The Rage Against God
Encyclopedia
The Rage Against God is the fifth book by the traditionalist conservative
writer Peter Hitchens
, originally published in 2010. Autobiographical and polemical, the book describes Hitchens's journey from the militant atheism
of the far political left
and bohemianism
to Christianity
, detailing the influences on him that led to his conversion
. The book is also partly intended as a response to God Is Not Great
, a book written by his brother Christopher
in 2007. Peter Hitchens, with particular reference to events which occurred
in the Soviet Union
, argues that his brother's verdict on religion is misguided, and that faith in God
is both a safeguard against the collapse of civilization into moral chaos and the best antidote to what he sees as the dangerous idea of earthly perfection through utopia
nism.
The book was described by the Herald Sun
as "a fascinating account of the disparity between the Hitchens brothers and a journey of one brother away from and back to faith", and in The Spectator
as "a magnificent, sustained cry against the aggressive secularism taking control of our weakened culture".
, who wrote in The Times
:
from the Bible.
, but will rather be an account of how he "became convinced, by reason and experience, of a form of Christianity that is modest, accommodating, and thoughtful, but ultimately uncompromising about its vital truth", followed by an examination of what he sees as "the fundamental failures of three atheistic arguments".
Hitchens begins Chapter One, "The generation who were too clever to believe", by recalling an incident at boarding school when he burnt his Bible, the thing which he then knew "was the enemy's book, the keystone of the arch I wished to bring down". He then quotes from W. Somerset Maugham
's novel Of Human Bondage
and writes that, like the hero of that novel, "I smugly congratulated myself on being able to be virtuous without hope of reward or fear of punishment". He then describes his own perceived failings over a period of many years as a "braggart sinner", including promoting "cruel revolution
ary rubbish" to others, to his own deep regret. Hitchens then describes how his generation
were sure it
He then cites a letter written by Virginia Woolf
in 1928 (concerning the conversion to Christianity by T. S. Eliot
) as an example of the "widely accepted dismissal of faith by the intelligent and the educated". He also identifies that behind the "fear of submission to God" may have been a fear of becoming like their conformist parents who were being left behind by the events in the 1960s (a fear Hitchens describes as being captured well by A. S. Byatt
in the novel The Virgin in the Garden).
In the second chapter, "A loss of confidence", Hitchens explores further reasons for his generation's disillusionment, including the authorities' handling and evasiveness over the Suez Crisis
: "this failure and dishonesty sapped and rotted everything and everyone from the local vicar and the village policeman to the grander figures in the nation", the funeral of Winston Churchill
("a cheap and second-rate modernity was to replace the decrepit magnificence we had grown used to") and the Profumo Affair
, whose effect of introducing Christine Keeler
and Mandy Rice-Davies
into national life meant that it "had gone rotten". Hitchens begins Chapter Three, "The seeds of atheism", by recounting his experience of religious education as a school pupil in the early 1960s, and how by the standards of 2010 his Christian education was "intensive, purposeful, and single-minded", and that the "imagery of the Last Judgement was still powerful currency to us". He also recounts how at the age of 15 he fully accepted scientific explanations
for the material universe, including evolution and the laws of nature (and how "the use of the majestic word 'laws' curiously turned the mind away from speculation about whose laws they might conceivably be",) and "longing for a world of clean, squared off structures, places where there was no darkness". He also recalls repugnance at "anything which suggested the existence or presence of death" and describes evocative moments in the novels Great Expectations
and Moonfleet
which had a profound effect on him in this connection. He then describes a shift in his moral positions, which became
Chapter Four, "The last battleships", is a lament for the Britain Hitchens grew up in, the "noble austerity" and security of his childhood; the pre-eminence and prevalence of the Royal Navy
in public life, "improbably distant" foreign lands; and the beauty and magnificence of steam railway locomotives
. Hitchens writes that he "lived at the end of an era that is now as distant and gone as the Lost City of Atlantis
". Chapter Five, "Britain's pseudo-religion and the cult of Winston Churchill", is an exploration of what Hitchens views as the pseudo-religion
of the greatness surrounding Churchill
, and the perceived glory of World War II
heroes, whose central ceremony was the annual commemoration Remembrance Sunday
, at which was sung "Oh God, Our Help In Ages Past
", "a hymn which seemed to have been carved from granite". Hitchens describes this as a "great cult of noble, patriotic death" for which symbols can be found everywhere, including the Cenotaph
in Whitehall
; a sculpture
of an infantryman by Charles Sargeant Jagger
at Paddington Station
;
sculpted bronze children in the garden city of Port Sunlight
; and the Metropolitan Railway memorial at Baker Street
Station
. Hitchens writes that the "only comparable cult of heroic death is Russia, or to be strictly accurate, the former Soviet Union". Hitchens then expresses great respect for the fallen of the wars, but adds
In Chapter Six, "Homo Sovieticus", Hitchens recalls the grimness of his time as a foreign correspondent in the Soviet Union
, and a terrifying trip to Mogadishu
. The experiences convinced him that "his own civilisation was infinitely precious and utterly vulnerable, and that I was obliged to try and protect it. When you have seen a place from which the whole apparatus of trust, civility and peace has been stripped, you are conscious as never before about the value of such things—and more curious than before about their origins, not in wealth or power, but in the mind of man and of the better angels of his nature". In Chapter Seven, "A rediscovery of lost faith", Hitchens charts his return to Christianity after becoming disillusioned with what he calls the secular
faith of revolutionary socialism. He describes as part of this process a particularly powerful episode in which during a visit to Beaune
in the South
of France
he comes across the Rogier van der Weyden painting The Last Judgement
:
and "I had absolutely no doubt that I was among the damned". Hitchens then recounts a series of subsequent events that reinforced his refound faith: rediscovering Christmas, singing Carols, getting married in a church, and his wife's baptism
. In Chapter Eight, "The decline of Christianity", Hitchens explores a number of reasons for the diminishing of Christianity in British life, including the leaders of churches lending their support to the war policies of politicians ("People had gone to war for things they completely believed in, and had been completely betrayed"); the Church relinquishing control of many of its secondary schools to the state; a "commitment to social welfare at home and liberal anti-colonialism abroad became—in many cases—an acceptable substitute for Christian faith"; the secularisation of schools; and the BBC
undergoing "a transition from official Christianity to official religious neutrality".
and the Arab–Israeli conflict
—to contend that the conflicts were tribal in nature and "over the ownership and control of territory". Hitchens asserts that "those who blame religion for wars tend to do so only when it suits them to do so, and without paying much attention to the details". Chapter Ten, "Is it possible to determine what is right and what is wrong without God?", is an exploration by Hitchens of the issue of whether morality can be determined without the concept of God
. Hitchens believes that this represents a crucial weakness in the arguments of atheists: "They have a fundamental inability to concede that to be effectively absolute a moral code needs to be beyond human power to alter". He also takes issue with what he sees as Christopher Hitchens's flawed assertion in God is Not Great that "the order to love thy neighbour 'as thyself' is too extreme and too strenuous to be obeyed". Hitchens quotes atheist Thomas Nagel
's writing in his book The Last Word that "there might still be thought to be a religious threat in the existence of the laws of physics themselves, and indeed the existence of anything at all—but it seems to be less alarming to most atheists" as a rare example of an atheist not "denouncing all religious belief as stupid". Hitchens concludes the chapter by writing "in all my experience in life, I have seldom seen a more powerful argument for the fallen nature of man, and his inability to achieve perfection, than those countries in which man sets himself up to replace God with the State". Hitchens begins Chapter Eleven, "Are atheist states not actually atheist", by asserting that "those who reject God's absolute authority, preferring their own, are far more ready to persecute than Christians have been and are growing more inclined to do so over time."
