God Is Not Great
Páginas: 293 (73245 palabras)
Publicado: 28 de diciembre de 2012
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also by Christopher Hitchens
BOOKS
Hostage to History: Cyprus from the Ottomans to Kissinger Blood, Class and Nostalgia: Anglo-American Ironies Imperial Spoils: The Curious Case of'the Elgin Marbles Why Orwell Matters No One Left to Lie To: The Triangulations ofWilliam Jefferson Clinton Letters to a Young Contrarian The Trial of Henry Kissinger Thomas Jefferson: Author of America Thomas Fame's "Rights of Man": A Biography PAMPHLETS K-ari Marx and the Paris Commune The Monarchy: A Critique of Britain's Favorite Fetish The Missionary Position: Mother Teresa in Theory and Practice A Long Short War: The Postponed Liberation of Iraq COLLECTED ESSAYS Preparedfor the Worst: Essays and Minority Reports For the Sake of Argument Unacknowledged Legislation: Writers in the Public Sphere Love, Poverty and War; Journeys and Essays COLLABORATIONS James Callaghan: The Road to Number Ten (with Peter Kellner) Blaming the Victims (edited with Edward Said) When the Borders Bleed: The Struggle of the Kurds (photographs by Ed Kashi) International Territory: The UnitedNations (photographs by Adam Bartos)
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Contents
One Two Three Putting It Mildly Religion Kills A Short Digression on the Pig;
or, Why Heaven Hates Ham Four A Note on Health,
to Which Religion Can Be Hazardous Five Six Seven The Metaphysical Claims of Religion Are False Arguments from Design Revelation:
The Nightmare of the "Old"Testament Eight The "New" Testament Exceeds the Evil of the "Old" One Nine The Koran Is Borrowed from Both Jewish and Christian Myths Ten The Tawdriness of the Miraculous and the Decline of Hell Eleven "The Lowly Stamp of Their Origin":
Religion's Corrupt Beginnings Twelve A Coda: How Religions End Thirteen Does Religion Make People Behave Better? Fourteen There Is No "Eastern" Solution FifteenReligion as an Original Sin
Sixteen Is Religion Child Abuse ? Seventeen An Objection Anticipated: The Last-Ditch "Case" Against Secularism Eighteen A Finer Tradition: The Resistance of the Rational Nineteen In Conclusion: The Need for a New Enlightenment
Acknowledgments References Index
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Oh, wearisome condition of humanity, Born under one law, to anotherbound; Vainly begot, and yet forbidden vanity, Created sick, commanded to be sound. —FULKE GREVILLE, Mustapha And do you think that unto such as you A maggot-minded, starved, fanatic crew God gave a secret, and denied it me? Well, well—what matters it? Believe that, too!
—THE RUBAIYAT OF OMAR KHAYYAM (RICHARD LE GALLIENNE TRANSLATION)
Peacefully they will die, peacefully they will expire in yourname, and beyond the grave they will find only death. But we will keep the secret, and for their own happiness we will entice them with a heavenly and eternal reward. —THE GRAND INQUISITOR TO HIS "SAVIOR" in THE BROTHERS KARAMAZOV
Chapter One
Putting It Mildly
If the intended reader of this book should want to go beyond disagreement with its author and try to identify the sins anddeformities that animated him to write it (and I have certainly noticed that those who publicly affirm charity and compassion and forgiveness are often inclined to take this course), then he or she will not just be quarreling with the unknowable and ineffable creator who—presumably—opted to make me this way. They will be defiling the memory of a good, sincere, simple woman, of stable and decent faith, namedMrs. Jean Watts. It was Mrs. Watts's task, when I was a boy of about nine and attending a school on the edge of Dartmoor, in southwestern England, to instruct me in lessons about nature, and also about scripture. She would take me and my fellows on walks, in an especially lovely part of my beautiful country of birth, and teach us to tell the different birds, trees, and plants from one another....
