RSS
Home
Book Review: The Portable Atheist
Print
Email
RSS
Subscribe
.jpg)
The Portable Atheist
If you wander through any bookstore – be it Half Price Books or your favorite independent establishment in Uptown – you will find a plethora of books devoted to the topic of atheism. One might assume these books are kept way in the back, behind a set of swinging doors, in a dimly lit section, shelved with “Adult Literature” (not that I have ever gone behind those doors), but more and more atheistic material is making its way to the front display stands and end caps, where it belongs. With so many excellent books from which to choose, what does one do when they want them all, without the added debt that accompanies it? You buy a compilation.
The Portable Atheist: Essential Readings for the Nonbeliever, compiled by Christopher Hitchens, is not a novel, as such, but a collection of essays, quotes and short critiques on the subject of religion and god(s), written by notable figures across the centuries. TPA will quickly get you in touch with dozens of the world’s most influential nonbelievers of the past and present, rather than having to scour a myriad of books in order to find their essays – all thanks to Hitchens.
Among the essayists chosen are Karl Marx (this comes as no surprise, as Hitchens himself was a former Marxist), David Hume, Charles Darwin, Mark Twain,H.L. Mencken (who writes an hilarious essay dedicated to the memory of all of the abandoned gods), Sigmund Freud, George Orwell, Bertrand Russell, Albert Einstein, Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, Sam Harris and many others. There is even a rather amusing essay by Penn Jillette – the larger, more loquacious half of the comedic duo Penn & Teller.
Here is a favorite passage of mine, which comes from the poem God’s Funeral, by Thomas Hardy:
And tricked by our own early dream
And need of solace, we grew self-deceived
Our making soon our maker did we deem
And what we had imagined we believed.
It is difficult to ascertain if TPA is perhaps just a collection of Hitchens’ favorite atheists, rather than the definitive volume of non-believing luminaries, but each selection is deliciously well-chosen and represent a compendium of some of the sharpest literature in anti-theology. Hitchens himself has also written an enjoyably barbarous introduction to the book, as well as brief introductions to each of the selected authors.
The Portable Atheist is really more of a handy reference to keep on the bookshelf, if, say, you happen to be looking for a particularly powerfully-delivered sermon on the evil tenets of the Old Testament, versus a good summer read to tote to the beach. But the book will definitely allow you to become more familiar with these amazing writers, both classical and modern, and will save you the effort of having to seek them out yourself – saving you both time and money.
P.S. The title is a tad misleading, as at a daunting 499 pages, the book’s girth makes it anything but “portable.”
Related Articles:
Comments
.jpg)