"Each revolutionary generation reliably repeats the savagery". He then historically lists French revolutionary terror
; events surrounding the Bolshevik revolution
; Holodomor
and the Soviet famine of 1932–33; the attendant barbarity surrounding Joseph Stalin
's five year plans, repeated in the Great Leap Forward
in China; atrocities committed by the Khmer Rouge
; and widespread human rights abuses in Cuba
under Castro
. Hitchens then quotes the Hungarian communist
George Lukacs "Communist ethics make it the highest duty to accept the necessity of acting wickedly. This is the greatest sacrifice the revolution asks from us. The conviction of the true Communist is that evil transforms itself into good through the dialectics of historical evolution". Hitchens then quotes the positions taken by Nikolai Bukharin
, who viewed "ethics as useless, fetishistic, survivals of old class standards", and Leon Trotsky
, who wrote in Their Morals and Ours
Hitchens begins Chapter Twelve, "Fake miracles and grotesque relics", by contrasting a peasant's naïve belief in relics and faith healing with the
's denying the existence of the great Ukrainian famine
, "though he knew, directly and personally, that it was taking place" and refers to Sidney and Beatrice Webb
's book Soviet Communism: A New Civilisation as a "mass of self-deceiving lies" which included an acceptance that the 1937 Moscow
show trials under Stalin were "genuine criminal prosecutions". Hitchens asserts that people who would have apologised for Stalin in his day today promote a number of causes, including the cultural
and sexual revolutions, introducing democracy in Muslim countries, and "the intolerant and puritan secular fundamentalism that gathers around the belief in man made global warming". Hitchens writes that "these beliefs allow their supporters to feel superior to others and pursue a heaven on earth whose righteousness reflects on them". Hitchens then examines suppression of religion in the USSR, and in particular Christianity
. This intolerance of religion—which was originally instigated by Lenin, "the absolute atheist, lover of violence and begetter of the 1917 putsch"—included banning the teaching of religion to children (which was punishable by the death penalty
), the building of hundreds of anti-God
museums, the creation of an antireligious organisation of Soviet workers, and the mass executions, incarcerations, exile, and persecution of Russian Orthodox
priests.
Hitchens begins Chapter Thirteen, "Provoking a bloody war with the Church", by quoting William Henry Chamberlin
in 1935 in the Christian Science Monitor: "In Russia the world is witnessing the first effort to destroy completely any belief in supernatural interpretation of life". Hitchens writes
Hitchens then charts the consequnces of this exclusion: hostility towards Christmas, breaking the continuity of tradition and prayer, "systematic, cunning malice" towards religion, secular intolerance and terror, and imprisonment and executions at the Solovetsky
concentration camp, exposed by Frederick Arthur Mackenzie in his 1930 book "The Russian crucifixion: the full story of the persecution of religion under Bolshevism". Hitchens asserts that throughout the USSR’s history "the regime's institutional loathing for the teaching of religion, and its desire to eradicate it, survived every doctrinal detour and swerve" and that "this Godless emptiness helps to explain why post-Communist Russia has struggled so hard to cope with unaccustomed liberty". In the final chapter, "The great debate", Hitchens analyses a number of arguments and statements made by his brother, Christopher. Hitchens remarks that the "coincidence in instinct, taste, and thought between my brother and the Bolsheviks and their sympathisers is striking and undeniable" and then proceeds to examine Christopher's:
Hitchens writes "It would be crude and false to identify my brother as some kind of fellow-traveller of the Bolshevik regime... Yet is there perhaps a vestigial sympathy with the great experiment, and a far from vestigial loathing for those things it extirpated, monarchy, tradition, patriotism and faith?" Hitchens asks whether "some sentimental belief that socialism might have succeeded under other leadership still lingers in my brother's mind", and then takes issue with his brother's belief that the personality cult surrounding Stalin was itself a religion, and that religion is a form of child abuse, —a view shared by Richard Dawkins
. Hitchens contends that
and is propaganda and not based on reason. Hitchens then examines what he sees as the new atheists exhibiting a totalitarian
intolerance towards religion. He ends the chapter by giving an overview of the state of religion in contemporary Britain
and the emergence of a "new and intolerant utopianism", concluding that "The Rage Against God is loose".
in 2008 "the longest quarrel of my life seemed to be unexpectedly over", and how he held no hope of converting his brother, who he describes as having "bricked himself up high in his atheist tower, with slits instead of windows from which to shoot arrows at the faithful".
Christopher Howse, reviewing the book in The Daily Telegraph
, concentrated on the moral arguments in the book, and agreed with Hitchens that "to determine what is right and what is wrong without God, is difficult", as well as with Hitchens's observation that "God offers authoritative moral laws, and judgment upon those who knowingly break them. The folly is to suppose that because their breach seems to go unpunished, the laws no longer exist". Also in The Daily Telegraph, Charles Moore
wrote that the book "tries to do two things at once. One is to bash up modern militant atheism with all the author's polemical skill. The other is to give an autobiographical account of how, in our time, an intelligent man's faith may recover" and that
In a positive review in Standpoint
magazine, Michael Nazir Ali wrote that the book "is a rattling good read. It is also personal testimony. Having effectively analysed our current malaise, it sets out a programme for redressing the problems" and that
Like Howse, Ali also picked up on the moral issues explored in the book, stating "The question is not whether atheists can be moral but from where the moral codes come to which we seek to adhere."
In a more critical review in The New Statesman
, Sholto Byrnes wrote that "Hitchens makes his case forcefully, passionately and intelligently" but "makes too much connection between the ill deeds of atheists and their atheism" and that "If you want to argue, as Hitchens does, that atheists' crimes stem from their atheism, you lay yourself open to the polar, and matching, opposite: that religion is to blame for the evil acts of the religious." Byrnes at the same time conceded that
Byrnes also reviewed the book in The Independent
, where he wrote that there is "much to provoke and to treasure" in the book, but also questioned the validity of a number of conclusions reached by Hitchens—for example, that "atheists 'actively wish for disorder and meaninglessness'".
