BOOK REVIEW OF god is not Great

Early this morning I finished Christopher Hitchens' book, god is not Great. The 283 page volume is a robust diatribe against religion of every sort. Hitchens is smart as a whip and his research is admirably extensive. And, it is extremely and bullishly biased. His heart and mind are clearly set on annihilating any valid support for religion; regardless of brand or slant. He wants it out o' here!

In his brilliance, he totally missed an important truth in two basic areas:

• God, too, is against religion. God did not call man to religion. He called him to life. There is a big difference. Religion neither equates nor represents God; regardless of how animated it surely tries. One is invented by moody and notional man. The other is the Eternal Creator who will not submit to man-court, man-trial, or man-judgment.
• He had no arguments against God. He attacked all believers and our stupidity. He has a valid burr which anyone serious about spirituality would agree. But, he expressed no point to diminish God. He took it all out on God for followers of any religion being so blatantly blind and inconsistent.

There is no doubt, Hitchens is well-versed in anti-religious viewpoints; yet, his book is frankly mis-titled. It should appropriately read, believers are not Great. He is widely traveled and deeply informed. While I envy his education coupled with experiential connections/observations to many religions, I fault his clear arrogance to use God as a whipping post when God never called man to be religious. In his staministic detesting of religious hypocrites, Hitchens simply fell for an age old trap in which all of we blind fellows fall; human intelligence lures us to believe ourselves as gods if we would only smart up.

God Is Great. His seekers and followers and ambassadors are full of obvious and worthy criticism. Hitchens is right to point out flaw after flaw after erroneous flaw. But he simply missed the mark when he blamed God. His intelligence, once again, betrayed him and revealed him to be a fool along with the rest of us.

The book reveals documentation proving religious leaders to be worse than I had imagined. The writings are most informative. But as hard as he tried, Hitchens did not dent in the slightest the validity of the Living God. He gave it his best shot......and missed.