Final thoughts on God is Not Great

 I really got stuck in the mud with Hitchens. I think it would work better to read it in parts when the mood hits rather than straight on from cover to cover. I will say it really crystallized my feelings about religion. The damage to human society clearly outweighs its ephemeral benefits. We can create secular structures to feed the poor, etc. In fact, we have. What's much harder is mitigating the effects of their war on science, on free thought, on minorities, on homosexuals, the terror and murder committed in your wholly imagined deity's name. I already felt the Vatican was morally culpable for their stance on condoms in Africa but I didn't realize they also spoke out about Salman Rushdie when the fatwa was issued on his life. But wait-not in his favor. Against him for defaming a world religion.

It also seems clear to me that banning gay marriage on religious grounds is CLEARLY a violation of separation of church and state. 

I remember once asking a Deacon about how the Church's stance on contraceptives/AIDS was valid (it's a long story how this came about) and he said, well isn't it true those people are doing something they shouldn't do anyways? So, they shouldn't be fucking? Sorry to break it to you dude but this is a biological imperative for most humans and no amount of beads or magic water is going to change that. What if they are married? After all, the Church does tell married people in Africa that they can't use condoms even if a partner is infected with AIDS and spreads rumors they don't work. Which make them both immoral and stupid. God, fucktard. I wish I had said all of that to him (except maybe the fucktard part.)

I think that's another reason I had to quit reading. It made me too angry. I did highlight some passages I liked. Way too many to preserve here. I'm glad I bought the book at any rate.