I typically do not enjoy discussing matters of great importance with people of similar opinions. It's just no fun. One side states perhaps a brilliantly formed argument full of passion and reason; the other side says, Oh yeah, I fully agree. Conversation over.Instead, I enjoy talking and listening to people who think the opposite of me. And I don't care if anyone's mind is changed as a result - I just want to know the reasoning for one's thinking and I enjoy a good debate.
With that in mind, I listened to Christopher Hitchens' god is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything several weeks ago.
Were I to have a dinner party, Hitchens would be at the top of my list. No matter who attended, he'd be sure to criticize and find fault with that person - including himself.
In political and social commentary, particularly, the worst arguments are borne of dishonesty in order to prove a seemingly correct point. And since Hitchens accuses his critics of this very thing, he takes caution not to engage them in the same way. Hitchens is also an equal-opportunist - he's as likely to criticize Mother Teresa as he is Mitt Romney or the Dalai Lama. That's why I like Hitchens - he's honest, intellectually and otherwise.
Regardless, some prima facie disagree with Hitchens because of his avowed atheism. Some can't wrap their minds around the concept that one can be moral and atheistic at the same time.
In the book, Hitchens poses many valid questions and makes several compelling arguments and astute observations - that over the course of history there have been more innocent people killed in the name of religion than over secular ideologies; the criminal complicity of organized religion and child abuse; the avarice and greed of churches and their administrators at the expense of its practitioners.
Since I don't do book reviews, I won't go into details other than to say that this is a book designed to make you think then argue back, not other way around.
There's already too much of that in the world.
