And the GING rolled on... slowly...

The more read of Hitchen's God Is Not Great, the closer I come to understanding what it must have been like to be Martin Luther.

Who is said to have suffered from agonizing and prolonged constipation throughout his life.

I have little to say about his attack on Islam (Chpt. 9). It is interesting that, despite the ostensible focus of his ire, he still finds plenty of ways to attack Christianity in this chapter. I must also say that I've never witnessed someone go to such lengths to kiss the backside of a faith, as Hitchens does to Islam, before proceeding to tear it a new one. One wonders why such an exclusive honor is reserved for this particular system, and why Hitchens offers no such charity toward the others. (Could it have something to do with the dearth of beheadings at the hands of disgruntled Christian, et al, "extremists?")

Moving on to his next chapter, on miracles and hell... This was just too good to let pass:

Page 150: "The 'argument from authority' is the weakest of all arguments."
Page 151: "...the sciences of textual criticism, archeology, physics and molecular biology have all shown religious myths to be false."

This chapter relies on a strange "miracle" involving Mother Teresa, a few more potshots at NT accounts, and the stupid, regrettable remarks of Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell regarding 9/11 to "prove" that miracles don't exist. You might say Hitchens is appealing to "non-authority."

Let me share an account of an event that was witnessed and confirmed to me by at least two people who I know personally and in whom I have infinitely more reasons to trust than Mr. Hitchens. Years ago, a group from a church I used to attend went on a missions trip to a country in Africa. One night, at a church meeting, one of the men on that trip, a man whom I know, felt like God was moving him to pray for the physical ailments of the people at that meeting. Well, one thing led to another and before long a number of people (I forget if it was scores or literally hundreds) were lined up waiting to receive prayer for this man.

Every. Single. One of them. Was. Healed.

I'll address his next three chapters, about how religions start, end, and whether they are necessary for moral behavior, in the next post (on this book).