“The Rage Against God” by Peter Hitchens, a review

The Rage Against God: How Atheism Led Me to Faith (Zondervan 2010), is a highly interesting and informative read that is often beautifully written.  I found this book very refreshing to read, in fact, compared to many American (Hitchens is British) Christian books that tend to banality.  The author, a journalist with a great deal of experience in what he writes of, puts real life into this book.  The only reason I gave the book four stars instead of five is that it lacked – at least in my view – explanation in some areas and over-explanation in others.  However, I would give it four-and-a-half stars if that were an option here.

Peter Hitchens is the brother of well-known New-Atheist (anti-theist) Christopher Hitchens.  (They can be seen in 2010 debate highlights here.)   Hitchens divided his book into three parts:  “A personal journey through atheisim,” “Addressing the three failed arguments of atheism,” and “The league of the militant godless.”  Let’s look a little bit at each section. 

He starts his personal journey with his jubilant acceptance of atheism, marked by the burning of his bible at the age of 15.  The enlightened did not believe in God and so if you did not want to be considered dull or worse by them, out the door went your faith.  Hitchen provides a very disturbing quote of author Virginia Wolfe’s (from a 1928 letter to her sister), regarding the shocking news that fellow writer T.S. Eliot had become a Christian:  “[he] may be called dead to us all from this day forward. . . .  There’s something obscene in a living person sitting by the fire and believing in God” (p. 24).  [I can’t help but be reminded of the demon talks in C.S. Lewis’ Screwtape Letters.]  This mean-spirited arrogance can be seen across the internet everyday today.  “Unlike Christians, atheists have a high opinion of their own virtue,” Hitchens concludes.

Though I can in no way cover his long treatment here (it covers about half the book), Hitchens gives a history of the decay of Christianity in Great Britain and what that country is like today.  This is an important read for anyone who does not realize the rapid loss of faith (at least publicly), and its affects, on this Western country.  He also describes the appalling state of the Soviet Union with its lack of faith; society without God is coarse, harsh, and dangerous.

In “Addressing the three failed arguments of atheism,” Hitchens discusses how:

(1) Conflicts/wars that are fought in the name of religion may not, in fact, be about religion at all.  An example is Nazi Germany, but he discusses others.

(2) Whether or not “right or wrong” can be determined without God.  This depends on whether a code is meant or a moral system.  The results of societies following simple moral code compared to those following the Christian moral system can be demonstrated.

(3) Atheist states that have committed atrocities are indeed atheist states.  Atheists simply have a problem admitting this when confronted with regimes that had committed mass atrocities and murder, such as in Stalinst Russia and Sung’s North Korea.

As to the last section of Hitchen’s book, I will leave that for the reader to discover.  However, here is a foretaste:

“Soviet Communism used the same language, treasured the same hopes, and appealed to the same constituency as Western atheism does today. . . .  My brother Christopher suggests that Joseph Stalin’s Soviet Union was in fact a religious state.  The specifically anti-religious character of the Soviet system under Stalin makes such a claim nonsensical.  The chapters that follow provide a detailed response to this argument” (p. 164).