In a sympathetic review in The Guardian
, Rupert Shortt wrote that
In The Spectator
, Quentin Letts
claimed that the book represented "a reaction against the boastfulness of mortals who, with their big state and their soundbites and their stratagems, promise far, far more than they can deliver. Hitchens is a caution against the sinful pride of today’s politicians, of whatever stripe".
Reviews of the book in North American publications were more mixed.
In The New York Times
, Mark Oppenheimer commented that
In a negative review in the Winnipeg Free Press
, Ted St. Godard wrote that
In a The Washington Times
review entitled "Cain and Abel: The sequel?", Jeremy Lott wrote that
, with the additional subtitle How Atheism Led Me to Faith.
Traditionalist Conservatism
Traditionalist conservatism, also known as "traditional conservatism," "traditionalism," "Burkean conservatism", "classical conservatism" and , "Toryism", describes a political philosophy emphasizing the need for the principles of natural law and transcendent moral order, tradition, hierarchy and...
writer Peter Hitchens
Peter Hitchens
Peter Jonathan Hitchens is an award-winning British columnist and author, noted for his traditionalist conservative stance. He has published five books, including The Abolition of Britain, A Brief History of Crime, The Broken Compass and most recently The Rage Against God. Hitchens writes for...
, originally published in 2010. Autobiographical and polemical, the book describes Hitchens's journey from the militant atheism
Atheism
Atheism is, in a broad sense, the rejection of belief in the existence of deities. In a narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there are no deities...
of the far political left
Far left
Far left, also known as the revolutionary left, radical left and extreme left are terms which refer to the highest degree of leftist positions among left-wing politics...
and bohemianism
Bohemianism
Bohemianism is the practice of an unconventional lifestyle, often in the company of like-minded people, with few permanent ties, involving musical, artistic or literary pursuits...
to Christianity
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
, detailing the influences on him that led to his conversion
Conversion to Christianity
Conversion to Christianity is the religious conversion of a previously non-Christian person to some form of Christianity. It has been called the foundational experience of Christian life...
. The book is also partly intended as a response to God Is Not Great
God Is Not Great
God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything is a book by author and journalist Christopher Hitchens criticising religion. It was published in the United Kingdom as God Is Not Great: The Case Against Religion....
, a book written by his brother Christopher
Christopher Hitchens
Christopher Eric Hitchens is an Anglo-American author and journalist whose books, essays, and journalistic career span more than four decades. He has been a columnist and literary critic at The Atlantic, Vanity Fair, Slate, World Affairs, The Nation, Free Inquiry, and became a media fellow at the...
in 2007. Peter Hitchens, with particular reference to events which occurred
USSR Anti-Religious Campaign (1928–1941)
The USSR anti-religious campaign of 1928–1941 was a new phase of anti-religious persecution in the Soviet Union The campaign began in 1929, with the drafting of new legislation that severely prohibited religious activities and called for a heightened attack on religion in order to further...
in the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
, argues that his brother's verdict on religion is misguided, and that faith in God
God
God is the English name given to a singular being in theistic and deistic religions who is either the sole deity in monotheism, or a single deity in polytheism....
is both a safeguard against the collapse of civilization into moral chaos and the best antidote to what he sees as the dangerous idea of earthly perfection through utopia
Utopia
Utopia is an ideal community or society possessing a perfect socio-politico-legal system. The word was imported from Greek by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book Utopia, describing a fictional island in the Atlantic Ocean. The term has been used to describe both intentional communities that attempt...
nism.
The book was described by the Herald Sun
Herald Sun
The Herald Sun is a morning tabloid newspaper based in Melbourne, Australia. It is published by The Herald and Weekly Times, a subsidiary of News Limited, itself a subsidiary of News Corporation. It is available for purchase throughout Melbourne, Regional Victoria, Tasmania, the Australian Capital...
as "a fascinating account of the disparity between the Hitchens brothers and a journey of one brother away from and back to faith", and in The Spectator
The Spectator
The Spectator is a weekly British magazine first published on 6 July 1828. It is currently owned by David and Frederick Barclay, who also owns The Daily Telegraph. Its principal subject areas are politics and culture...
as "a magnificent, sustained cry against the aggressive secularism taking control of our weakened culture".
Background
In May 2009 The Rage Against God was anticipated by Michael GoveMichael Gove
Michael Andrew Gove, MP is a British politician, who currently serves as the Secretary of State for Education and as the Conservative Party Member of Parliament for the Surrey Heath constituency. He is also a published author and former journalist.Born in Edinburgh, Gove was raised in Aberdeen...
, who wrote in The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
:
I long to see [Peter Hitchens] take the next stage in his writer's journey and examine, with his unsparing honesty, the rich human reality of the division he believes is now more important than the split between Left and Right—the deeper gulf between the restless progressive and the Christian pessimist. This division, the difference between PrometheusIn August 2009, Hitchens referred to The Rage Against God for the first time in one of his weekly columns, where he wrote, "Above all, I seek to counter the assertion, central to my brother's case and unsatisfactorily dealt with in the debate at Grand Rapids, that the Soviet regime was in fact religious in character. This profound misunderstanding of the nature of the USSR is the key to finding another significant flaw in what is in general his circular argument". Then, a week before the book's publication, Hitchens wrote: "It is obvious much of what I say arises out of my attempt to debate religion with him [Christopher Hitchens], it would be absurd to pretend that much of what I say here is not intended to counter or undermine arguments he presented in his book, God Is Not Great, published in 2007".PrometheusIn Greek mythology, Prometheus is a Titan, the son of Iapetus and Themis, and brother to Atlas, Epimetheus and Menoetius. He was a champion of mankind, known for his wily intelligence, who stole fire from Zeus and gave it to mortals...
and St Paul, the chasm that divides ShelleyPercy Bysshe ShelleyPercy Bysshe Shelley was one of the major English Romantic poets and is critically regarded as among the finest lyric poets in the English language. Shelley was famous for his association with John Keats and Lord Byron...
from T. S. EliotT. S. EliotThomas Stearns "T. S." Eliot OM was a playwright, literary critic, and arguably the most important English-language poet of the 20th century. Although he was born an American he moved to the United Kingdom in 1914 and was naturalised as a British subject in 1927 at age 39.The poem that made his...
, Lloyd GeorgeDavid Lloyd GeorgeDavid Lloyd George, 1st Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor OM, PC was a British Liberal politician and statesman...
from Lord Salisbury, is nowhere better encapsulated than in the contrast between Hitchens major and minor.
Synopsis
The book consists of an introduction, three parts divided into chapters, and an epilogue. Each individual section is prefaced by a verse taken from the Book of PsalmsPsalms
The Book of Psalms , commonly referred to simply as Psalms, is a book of the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Bible...
from the Bible.
