“Religion poisons everything!” This is the conclusion Christopher Hitchens comes to in his #1 New York Times Bestseller god is not Great. The book is equally well-written and deceptive, but more than anything it’s relatable; hence it’s great popularity. One of the reasons that so many have found themselves both charmed and disturbed by this work is because the late great atheist often displays the most perverse events done in the name of religion, which all find abhorrent, as exemplar results thereof. While it goes without saying that people have indeed done evil deeds in the name of religion, does Hitchens have a point?
There are many failings in the book that are overlooked due to the capricious and superficial nature of the incurious humans that read it. One especially unacceptable characteristic is its over-abundant assertions of surmises as fact. But what is to be addressed here is Hitchens’ failing to technically define what religion is. Without this, his polemic becomes a muddled history lesson on pork.
To my knowledge Catholicism has no technical definition itself, only abstract statements like, “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.” We’ll submit Aquinas definition: justice toward God (c.f. II-II, Q81). And herein is a fundamental oversight of god is not Great, the same groups/religions that Hitchens attacks are not those who commit justice toward God but those who commit injustices toward the “children of God.” It seems that Hitchens has not dismantled religion then, but several groups of hypocrites that state a belief in some god.
The above makes it clear that positive action must be taken by the true religious in order to be both consistent with one’s creed, by caring for the orphan and widow, and to deny the atheist and hypocrite his claim on what is sacred, which are really the same thing. I hope you’re therefore compelled to be a doer and not simply a sayer. Because without action, it becomes incredibly dubious as to what you are (c.f. James 2:14-26)
-Justin Grabinski