Review: god is not Great; How Religion Poisons Everything

god is not Great; How Religion Poisons Everything. By Christopher Hitchens. New York: Twelve Books, Hachette Book Group, 2007. 307 pp.

We begin this week of book reviews with a shameless plug. If you have visited the blog before, perhaps you have noticed in the upper left a link to an article I wrote on this book.
About a year ago I wrote a brief review for a Christian journalism class. It was published as an online article for "Kindred Spirit" magazine, a publication of Dallas Theological Seminary, in November 2008.

Check out the article here.

I included this book in a blog posting because I still feel it presents relevant opportunities for dialogue both with the Church and between the Church and its opponents. It is currently listed as #98 on list of best selling books on religion and spirituality by Amazon.com.

Hopefully you find the article a different take on modern atheism than what you will see from most Christian authors. Very often when atheists speak we as Christians tend to cover our ears and yell "La la la! I'm not listening!" That description is admittedly somewhat childish yet childish seems to be a good word to me that portrays Christianity's response to its critics. Don't misunderstand me, I am in no way advocating that everything coming from the mouth of modern atheism should be given credence. I often find both their philosophical and scientific arguments lacking (not to say that I have better ones, because my hope is built on faith and not rationalistic proofs, but I digress... a topic for another time). So we cannot take seriously the comments of those outside the faith in regards to Christian doctrine. But one point cannot be ignored: their comments in regards to Christian practice.

Give the article a read and let me know what you think.