Lots of disturbing history here about many different religions. I read this book a while back, forgot most of it, and thought I'd try the audiobook to listen to while doing chores. The repetition helped as the information all seemed new.

My only complaint about the audiobook is that he sometimes mumbles, necessitating an occasional rewind to catch certain words.

Otherwise, highly recommended for anyone so inclined, especially for the hardback book in hand. ( )

Религията е отрова, която прониква във всяка сфера на обществото и човешките взаимоотношения от хилядолетия насам и е донесла само страдания на хората – това Кристофър Хътчинс се е заел да го опише в книга – за съжаление, не по най-добрия начин…

Не ме разбирайте погрешно – книгата съвсем не е лоша, представя няколко интересни факти за религиите, няколко интересни идеи, няколко любопитни неща които не знаех….

Но е разхвърляна, без структура и централна идея, не казва нищо фрапиращо ново или радикално. Подходяща е може би за по-млади читатели, които едва отскоро се сблъскават с религията като концепция и със защитниците й като порода животни. ( )

Considering the importance of antitheism, a more accessible vocabulary and algorithmic reasoning would've increased this book's effectiveness. Every few lines I had to use a dictionary. ( )

Another along the lines of The God Delusion, but this one doesn’t so much argue the point of nonexistence and focus on all the actual harm religion can do and has done throughout history. It suffered a bit in comparison, but is still an excellent read. ( )

I have this book duplicated.
A powerful book. Hitchens is merciless in his critique of religion..although he claims connections with Church of England, Greek Orthodox, and Jewish faiths he merely uses these connections as tools to skewer the various faiths. He writes in a slightly annoying way.....a little too flowery ; a little too many historical or literary allusions which are not explained. Kind of talking down to his audience or assuming a breadth of knowledge that many would probably not possess. Just one instance of this that I recall was Lysenko (The Russian head of the Institute of Genetics and in charge of plant breeding in the Soviet Union under Stalin. He rejected mendelian genetics and consequently set Russian science backwards for a generation....those who opposed him were purged). However, Hitchens merely throws in a sideways reference to Lysenko....so insignificant that I can't relocate it or find it in the index. And frequently the Hitchen's prose is a little too flowery to easily follow. He loves hyperbole....for example: "Joshua's blood-soaked tribesmen"; "two extremely unctuous British Muslims". Sometimes this is quite entertaining and humorous ...sometimes a little tedious. He keeps referring to humans as "mammals". True...and I guess it is a way of keeping us grounded that we don't get carried away with the idea that a high priest is really anything other than a mammal who has come to dominate his patch.
A couple of basic themes: religion is man made, faith provides an excuse for horrific treatment of others who don't share the same faith/beliefs....and "religion comes from the period of human history where nobody......had the slightest idea what was going on".
There is a welter of detail here. Thousands of miniature case studies of the way in which religion is inconsistent, has lead to bad outcomes and in Hitchen's terms: "has poisoned everything".
On balance, a powerful and convincing book. Hard to read it and still have the same respect for any of the religions...though maybe the Cathars deserve some respect for their life style and refusal to recant.
I give it five stars despite Hitchen's somewhat difficult style.
His is certainly a strong voice for reason, logic and evidence based practice as opposed to magic, religion and appeals to "faith". ( )