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THE UNAPPEALING ATHEIST PROPOSITIONOne early medieval story says that humans are like a bird who flies in one window of a great hall where a vast banquet is in progress. The bird only has time to catch a glimpse of all the festivities before it flies out of the other window. That’s us : we rapidly pass from non-existence to non-existence. Is that going to be a message many people want to hear? No. Is that why religion with its vivid promises of afterlife joy (for you, and, hopefully, misery for
Hitchens is one of the wittiest men of our time, and as a great writer, his taste is impeccable.I love reading essays and short pieces, but it becomes a problem when I find collections that I don't particularly like, because I don't want to buy a collection for a single essay.That is not a problem with Hitchens, who combines the fundamental originators of the atheist thought, with the writings of Hume and Spinoza, with the great leaders of the modern atheist movement, including a few essays from...
I would not call myself an atheist, but a some of what is collected in this book rings true to me. However, like most atheist philosophy there is much to be desired. Much of the counter-points favoring the non-existence of god(s) can be boiled down into:1) God does not exist because there is no evidence.2) God does not exist because there is evil in the world.3) God does not exist because bad people have embellished on the myths. 4) God does not exist because there are too many gods both past an...
Christopher Hitchens does not do anything lightly. This is full on conversion therapy, an intellectual ambush on the believers and the doubtful. He presents daunting critical reasoning and analysis written by the best of the classic and modern literary masters (Twain, Updike, Shelly, Hardy, Orwell...); philosphers (Marx, Mills, Russell, Mencken...) and the scientists (Darwin, Dawkin, Einstein, Weinberg...).4.5 stars - despite it's excellence, it was challenging to comprehend, retain and apprecia...
Although I am certainly not an atheist, I enjoyed the book. Liked having a selection of "Atheist" readings with the additional comments of the author, a renowned atheist himself. I gave the book 3 stars because, well, not being an atheist, I found the book lacking on several levels. First, the words the jump to my mind after reading this book are, "holier than thou," "dogmatic," "exclusive," and well, many others that are used by atheists against people of faith. What strikes me as hilarious, no...
Page 363 (my book) St. Augustine“There is another form of temptation, even more fraught with danger. This is the disease of curiosity. It is this which drives us to try and discover the secrets of nature which are beyond our understanding, which can avail us nothing, and which man should not wish to learn.”These 47 essays are chronologically arranged from Lucretius to the 21st century. But over two-thirds of the essays are from 1900 onwards. One does get a history of atheism, and how, even to th...
I was NOT a "non-believer" when I opened this book. I considered myself a believer in the spiritual realm, if not any organized religion. If I had label myself I'd say I was agnostic. By the end of the book I was quite prepared to say that I am an atheist. People make lists of the books that impacted their lives. This one is top of mine. For better or worse!
Technically this is portable. But it's too big to fit in your pocket and too heavy to carry very far.Still, it is a worthwhile compilation of various writers about why they don't believe in god. There is lots of repetition, especially in the earlier selections, so I skimmed over that. But some parts were still interesting. All the names you expect are in here. Carl Sagan and Martin Gardner, who were influential on me, are included. But there are surprising inclusions as well: Omar Khayyam, Georg...
Christopher Hitchens, why so angry? This is an interesting collection of essays, fiction, articles and arguments, compiled by the acidic and immature Hitchens. When Hitchens is NOT speaking, this proves evocative reading. When he is, it's annoying - like listening to a teenage girl on a cell phone on the train fighting with her boyfriend-of-the-week about "I know you are, but what am I? Shut up no you shut up you stupidhead meanyperson."
Lot of insights from the notions of several great thinkers. Irrespective of your views on Atheism, it's essential to read through some of the essays to get a lot better ideas and visions on life. Hitchens was surely a great person with his sheer witty erudite personality. Since my inception on curiously knowing about the world (mostly western, which I was oblivious of) I had found a lot of wonderful, wiser brave persons.Glad this book actually helped me find more. This book contains 47 essays o...
The Portable Atheist: Essential Readings for the Nonbeliever is a collection of essays by various authors who have addressed the topic of atheism and/or agnosticism throughout the years. Although there are a few gems to be found (Hitchen’s introduction, essays by Sigmund Freud and Mark Twain, Salman Rushdie to name a few), most of the articles are pure drudgery written by long-winded philosophers who appear to have been paid by the word (or page). I particularly hated the section from Einst
The late Christopher Hitchens was a tremendous wit and man of letters, as well as an effective political and religious polemicist. This is a collection of some of the greatest Atheistic, or at least skeptical writings, selected and abridged by Hitchens with short introductions to each as well as a longer opening introduction. While that longer essay is a bit of a period piece not up to the standard of most of Hitchens writing, his shorter intros are delightful. His choices range from classical (...
An outstanding collection of essays and extracts from godless and freethinking writers throughout the ages. Amongst the highlights are the pamphlet for which Shelly was thrown out of university and contributions from Bertrand Russell, Mark Twain, Thomas Jefferson and Tom Paine. Some, such as Thomas Hardy and HL Mencken consign gods to the grave of history, while others argue strong cases for a morality that does not rely on the promise of reward or the threat of punishment from a creator. While
This would be more properly titled "The Portable Anti-Religion: Essential Readings for the Angry Atheist". I really despise books and arguments that portend to be atheistic but are really just arguments against religion. When you are arguing to be atheistic, you should start from the assumption of atheism, instead of spending a whole volume arguing against it. This book clearly wasn't written for the "non-believer" because it spends the entire span of the book arguing against religion and trying...
Another excellent tour de force through time and thought. Hitchens assembled the best of the best for this anthology, including short works entire and fine excerpts from longer. Really couldn't be better.As with any multi-author anthology, individual entries vary in quality, tone, usefulness, and effectiveness. Some are too angry to be helpful; others are too doubtful to be definite. In striving to be thorough, Hitchens may have pitched a wider tent than the title promises (thank goodness for su...
This compendium will last a while, but dipping in here and there seems the best approach. There are some interesting essays from the early part of the last century that were important in convincing my father to get over believing in god(s).I wasn't planning on buying the book, but just happened to be browsing it at Powell's when my friend Chris Faatz, one of our great free-range intellectuals (and a Buddhist), stopped to say hello. He knew the book and pointed several essays that recommends. I w...