Introduction
In the introduction, Hitchens explains that the book will not consist of a rebuttal of the arguments made by the new atheistsNew Atheism
New Atheism is the name given to a movement among some early-21st-century atheist writers who have advocated the view that "religion should not simply be tolerated but should be countered, criticized, and exposed by rational argument wherever its influence arises." New atheists argue that recent...
, but will rather be an account of how he "became convinced, by reason and experience, of a form of Christianity that is modest, accommodating, and thoughtful, but ultimately uncompromising about its vital truth", followed by an examination of what he sees as "the fundamental failures of three atheistic arguments".
Part One: A Personal Journey Through Atheism
W. Somerset Maugham
William Somerset Maugham , CH was an English playwright, novelist and short story writer. He was among the most popular writers of his era and, reputedly, the highest paid author during the 1930s.-Childhood and education:...
's novel Of Human Bondage
Of Human Bondage
Of Human Bondage is a novel by W. Somerset Maugham. It is generally agreed to be his masterpiece and to be strongly autobiographical in nature, although Maugham stated, "This is a novel, not an autobiography, though much in it is autobiographical, more is pure invention." Maugham, who had...
and writes that, like the hero of that novel, "I smugly congratulated myself on being able to be virtuous without hope of reward or fear of punishment". He then describes his own perceived failings over a period of many years as a "braggart sinner", including promoting "cruel revolution
Revolution
A revolution is a fundamental change in power or organizational structures that takes place in a relatively short period of time.Aristotle described two types of political revolution:...
ary rubbish" to others, to his own deep regret. Hitchens then describes how his generation
Counterculture of the 1960s
The counterculture of the 1960s refers to a cultural movement that mainly developed in the United States and spread throughout much of the western world between 1960 and 1973. The movement gained momentum during the U.S. government's extensive military intervention in Vietnam...
were sure it
He then cites a letter written by Virginia Woolf
Virginia Woolf
Adeline Virginia Woolf was an English author, essayist, publisher, and writer of short stories, regarded as one of the foremost modernist literary figures of the twentieth century....
in 1928 (concerning the conversion to Christianity by T. S. Eliot
T. S. Eliot
Thomas Stearns "T. S." Eliot OM was a playwright, literary critic, and arguably the most important English-language poet of the 20th century. Although he was born an American he moved to the United Kingdom in 1914 and was naturalised as a British subject in 1927 at age 39.The poem that made his...
) as an example of the "widely accepted dismissal of faith by the intelligent and the educated". He also identifies that behind the "fear of submission to God" may have been a fear of becoming like their conformist parents who were being left behind by the events in the 1960s (a fear Hitchens describes as being captured well by A. S. Byatt
A. S. Byatt
Dame Antonia Susan Duffy, DBE is an English novelist, poet and Booker Prize winner...
in the novel The Virgin in the Garden).
In the second chapter, "A loss of confidence", Hitchens explores further reasons for his generation's disillusionment, including the authorities' handling and evasiveness over the Suez Crisis
Suez Crisis
The Suez Crisis, also referred to as the Tripartite Aggression, Suez War was an offensive war fought by France, the United Kingdom, and Israel against Egypt beginning on 29 October 1956. Less than a day after Israel invaded Egypt, Britain and France issued a joint ultimatum to Egypt and Israel,...
: "this failure and dishonesty sapped and rotted everything and everyone from the local vicar and the village policeman to the grander figures in the nation", the funeral of Winston Churchill
Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, was a predominantly Conservative British politician and statesman known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the century and served as Prime Minister twice...
("a cheap and second-rate modernity was to replace the decrepit magnificence we had grown used to") and the Profumo Affair
Profumo Affair
The Profumo Affair was a 1963 British political scandal named after John Profumo, Secretary of State for War. His affair with Christine Keeler, the reputed mistress of an alleged Russian spy, followed by lying in the House of Commons when he was questioned about it, forced the resignation of...
, whose effect of introducing Christine Keeler
Christine Keeler
Christine Margaret Keeler is an English former model and showgirl. Her involvement with a British government minister discredited the Conservative government of Harold Macmillan in 1963, in what is known as the Profumo Affair....
and Mandy Rice-Davies
Mandy Rice-Davies
Mandy Rice-Davies , is a Welsh former model and showgirl best known for her role in the Profumo affair and her association with Christine Keeler, which discredited the Conservative government of British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan in 1963.-Early life:She was born Marilyn Rice-Davies in...
into national life meant that it "had gone rotten". Hitchens begins Chapter Three, "The seeds of atheism", by recounting his experience of religious education as a school pupil in the early 1960s, and how by the standards of 2010 his Christian education was "intensive, purposeful, and single-minded", and that the "imagery of the Last Judgement was still powerful currency to us". He also recounts how at the age of 15 he fully accepted scientific explanations
Models of scientific inquiry
In the philosophy of science, models of scientific inquiry have two functions: first, to provide a descriptive account of how scientific inquiry is carried out in practice, and second, to provide an explanatory account of why scientific inquiry succeeds as well as it appears to do in arriving at...
for the material universe, including evolution and the laws of nature (and how "the use of the majestic word 'laws' curiously turned the mind away from speculation about whose laws they might conceivably be",) and "longing for a world of clean, squared off structures, places where there was no darkness". He also recalls repugnance at "anything which suggested the existence or presence of death" and describes evocative moments in the novels Great Expectations
Great Expectations
Great Expectations is a novel by Charles Dickens. It was first published in serial form in the publication All the Year Round from 1 December 1860 to August 1861. It has been adapted for stage and screen over 250 times....
and Moonfleet
Moonfleet
Moonfleet is a tale of smuggling by the English novelist J. Meade Falkner, first published in 1898. The book was extremely popular among children worldwide up until the 1970s, mostly for its themes of adventure and gripping storyline...
which had a profound effect on him in this connection. He then describes a shift in his moral positions, which became
Chapter Four, "The last battleships", is a lament for the Britain Hitchens grew up in, the "noble austerity" and security of his childhood; the pre-eminence and prevalence of the Royal Navy
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...
in public life, "improbably distant" foreign lands; and the beauty and magnificence of steam railway locomotives
Steam locomotive
A steam locomotive is a railway locomotive that produces its power through a steam engine. These locomotives are fueled by burning some combustible material, usually coal, wood or oil, to produce steam in a boiler, which drives the steam engine...
. Hitchens writes that he "lived at the end of an era that is now as distant and gone as the Lost City of Atlantis
Atlantis
Atlantis is a legendary island first mentioned in Plato's dialogues Timaeus and Critias, written about 360 BC....
