God Is Not Great - Christopher Hitchens

Oh I do love The Hitch. He's a journalist that has all of my favourite qualities: fiercely intelligent and well-read, provocatively funny, a believer in Enlightenment values and usually pissed by lunchtime. He's pro-Iraq war and anti-abortion, but that would just make a session at the pub with him all the more entertaining. If you don't know him, just do a Google search, there's heaps of good stuff out there.

As for this book, the subtitle tells you most of what you need to know: How Religion Poisons Everything. It is an exuberant broadside against religious belief both in the general and in the particular. I am persuaded by most of his arguments, even if in my case he is (ahem) preaching to the converted, although he occasionally strays into shaky territory in his passion. For example, to deny that Martin Luther King Jr was largely motivated by faith is pushing it a bit - people can do the right thing for the wrong reason. The book sometimes lacks focus, probably because Hitchens is so knowledgeable and he wants to cram so many ideas into so little space.

Overall, though, I thought that this book was uproarious, offensive and insightful. In other words it's a blast.