God is not Great by Christopher Hitchens

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paigetheoracle
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God is not Great by Christopher Hitchens

Post by paigetheoracle »

In his seminal book, God is Not Great, Christopher Hitchens may have missed the point that the sins of the fathers being passed onto successive generations, is true of psychological and physical abuse as with Fred and Rose West, plus venereal disease but original sin cannot be placed in this category of course because there is no precursor.

I am also surprised there is no mention of ‘licence’ in the Old Testament chapter or ‘The God given right’ to do things or take things from others, including their lives. Plants spread their progeny, through seeding future generations around them but animals are not trapped in one place, moving around as they will. Only the land cannot move, so owns itself and the rest is just legalised lies as the American Indians can attest but not monotheistic religions or monarchies. This is the justification of physical acts by calling on an external authority rather than through internal self-belief. As one Indian chief put it, while pouring sand out of his hands “There are as many ways to cheat the Indian.”

The Old Testament is a rant on victory or loss, failure or success – jealousy as curses on those who have bettered the followers of Jehovah. This is the bipolar reality we see around us in all belief systems. This also explains the special dispensations and papal indulgences of the past, given to followers of the faith. Over time the rules have changed, to let in outsiders as numbers of the faithful declined and also to encourage the fallen back into the fold (Clubism).

History shows that we have always had reasonable men who promote the same, sane viewpoint through the years and those with strange ideas, unrelated to the real world and it is this latter group who always persecute the former. How many great men and great works have been destroyed by those willing to suppress more sensible, more cosmopolitan ways of life, by the fear ridden? Consider books hidden in the Papal Library or the Nazi’s book burning. Think also of ISIS in recent times, destroying ancient monuments for the same reason. To me, we make God (good) in our unity and the devil (evil) through our disunity: my definition of good and evil is, does it destroy or create (preservation is neutral)? It is not dependent upon outside authority but internal conscience and consciousness. To claim God or the Devil made you do something is to deny responsibility for your own acts.

The author also asks why does nature waste so many seeds in spreading a species? In this respect I believe it is hit and miss / testing the waters /exploring possibilities (barren / fertile? Rivals for possession?). In this way the spread of beliefs is like the spread of plants. He also fails to mention that everything living feeds on everything else (predation, whether by carnivores, herbivores or plants devouring minerals).

I would agree with what he says about communists and rebels against the ‘stable’ leadership, being seen as insane – why punish yourself by bucking the system? We think things are crazy, when we don’t understand them and sane when we do, by the way. Belief, whether political or religious, is the problem as it creates hierarchies (us and them / superior and inferior positions in society). It also leads to force (it must work!) because it is based upon fixed ideas and not disbelief (doubt) which allows us to explore other possibilities (what does work?).

Let he, who is without sin, cast the first stone is something else he seems to interpret differently from me. I see it as meaning only a hypocrite can judge someone else harshly.

Muhammad and St. Paul both seem to have been migraine sufferers from the description given. Anthony Peake and others have pointed out the connection between mystical events surrounding people suffering from this condition and also Temporal Lobe Epilepsy sufferers.

In a later chapter he mentions cargo cults and imitation lunacy, hoping to attract back the gods of the sea and sky. Could this not also explain other insane beliefs, where more advanced civilisations have visited less advanced ones as for instance The Aztecs and their blood sacrifices, possibly being misunderstood heart surgery? As for religion telling ordinary people fairy stories – well isn’t that what all parents tell their children, to try to entice them into the adult world as good and willing citizens?
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