". Chapter Five, "Britain's pseudo-religion and the cult of Winston Churchill", is an exploration of what Hitchens views as the pseudo-religion
Pseudoreligion
Pseudoreligion, or pseudotheology, is a generally pejorative term applied to a non-mainstream belief system or philosophy which is functionally similar to a religious movement, typically having a founder, principal text, liturgy and faith-based beliefs....
of the greatness surrounding Churchill
Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, was a predominantly Conservative British politician and statesman known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the century and served as Prime Minister twice...
, and the perceived glory of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
heroes, whose central ceremony was the annual commemoration Remembrance Sunday
Remembrance Sunday
In the United Kingdom, 'Remembrance Sunday' is held on the second Sunday in November, which is the Sunday nearest to 11 November Armistice Day. It is the anniversary of the end of hostilities in the First World War at 11 a.m...
, at which was sung "Oh God, Our Help In Ages Past
O God, Our Help in Ages Past
O God, Our Help in Ages Past is a hymn by Isaac Watts and paraphrases Psalm 90. It originally consisted of nine stanzas. In present usage, however, the hymn is usually limited to stanzas one, two, three, five and nine...
", "a hymn which seemed to have been carved from granite". Hitchens describes this as a "great cult of noble, patriotic death" for which symbols can be found everywhere, including the Cenotaph
Cenotaph
A cenotaph is an "empty tomb" or a monument erected in honour of a person or group of people whose remains are elsewhere. It can also be the initial tomb for a person who has since been interred elsewhere. The word derives from the Greek κενοτάφιον = kenotaphion...
in Whitehall
Whitehall
Whitehall is a road in Westminster, in London, England. It is the main artery running north from Parliament Square, towards Charing Cross at the southern end of Trafalgar Square...
; a sculpture
Great Western Railway War Memorial
The Great Western Railway War Memorial is a monument in London, United Kingdom, to the employees of the Great Western Railway who died during the First World War, and it is situated half-way along platform 1 at London Paddington station. The stonework was designed by the architect Thomas S...
of an infantryman by Charles Sargeant Jagger
Charles Sargeant Jagger
Charles Sargeant Jagger MC was a British sculptor who, following active service in the First World War, sculpted many works on the theme of war...
at Paddington Station
Paddington station
Paddington railway station, also known as London Paddington, is a central London railway terminus and London Underground complex.The site is a historic one, having served as the London terminus of the Great Western Railway and its successors since 1838. Much of the current mainline station dates...
;
Port Sunlight
Port Sunlight is a model village, suburb and electoral ward in the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral, Merseyside, England. It is located between Lower Bebington and New Ferry, on the Wirral Peninsula. Between 1894 and 1974 it formed part of Bebington urban district within the county of Cheshire...
; and the Metropolitan Railway memorial at Baker Street
Baker Street
Baker Street is a street in the Marylebone district of the City of Westminster in London. It is named after builder William Baker, who laid the street out in the 18th century. The street is most famous for its connection to the fictional detective Sherlock Holmes, who lived at a fictional 221B...
Station
Baker Street tube station
Baker Street tube station is a station on the London Underground at the junction of Baker Street and the Marylebone Road. The station lies in Travelcard Zone 1 and is served by five different lines...
. Hitchens writes that the "only comparable cult of heroic death is Russia, or to be strictly accurate, the former Soviet Union". Hitchens then expresses great respect for the fallen of the wars, but adds
In Chapter Six, "Homo Sovieticus", Hitchens recalls the grimness of his time as a foreign correspondent in the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
, and a terrifying trip to Mogadishu
Mogadishu
Mogadishu , popularly known as Xamar, is the largest city in Somalia and the nation's capital. Located in the coastal Benadir region on the Indian Ocean, the city has served as an important port for centuries....
. The experiences convinced him that "his own civilisation was infinitely precious and utterly vulnerable, and that I was obliged to try and protect it. When you have seen a place from which the whole apparatus of trust, civility and peace has been stripped, you are conscious as never before about the value of such things—and more curious than before about their origins, not in wealth or power, but in the mind of man and of the better angels of his nature". In Chapter Seven, "A rediscovery of lost faith", Hitchens charts his return to Christianity after becoming disillusioned with what he calls the secular
Secularism
Secularism is the principle of separation between government institutions and the persons mandated to represent the State from religious institutions and religious dignitaries...
faith of revolutionary socialism. He describes as part of this process a particularly powerful episode in which during a visit to Beaune
Beaune
Beaune is the wine capital of Burgundy in the Cote d'Or department in eastern France. It is located between Paris and Geneva.Beaune is one of the key wine centers in France and the annual wine auction of the Hospices de Beaune is the primary wine auction in France...
in the South
Southern France
Southern France , colloquially known as le Midi is defined geographical area consisting of the regions of France that border the Atlantic Ocean south of the Gironde, Spain, the Mediterranean, and Italy...
of France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
he comes across the Rogier van der Weyden painting The Last Judgement
The Last Judgment (Rogier van der Weyden)
The Last Judgment is a polyptych painted c. 1445–1450 by Rogier van der Weyden. The medium is oil on oak panel, though some panels have been transferred to canvas. It is in the collection of the Musée de l'Hôtel-Dieu, Beaune in France.-Description:...
:
and "I had absolutely no doubt that I was among the damned". Hitchens then recounts a series of subsequent events that reinforced his refound faith: rediscovering Christmas, singing Carols, getting married in a church, and his wife's baptism
Baptism
In Christianity, baptism is for the majority the rite of admission , almost invariably with the use of water, into the Christian Church generally and also membership of a particular church tradition...
. In Chapter Eight, "The decline of Christianity", Hitchens explores a number of reasons for the diminishing of Christianity in British life, including the leaders of churches lending their support to the war policies of politicians ("People had gone to war for things they completely believed in, and had been completely betrayed"); the Church relinquishing control of many of its secondary schools to the state; a "commitment to social welfare at home and liberal anti-colonialism abroad became—in many cases—an acceptable substitute for Christian faith"; the secularisation of schools; and the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
undergoing "a transition from official Christianity to official religious neutrality".
Part Two: Addressing Atheism: Three Failed Arguments
In Chapter Nine, "Are conflicts fought in the name of religion conflicts about religion?", Hitchens examines one of the main criticisms of religion by its detractors: that religion is a source of conflict—which he labels a "cruel factual misunderstanding", and analyses a number of wars and conflicts that are ostensibly religiously motivated—including The TroublesThe Troubles
The Troubles was a period of ethno-political conflict in Northern Ireland which spilled over at various times into England, the Republic of Ireland, and mainland Europe. The duration of the Troubles is conventionally dated from the late 1960s and considered by many to have ended with the Belfast...
and the Arab–Israeli conflict
Arab–Israeli conflict
The Arab–Israeli conflict refers to political tensions and open hostilities between the Arab peoples and the Jewish community of the Middle East. The modern Arab-Israeli conflict began with the rise of Zionism and Arab Nationalism towards the end of the nineteenth century, and intensified with the...
