G.K. Noyer (Author of Voltaire's Revolution)

G.K. Noyer rated a book really liked it God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything by Christopher Hitchens	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
As someone who's been reading history and religion(s) for well-nigh forty years, I would recommend this book to anyone interested in religion or on the fence. His own personal experiences as a journalist and foreign correspondent for forty years were ...more
Apr 07, 2024 09:30AM · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of God Is Not Great by Christopher Hitchens. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — God Is Not Great by Christopher Hitchens <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
G.K. Noyer and 111 other people liked Diane's review of God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything: "I'm probably going to court some hateful comments by trying to write a review of this book, but I think Hitch would be proud that I am making the attempt. I have been reading Hitch's work for years, including his essays on mortality and atheism, so I " Read more of this review »
Apr 07, 2024 09:26AM · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of God Is Not Great by Christopher Hitchens. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — God Is Not Great by Christopher Hitchens <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
G.K. Noyer and 121 other people liked Melly's review of God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything: "As a fellow Atheist, Mr. Hitchens is preaching to choir, so to speak, in this informative, captivating work in which Hitchens judiciously provides historically documented and personal examples of what he sees as an ever-increasing war being waged by " Read more of this review »
Apr 07, 2024 09:25AM · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of God Is Not Great by Christopher Hitchens. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — God Is Not Great by Christopher Hitchens <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
G.K. Noyer made a comment on Books Ring Mah Bell’s review of God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything " Jan, exactly. Was just about to say so. She's either forgotten or, more likely, had this attitude to begin with, so blanked them out. ...more "
Apr 07, 2024 09:24AM · see review
G.K. Noyer and 164 other people liked Lisa's review of God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything: "Witty, fact-based, amusing rant. I laughed out loud many times! I think part of the rage Hitchens encounters derives from the fact that he is funny. If he put on a scholarly, serious tone, and imitated the behaviour of priests in the way he poses his " Read more of this review »
Apr 07, 2024 09:20AM · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of God Is Not Great by Christopher Hitchens. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — God Is Not Great by Christopher Hitchens <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
G.K. Noyer made a comment on Oceana2602’s review of God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything " I have to agree with Sam Johnson. "Fake review by a religious zealot pretending to be an atheist" is exactly what this post screams. Hitchens' book do ...more "
Apr 07, 2024 09:13AM · see review
G.K. Noyer made a comment on Chris Coffman’s review of The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power " Instead of reading ABOUT Jonathan Edwards, perhaps you should read some of his sermons. He most definitely thunders on about God's "elite", which he n ...more "
Mar 16, 2024 07:27PM · see review
G.K. Noyer rated a book it was amazing The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State: Engels's Philosophical Treatise on Power and Property (Annotated) by Friedrich Engels	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
This book is a brilliant assault on sexual inequality published in 1884. Everyone should read it, and especially every woman. I'd venture a guess that it is a key reason the kleptocracy rails incessantly against Marx and Engels. At the death of Marx, ...more
Jan 27, 2024 11:09AM · 2 likes · like · see review
Jan 27, 2024 11:06AM · 1 like · like
G.K. Noyer rated a book it was amazing An essay on universal history, the manners, and spirit of nations by Voltaire	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
This book was not only a world-renown landmark in the method of writing history, it is easily the best and fullest, least prejudiced world history I've ever read. Original in an era when Bishop Bossuet's 17th century Universal History was the classic ...more
Dec 04, 2023 09:02AM · 1 like · like · see review

G.K. Noyer rated a book really liked it

God Is Not Great by Christopher Hitchens

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

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As someone who's been reading history and religion(s) for well-nigh forty years, I would recommend this book to anyone interested in religion or on the fence. His own personal experiences as a journalist and foreign correspondent for forty years were As someone who's been reading history and religion(s) for well-nigh forty years, I would recommend this book to anyone interested in religion or on the fence. His own personal experiences as a journalist and foreign correspondent for forty years were particularly striking and informative to me. (Derided elsewhere here as 'anecdotal' but omg, what anecdotes!) Not to mention his great familiarity with many world religions generally.

I read it because I've heard many of his recorded debates and talks on youtube, and he is (or was) a very impressive speaker. I recommend those too.

The only reason I didn't give this book a 5 is because, despite his many references to The Enlightenment, I gleaned early on that his 'knowledge' of it contained a number of erroneous clichés, apparently gathered mostly from encyclopedias and second-hand interpretations (such as "Doubt: A History", which he puts in his references several times).

No, Voltaire was not an aristocrat and Hitchen's citations of him are often the same cherry-picked half-phrases cited out of context and clichés repeated everywhere.

But the undisputed proof for me of what I'd long suspected appeared on p 268 where he declares that "the great Thomas Paine's "Age of Reason" marks "almost the first time frank contempt for organized religion was openly expressed." Then states even more erroneously that this book "inspired his contemporaries to declare independence... from the Anglican Church? Our Declaration of Independence was made 1776 and our freedom of beliefs was adopted in 1791 with the First Amendment. Paine's book was written in 1793, published in 1794. All easily verifiable. And Paine himself (rightly) says on the first page that that war was already won. Which it was.

Rather it feels like "The Age of Reason" was the first (or only?) book Hitchens read on the subject. Paine's contemporary, John Adams rightly called the book a plagiary of Voltaire and Charles Blount, not that Paine read either one, Adams added. He says Paine only picked up some points second-hand in all the Revolutionary clubs he hung out in. And that IS exactly how "Age of Reason" reads to anyone familiar with earlier and far more influential works.

