Customer Reviews
Very readable, gentle and encouraging - By: John Hardy, 31 Aug 2010 
I'm about the same age as the author, so can very much relate to the lost world he describes. He writes wellin any easy readable style. This isn't a high flown philosophical treatise, to be valued mainly for its powerful arguments. On the other hand it does give some insight into the motivations of the militant atheists whose anger & intolerance so mystify those who disagree with them.
I liked the epilogue best where the author describes the beginnings of a restored relationship with his brother despite their great differences
rubbish - By: barry, 17 Aug 2010 
This book is a waste of money & time.The author is not happy that his brother is a far better writer than he is.His brother is also more rational!
A little disappointing, and not really an argument - By: A. Bittan, 05 Aug 2010 
I read this book as one journeying like Mr Hitchens from Atheism toward (Anglican) Christianity, & I was disappointed he did not write more on this. In general I agree that Dawkins & Hitchens major are wrong. In particular, I find the arguments here weak, & I am always suspicious of anyone who puts the word "science"in quotation marks where it is not gramatically appropriate (it was just then, when I did it!).
So, I found much to both agree & disagree with here. A few examples of where I disagree. I was honestly bored by the first part of the book. Very readablein style, but it just seemed to me that Mr Hitchens bitterly regrets his youthful rejection of the church, & was saddened on his return to it as a changed entity. His views here seem parochial, elitist, & not without snobbery. If he genuinely believes that the Church is the only remaining bulwark against the abuses of the powerful (and it so happens I agree with him, it is), then to be effectivein this role the church needs to grow & to widen its appeal; not remain some elitist club of the upper middle class, muttering the BCPin empty churches. And I have come to enjoy the BCP, despite a lower middle class & Roman Catholic upbringing which fails to recognise the Church or the England whose loss Hitchens bemoans. This section of the book comes across as mawkish & embittered whingeing.
I continue to believe that atheism doesn'tin itself lead to any of the iniquities Hitchens speaks of; there is a sense that he is caricaturing here. The landscape of belief is much more complicated than you might suppose from reading this, & it includes people I would categorise as "practical atheists", who would put C of E on their census forms, yet rarely think about Christianity at all, never go to church, live decent lives, & get includedin the "71% Christian" population statistics the the Church always crows about while attracting a fraction of that to worship.
On the subject of the religious instruction of children as child abuse, I think the comparison is too strong, speaking as someone who spent much of his childhood terrified by adults telling him he would burnin hell for the slightest wrongdoing. I think the church gets it's instruction wrong anyway - I've had to relearn Christianity as an adult & constantly wonder "why didn't they explain this properly when I was a child?" - perhaps I would not have understood it, but I came to reject something that was a caricature of Christianity - & Christianity itself was entirely to blame.
There are numerous other areas of the particular where I disagree with Hitchens - it would be tiresome to list them all - but I agree with his conclusions about the "new atheism", & just wish he had written more about what had led him down this path.
Thoughtful, rueful, explains a lot - By: Dr. Nicholas P. G. Davies, 22 Jul 2010 This is a decent book. Peter Hitchens uses his own life experience to help explain why a "rage against God" has arisen. He describes his own journey through school religion to teenage scepticism to atheism to his eventual rediscovery of faith.
He has had an interesting life,in particular with his past Marxism, & his direct observations of the effects of the atheist creed of communismin actionin the Soviet Union.
He shows well the untoward consequences of a purely materialistic view of the world & our place within it. He provides good arguments for moving back towards faith.
He writes gently but firmly, & with clear descriptions of facts, & of the conclusions he draws from them.
This new book I think shows a gentler side of Peter Hitchens, & exemplifies the power of repentance- the act of thinking again about an issue. Hitchens does not claim to be an angel, but I thinkin this reflective book he shows how he has learnt from his experiences. He presents his experiences & argumentsin a helpful way that we can learn form.
I recommend this book to other readers.
Awareness and Knowledge - By: aussie mark, 09 Jul 2010 
Hitchens has written a thought-provoking, powerful critique of the modern declinein ethicsin Western society. He bases his argument on a similar ground as foundin his book 'The Cameron Delusion' which explores the idea from more of a political persepctive. In this book, he examines the subject from more of a religious perspective. However, his central tenet remains that 'our society' isin danger of decending into a valueless morass because of the erosion of the traditional bulwarks that built up our societyin the first place -in this case the Christian faith & the churches which represent it. As we turn away from Christian values we are replacing them with the Cult of the Self. The removal of the absolute values proscribed by religion & "its necessary ally death" & replacing them with comparative values built around human desires, inevitably leads to an unattractive expediencyin setting any decisions. Hitchens argues cogently from his experiencesin the Soviet Union as to how destructive of personal happiness & freedoms our society risks becoming by removing any sense of loyalty to a higher Being. Allegiance to God & a Faith makes it difficult for a despot to control an individual's behaviour. As he neatly frames it, if a despot can go to Hell from a North Korean palace & an imprisoned dissident can go to Heaven from a North Korean torture chamber, then it is difficult for the despot to eliminate all the dissidents.
Much of Hitchens book is setin his home UK environment, but is largely applicable to other similar societies, such as Australia or the USA. He frequently uses his more famous atheist brother as a starting-point & at times the book becomes more of a memoir than argument, which makes for a more enjoyable balance for the reader. But writing-style aside, the reason I rate this book highly is because of its appeal to reason, its standing-up to the modern evil of 'conventional wisdom' where citizensin 'free' democracies are increasingly discouraged from analytical thought anymore. Hitchens blamesin this the rise of the 'Left' into the mainstream. By this term, he refers to the centralists, the socialists, the political correctionists & control freaks who have grown up from the social revolution from the 1960s onwards, largely overthrown the old values & replaced themin the palace. Hitchens raises the dilemma that if the revolutionaries now occupy the palace & become the 'conventional wisdom', then who stands against them - ie who are the revolutionaries against the revolutionaries ? He identifies the similaritiesin the failed Soviet Union & its micromanagement of its citizens to the point of despair, with the modern trend for intolerance of 'conventional wisdom'in Britain. This book therefore makes a good companion piece to his 'The Cameron Delusion'.
Some books create an awful feeling that it is impossible to justify the hours of one's life spent reading them, given their poor execution or ideas. Hitchens's book succeeds bothin being well-written & also containing a refreshing challenge to 'conventional wisdom'in its call for people to stop swallowing pints fo reality TV & start thinking about what is happening, being analytical rather than gullible. It is an irony that Hitchens reinforces throughout his book - much of the criticism of Christianity centres around its failure to provoke questioning & analysis, but the 'conventional wisdom' which seeks to replace it is, if anything, even less tolerant than Christianityin permitting dissent or opposing positions. If you wish to be jolted out of your current soma-drenched, electronic-stimulated lethargy, I thoroughly recommend this book.
