God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything

Hitchens takes issue with all religious belief, but is particularly concerned with extreme fundamentalist religious systems. Fundamentalism is a term usually applied to religious denominations that maintain strict rules about behavior and belief amongst their followers. Hitchens believes that fundamentalist sects, particularly in Judaism, Islam, and Christianity, influence the religions as a whole toward oppressive, anti-scientific views. Examples include fundamentalist Muslims who have protested against depictions of pigs in children’s literature, Evangelical Christians who teach creationism as if it is scientifically valid, and Orthodox Jewish influence on Israeli political history.

Hitchens accuses modern society of leaning too heavily on the concept of multiculturalism, which he defines as unquestioning acceptance of all ways of life and beliefs within a single society. This topic comes up most often in relation to Islam. Hitchens believes that radical Muslims are a threat to modern secular society, and if non-Muslims readily agree to, for example, never produce images of Mohammed for fear of offending fundamentalist Muslims, then the most radical branches of the faith will continue to gain power.

Ockham’s razor, also spelled Occam’s razor, is a philosophical principle first put forth by William Ockham in the Middle Ages. It states that “plurality should not be posited without necessity.” In other words, solutions to problems should not involve any more complexity than is needed. Hitchens uses this principle throughout his book, primarily when discussing the relationship between religion and science. He believes that God is always an extra, unnecessary element and that scientific solutions can always be found that do not require a conscious, divine mover.