also by Christopher Hitchens
BOOKS
Hostage to History: Cyprus from the Ottomans to Kissinger Blood, Class and Nostalgia: Anglo-American Ironies Imperial Spoils: The Curious Case of'the Elgin Marbles Why Orwell Matters No One Left to Lie To: The Triangulations ofWilliam Jefferson Clinton Letters to a Young Contrarian The Trial of Henry Kissinger Thomas Jefferson: Author of America Thomas Fame's "Rights of Man": A Biography PAMPHLETS K-ari Marx and the Paris Commune The Monarchy: A Critique of Britain's Favorite Fetish The Missionary Position: Mother Teresa in Theory and Practice A Long Short War: The Postponed Liberation of Iraq COLLECTED ESSAYS Preparedfor the Worst: Essays and Minority Reports For the Sake of Argument Unacknowledged Legislation: Writers in the Public Sphere Love, Poverty and War; Journeys and Essays COLLABORATIONS James Callaghan: The Road to Number Ten (with Peter Kellner) Blaming the Victims (edited with Edward Said) When the Borders Bleed: The Struggle of the Kurds (photographs by Ed Kashi) International Territory: The UnitedNations (photographs by Adam Bartos)
god is not Great007.jpg ¨ god is not Great008.jpg ¨
Contents
One Two Three Putting It Mildly Religion Kills A Short Digression on the Pig;
or, Why Heaven Hates Ham Four A Note on Health,
to Which Religion Can Be Hazardous Five Six Seven The Metaphysical Claims of Religion Are False Arguments from Design Revelation:
The Nightmare of the "Old"Testament Eight The "New" Testament Exceeds the Evil of the "Old" One Nine The Koran Is Borrowed from Both Jewish and Christian Myths Ten The Tawdriness of the Miraculous and the Decline of Hell Eleven "The Lowly Stamp of Their Origin":
Religion's Corrupt Beginnings Twelve A Coda: How Religions End Thirteen Does Religion Make People Behave Better? Fourteen There Is No "Eastern" Solution FifteenReligion as an Original Sin
Sixteen Is Religion Child Abuse ? Seventeen An Objection Anticipated: The Last-Ditch "Case" Against Secularism Eighteen A Finer Tradition: The Resistance of the Rational Nineteen In Conclusion: The Need for a New Enlightenment
Acknowledgments References Index
god is not Great011.jpg ¨
Oh, wearisome condition of humanity, Born under one law, to anotherbound; Vainly begot, and yet forbidden vanity, Created sick, commanded to be sound. —FULKE GREVILLE, Mustapha And do you think that unto such as you A maggot-minded, starved, fanatic crew God gave a secret, and denied it me? Well, well—what matters it? Believe that, too!
—THE RUBAIYAT OF OMAR KHAYYAM (RICHARD LE GALLIENNE TRANSLATION)
Peacefully they will die, peacefully they will expire in yourname, and beyond the grave they will find only death. But we will keep the secret, and for their own happiness we will entice them with a heavenly and eternal reward. —THE GRAND INQUISITOR TO HIS "SAVIOR" in THE BROTHERS KARAMAZOV
Chapter One
Putting It Mildly
If the intended reader of this book should want to go beyond disagreement with its author and try to identify the sins anddeformities that animated him to write it (and I have certainly noticed that those who publicly affirm charity and compassion and forgiveness are often inclined to take this course), then he or she will not just be quarreling with the unknowable and ineffable creator who—presumably—opted to make me this way. They will be defiling the memory of a good, sincere, simple woman, of stable and decent faith, namedMrs. Jean Watts. It was Mrs. Watts's task, when I was a boy of about nine and attending a school on the edge of Dartmoor, in southwestern England, to instruct me in lessons about nature, and also about scripture. She would take me and my fellows on walks, in an especially lovely part of my beautiful country of birth, and teach us to tell the different birds, trees, and plants from one another....
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