Christopher Hitchens - God is not Great

Description

The decay and collapse and discredit of
god worship does not begin at any dramatic moment, such
as Nietzsche's histrionic and self-contradictory
pronouncement that god was dead. Nietzsche could no
more have known this, or made the assumption that god
had ever been alive, than a priest or witch doctor could
ever declare that he knew god's will. Rather, the end of
god-worship discloses itself at the moment, which is
somewhat more gradually revealed, when it becomes
optional, or only one among many possible beliefs. For the
greater part of human existence, it must always be stressed,
this \"option\" did not really exist. We know, from the many
fragments of their burned and mutilated texts and
confessions, that there were always human beings who
were unconvinced. But from the time of Socrates, who was
condemned to death for spreading unwholesome
skepticism, it was considered ill-advised to emulate his
example. And for billions of people down the ages, the
question simply did not come up. The votaries of Baron
Samedi in Haiti enjoyed the same monopoly, founded upon
the same brute coercion, as did those of John Calvin in
Geneva or Massachusetts

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