"God is not Great"?

Question

I'v read God is not great and I want to know what you guys think about it. There is so many great points in it how can people counter some of his statements?

Ok for all that didn't read the book...He isn't talking about your god. He is talking about all gods. He talks about how there are so many gods out there that there is no way of knowing that yours is true and right.

Answer 1

The following is my response to the same question you posted after this one:

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I concur with you that Christopher Hitchens book “God is Not Great” certainly is a superb book. He has such a witty writing style, that I am astonished by how easily and effortless he makes disproving religious claims to be. One usually expects books of this sort to be mired in esoteric rhetoric, and complex logical exercises. Normally books that approach the subject of God, from either a philosophical, social, or political aspect, generally sound quite academic, and therefore turn off the average reader. It’s a testament to Hitchens brilliance as a wordsmith, that he avoids this pitfall entirely, and instead has created a treatise that is at once trenchant and yet entertaining as well.

As far as coming up with counterpoints to Hitchens’ assertions, that would be pretty hard. Most of the rhetoric that I have seen religious people use against the arguments of men like Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, and Sam Harris, are pretty flimsy, and easily refutable.

I think the only shortcoming in Hitchens’ book, that maybe religious people can exploit, is that he doesn’t sufficiently address the fundamental philosophical flaw in the design argument, and instead concentrates on how evolution truly refutes the notion that God designed the universe. Here, the religious apologist, who isn’t a diehard creationist, can find a sort of argumentative recourse in the popular moderate religious notion that credits God with being he prime mover in the evolutionary process.

Outside of that, the other point of attack that I think a religious person can utilize against Hitchens’ “God is not Great” is enumerating the counterpoint of how religion has had a positive impact on society. Of course, the religious person must address Hitchens’ fundamental challenge, which lies at the heart of this book, and his lectures that he has had across the country about his book. That challenge is this (paraphrased): “Show me a positive act that has been committed by a religious person or group, which could not have been performed by someone who did not believe in God. In other words show me why the only reason a person would perform a good deed is because he or she had a belief in God”.

Again, I think both of these possible approaches, to attacking Hitchens, are facile and can be addressed easily, by amateurs and with devastating efficiency, by Hitchens himself. However, since you asked for the two points of rebuttal that religious people could have to Hitchens book, in my mind these two areas, concerning the gap left for God by Hitchens’ take on evolution, and the positive effects of religious influence, are the best that I can come up with.

Answer 2

Bhagavad Gita 10.8: "I am the source of all spiritual and material worlds. Everything emanates from Me. The wise who know this perfectly engage in My devotional service and worship Me with all their hearts."

Bhagavad Gita 10.12: "Arjuna said: You are the Supreme Brahman, the ultimate, the supreme abode and purifier, the Absolute Truth and the eternal divine person. You are the primal God, transcendental and original, and You are the unborn and all-pervading beauty."

The wrathful God of the Old Testament is atually a demigod, known in India as Indra, known in the west as Jehovah. God, the supreme, highest entity, is beauty, love, intelligence, strength, opulence, etc. to an infinite degree, personified. You can't get greater than that.

Answer 3

There is no God, so therefore not great. Anyone who says so, then where is he? He seems to be lost somewhere else and not looking after his children and seeing them hurt, etc. Or maybe he is just pure evil and doing all of the natural disasters that have killed hundreds of thousands world wide, since he is all powerful and controls everything. And if he did not then he is not all powerful and therefore great. Actually logic can tell you God can not exist.

Answer 4

Which God?

Answer 5

he s a gooooooooooooog and 2222222222222 great God

Answer 6

I don't care either way, however I make it a point to capitalize Gods but not god unless referring to a specific god just to annoy arrogant fundies who think only they have the answers.

Answer 7

I haven't read it. However I do love Hitchen's morality challenge... to paraphrase, "Name a Moral Action an Atheist Couldn’t Perform"

Answer 8

I've not read the material, pardon my ignorance, but my God is a great and terrible God. Anyone who thinks otherwise is looking at things through a human's point of view... a human is an imperfect sinner with a warped perseption

Answer 9

Honestly, I have not met God so I have no freaking Idea. Has he ever told us "hey! I made the Universe, i made you! so bless u"? It is the people that tells us all this crap and I cannot take their exagerations anymore, I worship God and not the mouths of these people.

Answer 10

I think GOD IS GREAT!