Product Description

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #534 in Books
• Published on: 2007-11-05
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 528 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Hitchens, an avowed atheist and author of the bestseller God Is Not Great, is a formidable intellectual who finds the notion of belief in God to be utter nonsense. The author is clear in his introduction that religion has caused more than its fair share of world problems. "Religion invents a problem where none exists by describing the wicked as also made in the image of god and the sexually nonconformist as existing in a state of incurable mortal sin that can incidentally cause floods and earthquakes." The readings Hitchens chooses to bolster his atheist argument are indeed engaging and important. Hobbes, Spinoza, Mill and Marx are some of the heavyweights representing a philosophical viewpoint. From the world of literature the author assembles excerpts from Shelley, Twain, Conrad, Orwell and Updike. All are enjoyable to read and will make even religious believers envious of the talent gathered for this anthology. What these dynamic writers are railing against often enough, however, is a strawman: an immature, fundamentalist, outdated, and even embarrassing style of religion that many intelligent believers have long since cast off. It could be that Hitchens and his cast of nonbelievers are preaching to the choir and their message is tired and spent. However, this remains a fascinating collection of readings from some of the West’s greatest thinkers.

From AudioFile
In books such as GOD IS NOT GREAT, the militant anti-religionist Hitchins bangs his drum so loudly that he gives even us fellow atheists a headache. Here, happily, he has compiled an extensive and thought-provoking anthology of skeptical literature, modern and ancient, from the likes of Lucretius, Omar Khayyˆ°m, Spinoza, Hume, Darwin, Mark Twain, Marx, and Rushdie, to name a few. He begins with an overlong introduction, rehearsing his own complaints against organized religion and faith, then proceeds more succinctly to introduce each selection. Narrator Nicholas Ball gives an Apollonian reading in a mellifluous, resonant baritone. His mannerisms, though pretty, often obscure meaning. He delivers the words accurately and obeys the punctuation without expressing the relationship of the thoughts expressed with one another, or even making the individual thoughts coherent. Y.R. 128/130 © AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

Review
"Those objections and the writings Hitchens assembles to buttress them will surely bring on new controversies, which is just the sort of thing on which he has thrived over a long and fruitful career."—Kirkus

"My prayers are answered!"—The New York Observer

"A fascinating collection of articles that just say no to religion…Required reading for anyone who believes, disbelieves, or just isn’t sure yet."—People, "Critic's Choice"

"Hitchens has returned to the Belief Wars backed by a full army…the Godless Warrior marshals in an Atheist A-Team…to buttress his own arguments…Hitchens is the guide as well as the commentartor linking it all together."—San Diego Tribune

"Contrarian Christopher Hitchens' The Portable Atheist: Essential Readings for the Nonbeliever should be sufficient fodder for anyone uncomfortable with the notion of a creator."—Hartford Courant

Customer Reviews

Dear Autumn
The idea that the total public scientific datum is prone to crystallization within the mindstream of a functional interpreter as honest belief in the irreality of the supernatural is the memetic fallacy (the wack wrapper, antimoreality, unfactual selection, true malefiction, neophobe's fun and exciting new crush, I'm>sick manoeuvre, missed-leading heathen's fiendingest lebensphenomenologie, intentional deficit, intelligence failure, for them: somehow too-ready being-un-ready-to-hand, vainglorious needs' IV, Janjaweed dro, waterless fountain, rotten apple that should have been left behind, stipend of bad-faith, willed Nyeism, nihlargesse, "I didn't", ethanol ... the devolutionary gnome's playhouse and favoured hiding spot of Earth's most vulgar and detestable confabulists) par excellence.

Thank You Mr. Hitchens
While I believe no philosophical idea or scientific explanation can ever put to rest the idea of god, let alone the possibility, The Portable Atheist is a brilliant collection of examples in which people have used the idea of god through religion to intimidate, persecute, enslave and murder millions of people for thousands of years. This book also exemplifies the civilized and promising nature of scientific enquiry in the writings of men including Carl Sagan and Albert Einstein. What I think books like this one do best is to demonstrate how obscenely religion weakens the human spirit and destroys education, but most importantly I think it gives atheists and agnostics a voice, a way and a reason to stand up to insane thoughts and assures the nonbeliever, someone like me, that I am not alone in this world. So I thank you Christopher Hitchens and everyone else who contributed to this book for assuring me that I am indeed not alone.

Of Course, There is no god! How stupid can you be?
Monsieur Christopher Hitchens has performed a necessary intellectual work of mercy. Once humankind desists from its vulgar notion of deity, it can begin the tiresome duties of keeping as much of us as possible alive.

Since we are competently trained in ancient Semitic and Ind-European languages and theoretical mathematics, we twin brothers know who has been doing the heavy lifting of keeping humanity alive and prosperous. It certainly is not the dolts in political, religious or military systems (they who live off the backs of the common people).

Mr. Hitchens has given us fresh fruit from the tree of 'real' knowledge to advance the survivability of our species. Professor Dawkins and to-be Dr. Sam Harris (neuro-science technical background) have enriched the soil of these trees in the enclosed orchard of learning.

If we presently do not get beyond this vulgar Bronze Age duplicity of rulership and priestcraft, we will be doomed to extinction as a species in our niche biosphere, or filmy skin of Earth!

The fools in religion merely have to adduce one rare, slender piece of evidence for the existence of deity. Perchance, our archeologists will find the finger of Yahweh on Mt. Sinai who impertinently gave us the incompetent Ten Commandments (Do not read in Egyptian Hieroglyphics the Book of the Dead for the 'real' 42 commandments---from whence the Hebrews shamefully and slavishly stole!) to bolster their puny claims.

Right ideas for the right time!


Respectfully,


John E.D.P. Malin,
Chairman of the Board & Chief Executive Officer
James F.D.P. Malin,
Vice Chairman of the Board & Chief Research & Development Officer
Informatica Corporation [A.D. 1984-2008]
Executive Division
P.O. Drawer 460
Cecilia, Louisiana 70521-0460

"Fathers of the Silicon Bayou"

Contact Information: InformaticaMalin@gmail.com

P.S. Master the higher mathematics of Algebraic Geometry, it is the genuine and authentic language of global human survival; presently, it is the mathematics adduced by our structured and unstructured data systems running our economic business structures or organizations.

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