—to contend that the conflicts were tribal in nature and "over the ownership and control of territory". Hitchens asserts that "those who blame religion for wars tend to do so only when it suits them to do so, and without paying much attention to the details". Chapter Ten, "Is it possible to determine what is right and what is wrong without God?", is an exploration by Hitchens of the issue of whether morality can be determined without the concept of God
Conceptions of God
The God of monotheism, pantheism or panentheism, or the supreme deity of henotheistic religions, may be conceived of in various degrees of abstraction:...
. Hitchens believes that this represents a crucial weakness in the arguments of atheists: "They have a fundamental inability to concede that to be effectively absolute a moral code needs to be beyond human power to alter". He also takes issue with what he sees as Christopher Hitchens's flawed assertion in God is Not Great that "the order to love thy neighbour 'as thyself' is too extreme and too strenuous to be obeyed". Hitchens quotes atheist Thomas Nagel
Thomas Nagel
Thomas Nagel is an American philosopher, currently University Professor of Philosophy and Law at New York University, where he has taught since 1980. His main areas of philosophical interest are philosophy of mind, political philosophy and ethics...
's writing in his book The Last Word that "there might still be thought to be a religious threat in the existence of the laws of physics themselves, and indeed the existence of anything at all—but it seems to be less alarming to most atheists" as a rare example of an atheist not "denouncing all religious belief as stupid". Hitchens concludes the chapter by writing "in all my experience in life, I have seldom seen a more powerful argument for the fallen nature of man, and his inability to achieve perfection, than those countries in which man sets himself up to replace God with the State". Hitchens begins Chapter Eleven, "Are atheist states not actually atheist", by asserting that "those who reject God's absolute authority, preferring their own, are far more ready to persecute than Christians have been and are growing more inclined to do so over time."
Reign of Terror
The Reign of Terror , also known simply as The Terror , was a period of violence that occurred after the onset of the French Revolution, incited by conflict between rival political factions, the Girondins and the Jacobins, and marked by mass executions of "enemies of...
; events surrounding the Bolshevik revolution
October Revolution
The October Revolution , also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution , Red October, the October Uprising or the Bolshevik Revolution, was a political revolution and a part of the Russian Revolution of 1917...
; Holodomor
Holodomor
The Holodomor was a man-made famine in the Ukrainian SSR between 1932 and 1933. During the famine, which is also known as the "terror-famine in Ukraine" and "famine-genocide in Ukraine", millions of Ukrainians died of starvation in a peacetime catastrophe unprecedented in the history of...
and the Soviet famine of 1932–33; the attendant barbarity surrounding Joseph Stalin
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...
's five year plans, repeated in the Great Leap Forward
Great Leap Forward
The Great Leap Forward of the People's Republic of China was an economic and social campaign of the Communist Party of China , reflected in planning decisions from 1958 to 1961, which aimed to use China's vast population to rapidly transform the country from an agrarian economy into a modern...
in China; atrocities committed by the Khmer Rouge
Khmer Rouge
The Khmer Rouge literally translated as Red Cambodians was the name given to the followers of the Communist Party of Kampuchea, who were the ruling party in Cambodia from 1975 to 1979, led by Pol Pot, Nuon Chea, Ieng Sary, Son Sen and Khieu Samphan...
; and widespread human rights abuses in Cuba
Human rights in Cuba
Human Rights Watch is among international human rights organizations accusing the Cuban government of systematic human rights abuses, including torture, arbitrary imprisonment, unfair trials, and extrajudicial execution....
under Castro
Fidel Castro
Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz is a Cuban revolutionary and politician, having held the position of Prime Minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976, and then President from 1976 to 2008. He also served as the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba from the party's foundation in 1961 until 2011...
. Hitchens then quotes the Hungarian communist
Hungarian Communist Party
The Communist Party of Hungary , renamed Hungarian Communist Party in 1945, was founded on November 24, 1918, and was in power in Hungary briefly from March to August 1919 under Béla Kun and the Hungarian Soviet Republic. The communist government was overthrown by the Romanian Army and driven...
George Lukacs "Communist ethics make it the highest duty to accept the necessity of acting wickedly. This is the greatest sacrifice the revolution asks from us. The conviction of the true Communist is that evil transforms itself into good through the dialectics of historical evolution". Hitchens then quotes the positions taken by Nikolai Bukharin
Nikolai Bukharin
Nikolai Ivanovich Bukharin , was a Russian Marxist, Bolshevik revolutionary, and Soviet politician. He was a member of the Politburo and Central Committee , chairman of the Communist International , and the editor in chief of Pravda , the journal Bolshevik , Izvestia , and the Great Soviet...
, who viewed "ethics as useless, fetishistic, survivals of old class standards", and Leon Trotsky
Leon Trotsky
Leon Trotsky , born Lev Davidovich Bronshtein, was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and theorist, Soviet politician, and the founder and first leader of the Red Army....
, who wrote in Their Morals and Ours
Part Three: The League of the Militant Godless
'materialist intellectuals' gullible open mouthed willingness to believe anything. "The biggest fake miracle staged in human history was the claim that the Soviet Union was a new civilisation of equality, peace, love, truth, science and progress. Everyone knows that it was a prison, a slum, a return to primitive barbarism, a kingdom of lies where scientists and doctors feared offending the secret police, and that its elite were corrupt and lived in secret luxury".'To support this contention, Hitchens cites Walter Duranty
Walter Duranty
Walter Duranty was a Liverpool-born British journalist who served as the Moscow bureau chief of the New York Times from 1922 through 1936. Duranty won a Pulitzer Prize in 1932 for a set of stories written in 1931 on the Soviet Union...
's denying the existence of the great Ukrainian famine
Holodomor
The Holodomor was a man-made famine in the Ukrainian SSR between 1932 and 1933. During the famine, which is also known as the "terror-famine in Ukraine" and "famine-genocide in Ukraine", millions of Ukrainians died of starvation in a peacetime catastrophe unprecedented in the history of...
, "though he knew, directly and personally, that it was taking place" and refers to Sidney and Beatrice Webb
Beatrice Webb
Martha Beatrice Webb, Lady Passfield was an English sociologist, economist, socialist and social reformer. Although her husband became Baron Passfield in 1929, she refused to be known as Lady Passfield...
