God Is Not Great

How Religion Poisons Everything

By: Christopher Hitchens

Narrated by: Christopher Hitchens

Length: 8 hrs and 45 mins

Publisher's summary

In the tradition of Bertrand Russell's Why I Am Not a Christian and Sam Harris' recent best-seller, The End of Faith, Christopher Hitchens makes the ultimate case against religion. With a close and erudite reading of the major religious texts, he documents the ways in which religion is a man-made wish, a cause of dangerous sexual repression, and a distortion of our origins in the cosmos. With eloquent clarity, Hitchens frames the argument for a more secular life based on science and reason, in which hell is replaced by the Hubble Telescope's view of the universe, and Moses and the burning bush give way to the beauty of the double helix.

©2007 Christopher Hitchens (P)2007 Hachette Audio

Critic reviews

"The best of the recent rash of atheist manifestos." (Publishers Weekly)
"Effortlessly witty and entertaining as well as utterly rational." (Booklist)

A new Enlightenment

Hitchens excels at raking religion and faith over the coals, explaining why faith is not only irrational but irresponsible and immature. However, he does not attempt to explain in depth what it is that should replace a person's faith as a source for morality and "spirituality". Fortunately, for that, one need only read Ayn Rand's books. All the necessary answers are to be found there. In fact, you can skip the Hitchens and go straight to the Rand if you want to save time. She dispels faith better than even Hitchens can imagine.

Must read

Where does God Is Not Great rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

If I had heroes Mr. Hitchens would be one of them. This is one of my favorite books, and I have read and re-read it. I buy copies of this book and give them to friends, family and acquaintances.

What was the most compelling aspect of this narrative?

Mr. Hitchens will say what others think but are afraid to say, or are not capable of saying, or are to "polite" to say. He pulls no punches and does not pander to the "you must respect my beliefs just because" crowd. No "get out of jail free" faith cards allowed here.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Reading this book was the first time I realized that it was not necessary to shut up when people said stupid things just because they were "religious" stupid things. People who have irrational, crazy ideas and air them publicly should be subject to being "called" on it, especially when we live in a world where theocracy seems to have been welcomed back into the political realm, especially where those kinds of beliefs could now endanger the entire planet rather than isolated peoples or nations.

Any additional comments?

For most of human existence, most humans lived under the power of one theocracy or another. They endured torture, burning, murder, mayhem, crusades and genocide of all kinds. Mr. Hitchens book reminds us of the dangers of history repeating itself. To me this book was a wake up call that made me realize that "live and let live" was not appropriate at this time, because the theocrats do not intend to live side by side, but to enforce their beliefs on the rest of us.

Very good

Another good book by one of the Hitchens brothers. This one stands up with as one of the three best rational responses to religion that have been written in the last 5 years.

Loved It

Although I am certainly not an athiest, I found this book thought provoking.

Who reads is as important as who writes

This is a great book by a great writer. But...

Christopher Hitchens should not have been the reader. At times he reads as if he is bored with the material. The material in this book is never boring; but perhaps for the author it became old and he lost the ability to relay the true impact of his well crafted words. I would love to hear this book read correctly.

If You Can't Stand the Heat, Get Out the Hitchens

If there was a God, I would want Him to bless Christopher Hitchens.

His careful, articulate, well researched and reasoned arguments are superb.

Finally, someone has said the Emperor is wearing only his birthday suit.

The only complaint is that Hitchens tends to drop the ends of his sentences to a low frequency - and I found it rather difficult to hear his last bits.

Overall, I am thrilled that he douses the Fire & Brimstone Crowd with both Common Sense and Thorough Scholarship.

Better read than heard

An excellent book that convincingly proves there is no god. More importantly it shows why religion is at the root of much of the world's problems.

It is a shame that the author chose to read the book. He does not hold his volume constant making it extremely difficult to hear many of the words, especially at the end of sentences.

A lesson for humanity

The late, great Christopher Hitchens’ message will resonate into eternity. His unwavering logic, and love for the natural human drive for knowledge is captured beautifully in this book. I hope that 1000 years from now people will read this and see that free thinkers of our generation laid the foundation for humanity’s emancipation from superstition and fear.

Brilliant logic and atheist umanism

Would you listen to God Is Not Great again? Why?

I would listen it again for the great reasoning of Cristopher Hitchens and for the deep emotions carried by his narration.
The book dismantles the so called humanism of the religion showing that the Gods of various religions are not good and not just and, happily they do not exist.
Hitchens shows that our morality does not come from religion, but it precedes religions, that are man made creations.

What was one of the most memorable moments of God Is Not Great?

I like that parts where he dismantles the goodness of the religions exposing them as cruel and imoral.

Which character – as performed by Christopher Hitchens – was your favorite?

Hitch is reading his own creation and he compensates the voice of a narrator with the emotion and conviction carried by his voice.

If you could give God Is Not Great a new subtitle, what would it be?

God is not great, but Hitch was!

Thought provoking but hard to hear at times

As other reviewers have already stated, Hitchens' narration is at times a bit mumbled. His is not a terrible performance, but Hitchens is no orator. I don't know about other Audible users but I suspect that I am not the only one who enjoys audiobooks in the car. Hitchens' tendency to let his voice trail off at the end of a sentence and otherwise mumble a bit makes it difficult at times to hear everything he says over the road noise. What I ended up doing was cranking up the volume to hear the quieter bits, at the expense of occasionally getting blown away when Hitchens decided to project his voice more powerfully.

That said, I recommend the book heartily! It's definitely worth the effort. I don't agree with everything Hitchens asserts but his book is very intelligent and thought-provoking on the whole. A credit well spent, in my opinion.