The Lord is not a shepherd

Cover of an English language edition

God Is Not Great - How Religion poisons the world (Engl. : God Is Not Great How Religion Poisons Everything is a 2007 published in the US) religion critical non-fiction of the author and journalist Christopher Hitchens . As the claim in the subtitle says, Hitchens' central thesis is that all forms of practiced religion and their effects detrimentally affect every area of ​​human life, whether in politics or in private life.

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Hitchens advocates the theses that religion is violent, irrational and intolerant, that it is close to racism , tribalism and bigotry , that it envelops itself in ignorance , that it is hostile to freethinking and that it behaves contemptuously towards women and compulsively towards children.

He underpins his theses with a mixture of documented historical facts, critical analysis of religious texts and personal anecdotes - especially in the latter, he often exaggerates what has been said, uses a drastic choice of words and often underlines it with ironic undertones and new words. His commentary relates primarily to the Abrahamic religions , although he also includes other religions such as Hinduism and Buddhism .

In Hitchens' view, four objections to religious belief remain unreserved:

• Religious belief completely misrepresents the origins of man and the universe,
• as a result of this error he combined a maximum of subservience with a maximum of solipsism ,
• it is both a consequence and a cause of dangerous sexual repression,
• and it is ultimately based on wishful thinking.

The book contains the following 19 chapters, plus reference lists for each chapter, and a general index.

Say the least

Engl. Putting It Mildly .

Hitchens describes his own awareness as a 9-year-old when he noticed the first contradictions in the statements of his friendly natural history and religion teacher and in those of the other teachers. Their teaching methods, some of which were text-analytical (e.g. finding biblical passages ) - and not traumatic experiences with religion - led Hitchens to rationally question religious statements.

He extends this thought to other people ( unbelievers ). Whether they have never been a believer or whether they have easily left a religious belief behind them (or after a fight): They may disagree, but what they have in common is that they take the irrationality of religious belief and the incomprehensible dogma into their decisions attach no value. Nevertheless, they would act morally and lead an ethical life, without the arrogance and without the stupid pride of knowing what a creator wants or even thinks, or what he asks of us - from food to religious rites to sexual morality. The goal of the unbelievers is not to burn down buildings of worship - the religious would do this themselves among themselves - but to achieve freedom from religious obligations, behavior and threats in all areas of life.

Religion kills

Engl. Religion Kills .

A week before September 11, 2001 , Hitchens was confronted with the following question during a panel discussion: If he (Hitchens) were alone and at night in a strange city and saw several men approaching him, he would feel safer or less safe, if he knew these men were just leaving a prayer meeting? Hitchens then listed a few "foreign cities" - Belfast , Beirut , Bombay , Belgrade , Bethlehem , and Baghdad ("... and these are just the ones with the letter 'B' ...") that he had already visited and in which he himself actually felt threatened in such a situation. He then gives a detailed description of the social and political tensions there, which he ascribes to the religions practiced there, "which would poison the situation there."

He also discusses the fatwa pronounced in 1989 by Ayatollah Khomeini against his friend, the author Salman Rushdie , in response to his book The Satanic Verses , and he criticizes public figures who said that Rushdie was to blame for it.

Hitchens also writes about the events that followed the 9/11 attacks and how major religious figures in particular - Pat Robertson , Jerry Falwell and Billy Graham  - have appropriated the situation for their own ends.

A short detour to the pig

... or: Why the creator can't stand ham.

Engl. Short Digression On The Pig or Why Heaven Hates Ham .

Hitchens discusses religious-dogmatic prohibitions of certain foods using the example of the pig , in his words "porcophobia". Whether beef (in Hinduism ), whether pigs (in Islam and Judaism ), whether snails (in Judaism): There is no biological reason not to view these animals as food (Hitchens makes for the non-religious, ethical variants of vegetarianism and the Veganismus an exception). Trichinosis is also not an argument, since roundworm infestation occurs in all climatic zones. He speculates that the pig's resemblance to man may have sparked a fear of cannibalism; this could have flowed into religion and dogmatically maintained to this day, so that fanatical Muslims could successfully demand that children's books and toys (The Three Little Pigs, Miss Piggy, Piglet by Winnie the Pooh) and other items related to pigs have to do, would have to be removed from public life.