's book Soviet Communism: A New Civilisation as a "mass of self-deceiving lies" which included an acceptance that the 1937 Moscow
Moscow Trials
The Moscow Trials were a series of show trials conducted in the Soviet Union and orchestrated by Joseph Stalin during the Great Purge of the 1930s. The victims included most of the surviving Old Bolsheviks, as well as the leadership of the Soviet secret police...
show trials under Stalin were "genuine criminal prosecutions". Hitchens asserts that people who would have apologised for Stalin in his day today promote a number of causes, including the cultural
Cultural Revolution
The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, commonly known as the Cultural Revolution , was a socio-political movement that took place in the People's Republic of China from 1966 through 1976...
and sexual revolutions, introducing democracy in Muslim countries, and "the intolerant and puritan secular fundamentalism that gathers around the belief in man made global warming". Hitchens writes that "these beliefs allow their supporters to feel superior to others and pursue a heaven on earth whose righteousness reflects on them". Hitchens then examines suppression of religion in the USSR, and in particular Christianity
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
. This intolerance of religion—which was originally instigated by Lenin, "the absolute atheist, lover of violence and begetter of the 1917 putsch"—included banning the teaching of religion to children (which was punishable by the death penalty
Capital punishment
Capital punishment, the death penalty, or execution is the sentence of death upon a person by the state as a punishment for an offence. Crimes that can result in a death penalty are known as capital crimes or capital offences. The term capital originates from the Latin capitalis, literally...
), the building of hundreds of anti-God
Antitheism
Antitheism is active opposition to theism. The etymological roots of the word are the Greek 'anti-' and 'theismos'...
museums, the creation of an antireligious organisation of Soviet workers, and the mass executions, incarcerations, exile, and persecution of Russian Orthodox
Russian Orthodox Church
The Russian Orthodox Church or, alternatively, the Moscow Patriarchate The ROC is often said to be the largest of the Eastern Orthodox churches in the world; including all the autocephalous churches under its umbrella, its adherents number over 150 million worldwide—about half of the 300 million...
priests.
Hitchens begins Chapter Thirteen, "Provoking a bloody war with the Church", by quoting William Henry Chamberlin
William Henry Chamberlin
William Henry Chamberlin was an American historian and journalist. He was the author of several books about the Cold War, Communism and US foreign policy, the most famous of which was The Russian Revolution 1917-1921...
in 1935 in the Christian Science Monitor: "In Russia the world is witnessing the first effort to destroy completely any belief in supernatural interpretation of life". Hitchens writes
Hitchens then charts the consequnces of this exclusion: hostility towards Christmas, breaking the continuity of tradition and prayer, "systematic, cunning malice" towards religion, secular intolerance and terror, and imprisonment and executions at the Solovetsky
Solovetsky Islands
The Solovetsky Islands , or Solovki , are an archipelago located in the Onega Bay of the White Sea, Russia. The islands are served by the Solovki Airport. Area: ....
concentration camp, exposed by Frederick Arthur Mackenzie in his 1930 book "The Russian crucifixion: the full story of the persecution of religion under Bolshevism". Hitchens asserts that throughout the USSR’s history "the regime's institutional loathing for the teaching of religion, and its desire to eradicate it, survived every doctrinal detour and swerve" and that "this Godless emptiness helps to explain why post-Communist Russia has struggled so hard to cope with unaccustomed liberty". In the final chapter, "The great debate", Hitchens analyses a number of arguments and statements made by his brother, Christopher. Hitchens remarks that the "coincidence in instinct, taste, and thought between my brother and the Bolsheviks and their sympathisers is striking and undeniable" and then proceeds to examine Christopher's:
- Nominating the "blood-encrusted putschist conspirator and apostle of revolutionary terror" Leon Trotsky for an edition of the BBC's radio series Great LivesGreat LivesGreat Lives is a BBC Radio 4 biography series, produced in Bristol. It is presented by Matthew Parris. A distinguished guest is asked to nominate the person they feel is truly deserving of the title "Great Life". Matthew and a recognised expert are on hand to discuss the life...
; - In a discussion in 2009 with Robert ServiceRobert Service (historian)Robert John Service is a British historian, academic, and author who has written extensively on the history of Soviet Russia, particularly the era from the October Revolution to Stalin's death...
, praising Trotsky for his moral courage; - Stating that "One of Lenin's great achievements, in my opinion, is to create a secular Russia".
Hitchens writes "It would be crude and false to identify my brother as some kind of fellow-traveller of the Bolshevik regime... Yet is there perhaps a vestigial sympathy with the great experiment, and a far from vestigial loathing for those things it extirpated, monarchy, tradition, patriotism and faith?" Hitchens asks whether "some sentimental belief that socialism might have succeeded under other leadership still lingers in my brother's mind", and then takes issue with his brother's belief that the personality cult surrounding Stalin was itself a religion, and that religion is a form of child abuse, —a view shared by Richard Dawkins
Richard Dawkins
Clinton Richard Dawkins, FRS, FRSL , known as Richard Dawkins, is a British ethologist, evolutionary biologist and author...
. Hitchens contends that
and is propaganda and not based on reason. Hitchens then examines what he sees as the new atheists exhibiting a totalitarian
Totalitarianism
Totalitarianism is a political system where the state recognizes no limits to its authority and strives to regulate every aspect of public and private life wherever feasible...
intolerance towards religion. He ends the chapter by giving an overview of the state of religion in contemporary Britain
Religion in the United Kingdom
Religion in the United Kingdom and the states that pre-dated the UK, was dominated by forms of Christianity for over 1,400 years. Although a majority of citizens still identify with Christianity in many surveys, regular church attendance has fallen dramatically since the middle of the 20th century,...
and the emergence of a "new and intolerant utopianism", concluding that "The Rage Against God is loose".
Epilogue
In a short epilogue Hitchens describes how after a debate with his brother in Grand RapidsGrand Rapids, Michigan
Grand Rapids is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan. The city is located on the Grand River about 40 miles east of Lake Michigan. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 188,040. In 2010, the Grand Rapids metropolitan area had a population of 774,160 and a combined statistical area, Grand...
in 2008 "the longest quarrel of my life seemed to be unexpectedly over", and how he held no hope of converting his brother, who he describes as having "bricked himself up high in his atheist tower, with slits instead of windows from which to shoot arrows at the faithful".
Critical reception
In the wake of its UK publication in March 2010, the book received a number of mostly favourable reviews in both left- and right-leaning media publications.Christopher Howse, reviewing the book in The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph is a daily morning broadsheet newspaper distributed throughout the United Kingdom and internationally. The newspaper was founded by Arthur B...
