This is interesting – Peter Hitchens, who unlike his brother Christopher, is religious, conservative, and opposed the war in Iraq – reviews the latter’s God Is Not Great.
"Man is but a reed, the most feeble thing in nature, but he is a thinking reed" – Blaise Pascal
5 responses to “Sibling rivalry”
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Very nice! His review is cool and even admiring, and he waits until the end to state a quite harsh criticism that rings of Dostoevsky.
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He seems to just fling about a bunch of misconceptions about atheism. Rather forgettable.
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I particularly like the bit where Peter blames atheism for his brother’s cheerleading on Iraq. (Conversely, I’ve seen Christopher admit to being annoyed by the fact that American religious conservatives are his staunchest allies in his crusade against all things Muslim.) It amuses me.
But it’s worth pointing out, I think, that Peter is essentially speaking as a sort of agnostic. He does see both value and plausibility in Christianity. So Peter winds up deploying agnosticism against Christopher’s dogmatism.
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Joe, at the risk of being ignorant, what are some of the specific “misconceptions” about atheism that are flung about and why are they misconceptions?
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Well I am at a disadvantage for having not read the book. Who knows what silly things may have been written in it. I am not a fan of the “religion causes wars, torture, and everything bad” camp. I think it is bunk. Here are some of my thoughts though.
“I like atheists and enjoy their company, because they agree with me that religion is important.”
Most atheists don’t think much about religion at all.“One is a declaration of absolute faith, faith that religion has got it wrong, a mental thunderbolt of unbelief.”
Not believing in god requires no faith. Quite the opposite.“What is the mystery, if all is explained by science, the telescope and the microscope?”
Neither scientists, nor atheists, claim to everything explained. It is the antithesis of the scientific method to think that one has everything explained.“He even refers to “conscience” and makes frequent thunderous denunciations of various evil actions.”
Atheists are not amoral or immoral.“Where is his certain knowledge of what is right and wrong supposed to have come from?”
If this was relevant I would hope it was covered in the book, but a sense from right or wrong does not come from god or religious teachings.“Two pages later, speaking for atheists in general, he announces: “Our belief is not a belief.”
To which one can only reply: “Really? And that thing in the middle of your face. I suppose that’s not a nose, either?” ”
In truth atheism isn’t a belief, it is the lack of a belief.“Christopher is not tentative about his view on God. He describes himself as an “anti-theist””
That’s unfortunate, I think Christopher and I would disagree on a lot.“Yet Christopher repeatedly asserts that believers “claim to know”, not just to know, but to know everything. This simply is not true. Nor do we take the Bible literally.”
Of course this is disingenuous, because many believers do take the bible literally and do think they know all there is they need to. It is a minority of believers, however, and I have no way of knowing how Christopher represented them in the book.Anyway, I didn’t read much beyond that. This sounds like a very personal struggle between two brothers that I didn’t need to know the details of. It seems sad that their relationship has come to this.
A Thinking Reed 
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