I've finished Christopher Hitchens's new book and, as I expected, it made me angry. To be honest, I think he could have made the same basic point (religion poisons everything) in a long article in The Atlantic. But to read page after page discussing the atrocities committed in the name of god does have a way of reinforcing the ridiculousness of the whole enterprise. If wars and bloodshed weren't always started because of religious issues, churches almost always had a role to play in supporting one side or another. (Including the Vatican's support of Nazi outrages, for which they have only recently apologized.)
Look around and you will see the hand of god (or at least, as perceived by believers) at work in more stupidity and idiocy than one could ever imagine happening. According to a recent Gallup poll, only 24% OF people who attend church regularly believe in evolution, as opposed to 71% of people who seldom or never attend church. Despite all the scientific evidence, and even assuming that many church goers who believe in evolution believe in it only because they think that's how god chose to create the world, only a minority of people trust what empirical, verifiable, repeatable scientific effort indicates. And these people are allowed to vote!
What is to become of us if we can't see the truth that is right in front of our eyes? If we decide instead to play the make-believe game that an omnipotent being watches over us and prepares mansions for us in a kingdom in the sky and knows the number of hairs on the head of every one of the Earth's billions of inhabitants, we seem doomed to dwell in darkness and ignorance. It's time for a new Enlightenment!
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