Paine fans do repeat this ridiculous illogical claim constantly. Reading one belated short book on the subject is obviously less "work" than reading Voltaire's "Philosophical Dictionary", "God and Human Beings" (not that they're long or difficult to read) or hundreds of other books and pamphlets Voltaire wrote in the 1750s and 1760s which the gazettes and magazines of the time all hail (or condemn) for finally freeing people of the tyranny of organized religion. (i.e., BEFORE freedom of religion was legislated, and not afterwards. Duh.) Not to mention a full century's worth of deistic writings that preceded Voltaire (like Charles Blount), which he often cites. (Shaftesbury, Toland, Woolston, Anthony Collins, Middleton, Bolingbroke and many others.)

I am disappointed that neither Hitchens nor any of the "careful and literate" allies he thanks in Acknowledgements caught this glaring error. Did they never wonder why the 18th century was so often called The Age of Voltaire, and not The Age of Thomas Paine?

One big blemish among a few other minor ones. But this book is definitely worth a read. (No one has read everything or can possibly make no errors.) ...more

G.K. Noyer and 111 other people liked Diane's review of God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything:

"I'm probably going to court some hateful comments by trying to write a review of this book, but I think Hitch would be proud that I am making the attempt.

I have been reading Hitch's work for years, including his essays on mortality and atheism, so I " Read more of this review »

G.K. Noyer and 121 other people liked Melly's review of God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything:

"As a fellow Atheist, Mr. Hitchens is preaching to choir, so to speak, in this informative, captivating work in which Hitchens judiciously provides historically documented and personal examples of what he sees as an ever-increasing war being waged by " Read more of this review »

G.K. Noyer made a comment on Books Ring Mah Bell’s review of God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything

" Jan, exactly. Was just about to say so. She's either forgotten or, more likely, had this attitude to begin with, so blanked them out. ...more "

G.K. Noyer and 164 other people liked Lisa's review of God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything:

"Witty, fact-based, amusing rant. I laughed out loud many times!

I think part of the rage Hitchens encounters derives from the fact that he is funny. If he put on a scholarly, serious tone, and imitated the behaviour of priests in the way he poses his " Read more of this review »

G.K. Noyer made a comment on Oceana2602’s review of God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything

" I have to agree with Sam Johnson. "Fake review by a religious zealot pretending to be an atheist" is exactly what this post screams. Hitchens' book do ...more "

G.K. Noyer made a comment on Chris Coffman’s review of The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power

" Instead of reading ABOUT Jonathan Edwards, perhaps you should read some of his sermons. He most definitely thunders on about God's "elite", which he n ...more "

G.K. Noyer rated a book it was amazing

The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State by Friedrich Engels

The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State: Engels's Philosophical Treatise on Power and Property (Annotated)
by Friedrich Engels

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This book is a brilliant assault on sexual inequality published in 1884. Everyone should read it, and especially every woman. I'd venture a guess that it is a key reason the kleptocracy rails incessantly against Marx and Engels.

At the death of Marx, This book is a brilliant assault on sexual inequality published in 1884. Everyone should read it, and especially every woman. I'd venture a guess that it is a key reason the kleptocracy rails incessantly against Marx and Engels.

At the death of Marx, Engels undertook the task of sifting through his papers and struck a goldmine: extensive notes Marx had taken on the work of American anthropologist, Lewis Henry Morgan in his book, "Ancient Society, or Research into the Lives and Human Progress from Savagery through Barbarism to Civilization" of 1877 and a few other researchers who'd actually taken an interest in the Amerindians, their social structures and customs, and recorded it. Morgan and Engles then compared these lifestyles with what was known of the Celts, South Sea Islanders, certain tribes in India, German 'barbarians' and other pre-Christian or non-Christian peoples.

And, Lo and behold, it turns out that people not yet affected by Adam's rib, a "one male god" and all our other Judeo-Christian fables were matriarchal. Not only matriarchal but highly democratic. Councils were selected within the tribes (with unliked members quickly and easily replaced), but the entire tribe had a say in important decisions. And ancestors, descent and inheritance were determined through the mothers - a far more sensible, reliable scheme. Polyandry was as common as polygamy, and virginity was not an issue, as it was only made one much later by patriarchal societies in their attempts to own women and to guarantee children had in marriage were actually theirs. Hardly a fail-safe system, as we know.

So-called "mother-right" societies had already been exposed but not fully understood by J.J. Bachofen and others Engles names and critiques, when called for. And in fact, the invasions of the Germans 'barbarians' which engulfed the ancient Roman Empire brought some of the earlier system back, laying the foundations of some modern improvements in the lives of former slaves and women. Slavery had no part in these former social structures - unlike the early Church which fully embraced slavery and serfdom to usurp lands and to extend its power and wealth in a kingdom OF this world, the heavenly one be hanged.

The book also offers many highly interesting insights into how perpetual wars of conquest among the Franks and others led to serfdom in the first place. Constant wars led to the need of finding a 'protecting lord'. These lords were at first mere military leaders with a retinue. But soon they usurped the peasants' lands for 'payment', at first granting agricultural use of it back in exchange for the lion's share of the harvests and produce. Then these vast land-owning lords evolved into kings who simply stole what remained of the common lands outright, renaming them 'crown lands' to distribute among their army chiefs: the birth of a new 'nobility', which helped exploit the producers for many more centuries.

Although more recent studies have developed or corrected some of the details of this book, Engles' work here is an eye-opener as definitive as Darwin'w work on biology. If you have any interest in real history and in the real, more logical evolution of our societies, don't miss it! ...more

G.K. Noyer rated a book it was amazing

An essay on universal history, the manners, and spirit of nat... by Voltaire

An essay on universal history, the manners, and spirit of nations
by Voltaire

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This book was not only a world-renown landmark in the method of writing history, it is easily the best and fullest, least prejudiced world history I've ever read. Original in an era when Bishop Bossuet's 17th century Universal History was the classic ...more

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