A note on health and its threats from religion

Engl. A Note On Health, To Which Religion May Be Hazardous .

Hitchens supports his opinion that the relationship between religion and medicine is "difficult and often characterized by hostility", with his experience as a committee member in Bengal to prepare the oral vaccination against polio there . There, Muslims spread the rumor that the campaign was a Western conspiracy to cause impotence and diarrhea among the Muslim population. The same behavior - supported by a fatwa - brought polio back to Nigeria in 2005 and was also spread by pilgrims in already polio-free areas.

The Roman Catholic Church  - with the voice of Cardinal Alfonso López Trujillo , President of the Pontifical Council for the Family - announced that condoms would not protect against AIDS , which in Africa reduces protection against this disease and on other continents, e.g. . B. South America , the spread of sexually transmitted diseases to be imposed. Hitchens is of the opinion that both Catholic and Muslim religious communities can believe that AIDS is a punishment for sexual sins - especially homosexual behavior.

Other examples include the removal of the foreskin circumcised with the mouth by conservative rabbis are (still allowed in New York), refusal of blood transfusions for Jehovah's Witnesses , physical self- mortification and Jerusalem Syndrome , as well as mass suicides extreme sects.

The chapter closes with a reference to the ultimate health threat from religious beliefs: the fatalistic acceptance or even deliberate induction of a prophesied apocalypse in the end times .

The metaphysical claims of religion are false

Engl. The Metaphysical Claims of Religion Are False .

Hitchens claims that long gone are the days when dominant beliefs could curb any form of logical reasoning. He compares what a school child knows about the world today with the common knowledge of the world in the time of Thomas Aquinas and how “fathers of faith” (not “mothers”) explained this world with their misunderstanding of the world and a limbo for themselves inventing unbaptized children.

He uses the example of Laplace (“Je n'ai pas besoin de cette hypothèse” [I do not need this hypothesis [God]]) to show that the knowledge that man did not need God was already there in the 18th century to explain the processes of celestial mechanics.

He also pays tribute to the methodology of the Franciscan William von Ockham , who introduced the principle of frugality, which removes unnecessary things with the scalpel of logic , but who was accused of heresy for this .

He also demands that today the occasionally outstretched hands of religious leaders in the direction of enlightened thinking do not have to be taken, since these very religions have barbarically refused this conciliatory handshake for centuries.

God as a designer

Engl. Arguments From Design .

According to Hitchens, the Abrahamic religions teach people to " throw themselves at the feet of an angry and jealous God as miserable and guilty sinners ". Their lives are to be viewed as pathetic, as "a period of time in which one prepares for the hereafter or for the arrival - or return - of the Messiah." On the other hand, according to Hitchens, these religions teach that this God has the universe especially for this poor man Beings created and personally take care of each individual.

Hitchens shows with examples (bus accident in Sri Lanka , mine accident in West Virginia ) how religious thinking believes to recognize patterns of divine effect (“a miracle ”) in certain situations . A divine, intelligent design - or the absence of such - discussed Hitchens on (human) ear , the eye , the properties of the earth , to the fact that about 98% of all species that ever lived on earth again extinct are , and the "directionlessness" of evolution , which has been studied in detail in finches on the Galapagos Islands for 30 years and can also be confirmed in humans ( lactose (in) tolerance ).

The Revelation: The Nightmare of the "Old" Testament

Engl. The Nightmare Of The Old Testament .

Hitchens mentions anachronisms and inconsistencies in the Old Testament text . He uses the Ten Commandments (and their various translations and interpretations) to explain his view that they were written by people ("man-made") and not by a god. (Example: The divine rules for owning and keeping slaves in Exodus 21). As a result, he discusses the killing of men, women and children by sword or stone ordered by Moses (or God). He notes "with relief" that none of the "gruesome and deranged events" described in Exodus ever took place, and points to research results by Israel Finkelstein and Neil Asher Silberman as well as inconsistencies in the text of the Bible itself.

