The Atheist Book Club discussion

From now until september 30th we'll be reading God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything by Christopher Hitchens, as chosen by the group members (thanks to all who participated to the poll and oftentimes made excellent reading suggestions). Good reading !

Great!

I am probably not alone in that I read this a long time ago and still have it at home.

Indeed :) Since my English improved a bit since my 1rst reading, I'm pleased to find out that Hitch was (and always is, thanks to his legacy) an even more formidable and redoubtable intellectual than I suspected at first.

Mark wrote: "I am probably not alone in that I read this a long time ago and still have it at home."

This has been on my reading list for ages. This is just the push I need to read it! I'm pretty sure it's sitting on my bookshelf.

Gina wrote: "This has been on my reading list for ages. This is just the push I need to read it! I'm pretty sure it's sitting on my bookshelf."

For ages ? Then go get it, and place it on top of your TRP/TRQ. Right now. You won't regret it ! :)

Pierre A wrote: "Gina wrote: "This has been on my reading list for ages. This is just the push I need to read it! I'm pretty sure it's sitting on my bookshelf."

For ages ? Then go get it, and place it on top of y..."

Did that last night! It's all ready to read as soon as I finish my current book(s)...

It's a good read and very informative. I'd recommend it to anyone. However, I think that a significant part of it is plagiarized from Thomas Paine. Particularly chapter 7. I elaborated about it in my review of the book with actual quotes and references. Hitchens took very little effort to even suggest that many of his points came directly from The Age of Reason. I terribly dislike this aspect of the book.

Aside from it, I would have wanted more criticism towards faith itself, because most of the book (which, to be fair, it is explicitly only about this) is about religion the institution.

I listened to this as an audiobook a few weeks ago. I have been very contentedly atheist for decades now, so it has been a long time since I personally felt insecure enough and angry enough to completely resonate with this book, but it is a modern classic in atheist literature, and the group I run on facebook was excited about Christopher Hitchens, so I had to explore his perspective.
I found this book to be a bit more abrasive than some of the others I listened to, certainly in keeping with Hitchens's perspective, and worth reading, but not one I will probably reread much. However, if I had left religion more recently, and was more raw or insecure about that transition, I'd probably be very excited about this book. And, I have definitely recommended it to other people.