can the next few chapters without going into so much detail you'd have nothing to read!

So you can call this the "My Bit:" section:

If you've read any other "major" atheist book, you've probably seen a lot of the arguments left to be posited in the rest of this book, religion only has so many arguments, and so then does atheism.
Topics range from how Islam is basically a bastardized version of Judaism, and thusly so are its books; arguing that religion itself added to a person has no real effect on morality that could implemented without it, that one can be "Good without God"; that the entire power of religion comes from the indoctrination of children and forced moral absolutes used against them and their parents; and how the annals of religions predict an apocalypse, to a point that believers may aim to make it happen themselves.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, unfortunately, I got "into" the Hitch just a few months before he died, so I didn't really get to appreciate his work as much as I could have, without feeling regret about missing so much of him in my youth. Really would have helped me in the younger years of school.
Regardless, this book is great, it's well written, Hitchens was a journalist for decades, and his writing displays that as bright as a bonfire.
He will be missed.

I give it a literal goddamned 10 out of 10 arbitrary things.

About the Author:

The Man in his Natural Element

Christopher Eric Hitchens was an English American author and journalist whose career spanned more than four decades. Hitchens, often referred to colloquially as "Hitch" was a columnist and literary critic for New Statesman, The Atlantic, The Nation, The Daily Mirror, The Times Literary Supplement, Free Inquiry, and Vanity Fair. He was an author of twelve books and five collections of essays. As a staple of talk shows and lecture circuits, he was a prominent public intellectual, and his confrontational style of debate made him both a lauded and controversial figure.

Witty Catchphrase