I am reading 2 books simultaneously and both deal with the issue of religion. The first book is Christopher Hitchen’s “god is not great”. The second book is Donald Miller’s “Searching for God Knows What”.

Let me begin by saying that Mr. Hitchens was a very intellectual man, and I can sympathize with many of his frustrations concerning religion. I am not oblivious to the scandals, wars, and reason/logic-free neoconservative movement in our midst. Yet, I have a love/hate relationship with religion. I have come to accept that while religion is far from perfect, I admire it’s ancient beauty. One of the reasons I decided to associate with Catholics was because I found them less evangelical. Sure, there are strong arguments that could prove how Catholicism was a state religion for thousands of years, but in comparison to Protestant Evangelicals in America, I found them more open minded. I mention this because on page 13, Hitchens writes that he wants religious people to leave him alone. Fair enough, religion is often in your face, however, this comes from a radical who spent most of his life demonizing good religious people like Mother Theresa. He ends the chapter by saying “religion poisons everything.” Quite an ignorant and arrogant statement. I find it difficult to respect or give validity to a man living in hypocrisy. How can you complain about how religion has been forced on you, but you all but assault everything good in religion? Let’s be honest, whether you are religious or not, Mother Theresa was one of the most unselfish women in our recent history and her faith had a lot to do with that.

I can’t accept the arrogance and gospel of self-worship among many atheists. In the same way, I can’t accept the overly proud patriotism and judgement amongst the Christian right. In my opinion, they are both criticizing and promoting a god who doesn’t exist. God is not as simple as Hitchens makes Him out to be. He does not have the answers to life’s most profound questions, and God is not someone who promotes killing innocent civilians in a time of war.

As my biased views suggest, Donald Miller has a more acceptable view of religion. Atheists love to cite Biblical criticism as proof that God doesn’t exist. What they fail to recognize is that just because the Bible was written by fallible humans about an infallible God, doesn’t mean the truth of God cannot exist. This is not an assault of science and logic. As a believer, I promote and support science and philosophy concerning truth in our universe. What I am merely saying is that, you can’t read the Bible through a scientific lens. Moses was closer to being a poet instead of a scientist.

god is not great claims to be a book promoting free-thinking and logic, yet, it’s short of a hate rant. I group Hitchens in with Pat Robertson and that douche Rush.