I'm slowly making my way through this strangely titled (portable isn't the first adjective that comes to mind when looking at this book) tome of atheistic thought throughout the past 2 Millennia. Most of the samplings come from the past few centuries, but it begins with some writings by Lucretius and Omar Khayyam. This book is a delight and a must have for an atheist who wishes to see the progression of atheism over the centuries, as well as some of the most damning polemics against the illogic of faith. Thus far the writings of John Stuart Mill, the beautiful poetry of Omar Khayyam, the humorous look at the fly by Mark Twain, and Leslie Stephens overpowering rebuttal of the concept of Gnosticism are my favorites. If anyone else has read this, please share your thoughts. If you haven't read this, I highly suggest it to both atheists and believers.
The Portable Atheist - Christopher Hitchens
by portcontrol7 15 Replies latest social entertainment
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lisavegas420
Is this book new? I just checked the local library and they have several books by C Hitchens, but not this one.
lisa
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portcontrol7
No Lisa, it's at least a year or two old. It was released not long after "God is Not Great". I've had it for several months, and like I said I'm taking it slow. I'm acquainting myself with each of the authors before tackling the samples, letters, or essays Hitchens included in this volume. It's the most bang for my atheist buck I've found.
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lisavegas420
I put in a request of "God is not Great" and tomorrow I'll call and see if they can locate the "the portable atheirst". sounds very interesting.
Thanks for sharing.
lisa
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aniron
Christopher Hitchens has a brother Peter, who is a very strong committed Christian and has written articles opposing his brothers beliefs.
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jaguarbass
I have the book. I started reading it about a year ago. Then lost interest. Maybe at the time I found it depressing.
I dug it out of my bookshelf at seeing your post. I may or may not read it in the next few months.
I dont believe in the bible, I call myself agnostic. I dont know if I am an atheist.
I think we are part of conciousness.
The big conciousness that some call god he is in like a control center with many monitor screens, attached to each of the screens are units like you and me and dogs and animals and worms and birds all life.
The big conciousness that some call God is experiencing the universe through us.
He's just taking it all in. I dont know if he can do anything about our individual experiences or has any inclination or desire to do so.
I suppose thinking that way could classify me as an atheist.
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Confession
Ha! My daughter just gave me this book last night for Christmas! I've just read the introduction, which (as you indicate) is mucho lengthy--but very enjoyable nonetheless.
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BurnTheShips
The Hitchster's other book,"God is not great" is, in my opinion, not all that good, and certainly not great. I found it to be a poorly written and badly reasoned rehashing of the kinds of arguments made during the Enlightenment period by other individuals with more knowledge and deeper understanding than the Hitchster. He rages against religion without ever actually defining it. He doesn't understand the ancient near Middle East. This is evident in the comments about the OT that he made. He does not understand the grecoroman world and Judaism in the Second Temple period as evidenced by his comments on the NT. He does not critically interact with serious New Testament scholarship. It's a polemic for those that already disbelieve, and not a very good one at that, which is a shame, because I do enjoy many of his articles in Slate.
BTS
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portcontrol7
I'd have to agree to an extent with Burn the Ships regarding God is Not Great, although I found it extremely entertaining. Hitchens is a contrarian. If you want a more precise and cutting polemical essays on religion you'd do better to read the Portable Atheist by far. Particularly fun for me was to notice how so many of the arguments made by some of the leading figures in the "new atheism" are really old arguments that have yet to be refuted by the religious, and they are often more eloquently stated in that compendium.
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hooberus
I'd have to agree to an extent with Burn the Ships regarding God is Not Great, although I found it extremely entertaining. Hitchens is a contrarian. If you want a more precise and cutting polemical essays on religion you'd do better to read the Portable Atheist by far. Particularly fun for me was to notice how so many of the arguments made by some of the leading figures in the "new atheism" are really old arguments that have yet to be refuted by the religious, and they are often more eloquently stated in that compendium.
I'm sorry, but according to the reasoning in the "new atheist" book The God Delusion Christopher Hitchens "almost certainly does not exist".