, concentrated on the moral arguments in the book, and agreed with Hitchens that "to determine what is right and what is wrong without God, is difficult", as well as with Hitchens's observation that "God offers authoritative moral laws, and judgment upon those who knowingly break them. The folly is to suppose that because their breach seems to go unpunished, the laws no longer exist". Also in The Daily Telegraph, Charles Moore
Charles Moore (journalist)
Charles Hilary Moore is a British journalist and former editor of The Daily Telegraph.-Early life:He was educated at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge where he was awarded a BA in History and was a friend of Oliver Letwin.-Career:A former editor of The Spectator , the Sunday Telegraph and The...
wrote that the book "tries to do two things at once. One is to bash up modern militant atheism with all the author's polemical skill. The other is to give an autobiographical account of how, in our time, an intelligent man's faith may recover" and that
In a positive review in Standpoint
Standpoint (magazine)
Standpoint is a monthly British cultural and political magazine. Its premier issue was published at the end of May 2008 – the first launch of a major current affairs publication in the UK in more than a decade....
magazine, Michael Nazir Ali wrote that the book "is a rattling good read. It is also personal testimony. Having effectively analysed our current malaise, it sets out a programme for redressing the problems" and that
Like Howse, Ali also picked up on the moral issues explored in the book, stating "The question is not whether atheists can be moral but from where the moral codes come to which we seek to adhere."
In a more critical review in The New Statesman
The New Statesman
The New Statesman is an award-winning British sitcom of the late 1980s and early 1990s satirising the Conservative government of the time...
, Sholto Byrnes wrote that "Hitchens makes his case forcefully, passionately and intelligently" but "makes too much connection between the ill deeds of atheists and their atheism" and that "If you want to argue, as Hitchens does, that atheists' crimes stem from their atheism, you lay yourself open to the polar, and matching, opposite: that religion is to blame for the evil acts of the religious." Byrnes at the same time conceded that
Byrnes also reviewed the book in The Independent
The Independent
The Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...
, where he wrote that there is "much to provoke and to treasure" in the book, but also questioned the validity of a number of conclusions reached by Hitchens—for example, that "atheists 'actively wish for disorder and meaninglessness'".
In a sympathetic review in The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
, Rupert Shortt wrote that
In The Spectator
The Spectator
The Spectator is a weekly British magazine first published on 6 July 1828. It is currently owned by David and Frederick Barclay, who also owns The Daily Telegraph. Its principal subject areas are politics and culture...
, Quentin Letts
Quentin Letts
Quentin Richard Stephen Letts is a British journalist and theatre critic, writing for The Daily Telegraph, Daily Mail, Mail on Sunday, The Oldie and New Statesman, and previously for The Times.- Early life :...
claimed that the book represented "a reaction against the boastfulness of mortals who, with their big state and their soundbites and their stratagems, promise far, far more than they can deliver. Hitchens is a caution against the sinful pride of today’s politicians, of whatever stripe".
Reviews of the book in North American publications were more mixed.
In The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, Mark Oppenheimer commented that
In a negative review in the Winnipeg Free Press
Winnipeg Free Press
The Winnipeg Free Press is a daily broadsheet newspaper in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Founded in 1872, as the Manitoba Free Press, it is the oldest newspaper in western Canada. It is the newspaper with the largest readership in the province....
, Ted St. Godard wrote that
In a The Washington Times
The Washington Times
The Washington Times is a daily broadsheet newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States. It was founded in 1982 by Unification Church founder Sun Myung Moon, and until 2010 was owned by News World Communications, an international media conglomerate associated with the...
review entitled "Cain and Abel: The sequel?", Jeremy Lott wrote that
Release details
The book was first published in the UK on 15 March 2010 by Continuum Publishing Corporation, and was released in the US in June 2010 by ZondervanZondervan
Zondervan is an international Christian media and publishing company located in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Zondervan is a founding member of the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association .- History :...
, with the additional subtitle How Atheism Led Me to Faith.
See also
- Christian apologeticsChristian apologeticsChristian apologetics is a field of Christian theology that aims to present a rational basis for the Christian faith, defend the faith against objections, and expose the perceived flaws of other world views...
- Religious conversionReligious conversionReligious conversion is the adoption of a new religion that differs from the convert's previous religion. Changing from one denomination to another within the same religion is usually described as reaffiliation rather than conversion.People convert to a different religion for various reasons,...
- Criticism of atheism
- USSR anti-religious campaign (1917–1921)USSR Anti-Religious Campaign (1917–1921)In the beginning of the USSR, a campaign began to be done to make the state atheist by removing the influence of all religion, and the Russian Orthodox church especially, from Soviet society from the earliest days after the revolution in 1917, continuing until the fall of the USSR in 1991...
- USSR anti-religious campaign (1921–1928)USSR Anti-Religious Campaign (1921–1928)The Soviet government had begun an anti-religious campaign against believers after the revolution in 1917. The elimination of all religion and its replacement with atheism supported with a materialist world view was a fundamental ideological goal of the state. To this end the state conducted...
- USSR anti-religious campaign (1928–1941)USSR Anti-Religious Campaign (1928–1941)The USSR anti-religious campaign of 1928–1941 was a new phase of anti-religious persecution in the Soviet Union The campaign began in 1929, with the drafting of new legislation that severely prohibited religious activities and called for a heightened attack on religion in order to further...
- Persecution of Christians in the Soviet UnionPersecution of Christians in the Soviet UnionThe history of Christianity in the Soviet Union was not limited to repression and secularization. Soviet policy toward religion was based on the ideology of Marxism-Leninism, which made atheism the official doctrine of the Soviet Union...
- Human rights in the Soviet UnionHuman rights in the Soviet UnionHuman rights in the Soviet Union have been viewed differently, one view by the communist ideology adopted by the Soviet Union and another by its critics. The Soviet Union was established after a revolution that ended centuries of Tsarist monarchy...
External links
- Video interview with Peter Hitchens produced by Zondervan, the US publisher of The Rage Against God
- http://www.hughhewitt.com/transcripts.aspx?id=2d232d1e-81d1-4b16-b1b9-ccc4fd94265f Text of radio interview between Peter Hitchens and Hugh HewittHugh HewittHugh Hewitt is an American radio talk show host with the Salem Radio Network, lawyer, academic, and author. An outspoken Republican, evangelical Christian, he comments on society, politics, and media bias in the United States. Hewitt is also a law professor at Chapman University School of Law.-...
, discussing The Rage Against God and the decline of Christianity in the West - Peter Hitchens interview in The Catholic Herald about The Rage Against God
- Peter Hitchens appearance on Premier Christian Radio in which he discusses The Rage Against God with Adam Rutherford, an atheist scientific broadcaster and writer - 15 May 2010
- Three extracts, The narcissistic folly of my godless youth; Beauty and terror; and Yahweh for youngsters from The Rage Against God, published by the Canadian National PostNational PostThe National Post is a Canadian English-language national newspaper based in Don Mills, a district of Toronto. The paper is owned by Postmedia Network Inc. and is published Mondays through Saturdays...
in July 2010 - http://ncronline.org/node/19778 Review of The Rage Against God by Diane Scharper in the National Catholic ReporterNational Catholic ReporterThe National Catholic Reporter is the second largest Catholic newspaper in the United States; its circulation reaches ninety-seven countries on six continents. Based in midtown Kansas City, Missouri, NCR was founded by Robert Hoyt in 1964 as an independent newspaper focusing on the Catholic Church...