The "New" Testament dwarfs the "Old" with its wickedness

Engl. The “New” Testament Exceeds The Evil Of The “Old” One .

Hitchens follows how prophecies in the text of the Old Testament are carried forward in the New Testament and comes to the conclusion that the New Testament "is a rather crude patchwork piece that was cobbled together long after the events described and in which there is always improvisation. so that everything fits together in the end. ”While Henry L. Mencken believed that some events in the New Testament could be historically proven, he (Mencken) meant“ that most [...] show indubitable signs that changes were made afterwards . "

Hitchens points out further inconsistencies regarding the historical circumstances around the time of Jesus' birth ( Gospel of Luke ) and inconsistencies between the Gospels (for example in the description of the crucifixion of Jesus). The "inconsistencies" of the New Testament had "apart from excuses such as the" metaphor "and the" Christ of faith "have not yet been adequately explained by any Christian authority".

After further examples and the reference to text analyzes of the Gospel of John by Bart D. Ehrman , which demonstrate inhomogeneities in the choice of words and the writing style, Hitchens calls on the representatives of the religions to be courageous enough and to admit that they are in relation to the text of the Bible would only rely on faith.

The Koran is borrowed from Jewish and Christian myths

Engl. The Koran Is Borrowed From Both Jewish and Christian Myths .

Hitchens writes about the emergence of Islam and says that it turns out to be "an obvious and disorderly series of plagiarism that makes use of earlier books and traditions at will ." The first report on the life of Muhammad was only 120 years after his death written down by Ibn Ishāq . In a Sunni tradition, the Koran is said to have been authoritatively united under the caliph Uthman ibn Affan after diversifying into several versions . This seems remarkable to Hitchens; after all, he thinks, it is "about the unchangeable (and final ) word of God".

To criticize the Islamic traditions ( Hadith ) he quotes a study by Reza Aslan and his assessment of the orientalist Ignaz Goldziher . Hitchens ironically notes that if the Koran could only be understood correctly in Arabic, God himself must have intended that people in other languages should not understand his word (in the form of the Koran) . Hitchens interprets the strong resistance to a universally accepted reform (including an official ( equivalent ) translation for non-Arabic Muslims) as a deep insecurity in this relatively young religion.

Cheap Miracles and the Fall of Hell

Engl. The Tawdriness Of The Miraculous and The Decline Of Hell .

Hitchens sums up his doubts about actual religious miracles in the question of what is more likely: That the laws of nature would be temporarily suspended - for the benefit of individual people - or that these people were subject to an error or a delusion?

He describes his experience when he was invited to the Vatican in 2001 to act as the advocatus diaboli in the process of the beatification of Mother Teresa . One of the miracles attributed to her - the photographically documented miracle of "Kindly Light" (based on the poem by John Henry Newman ) - could be explained by a new invention by Kodak . Although another miracle (inexplicable healing) was subsequently exposed as staged, Mother Teresa was beatified in 2003.

Hitchens ends the chapter with a look at the intricate developments of his own convictions and idolizations and states: “But most of the time I feel better […] and so it will, I guarantee, the reader too, once the doctrines are behind him and allowed his unleashed mind to think for himself. "

Low Origin: The Corrupt Beginnings of Religions

Engl. Religion's Corrupt Beginnings .

Hitchens discusses the development of religions using three examples: cargo cults , Mormons ( Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints ) and “Marjoe”. Marjoe Gortner became a well-known American - evangelical success story when he was in the late 1940s to the early 1960s, the age of four by his parents as an ordained occupied was built children preacher and donations of about three million dollars. At the age of 17 he left his parents' Whitsun movement business , but later returned as a preacher for a film documentary ( Oscar 1972, best documentary) and demonstrated all of his psychological and effect tricks (e.g. a cross on his forehead ) to unsuspecting believers as a warning of how easy it is to pull money out of your pocket from gullible people. Despite this revelation, the business of TV preachers ( Evangelists ) would continue to flourish today.

A coda: How religions end

Engl. A Coda: How Religions End .

Religions have a beginning and end again, whether they exist for almost a decade like the Millerites , a few centuries like the worship of the shepherd god Pan , or millennia like the Osiris cult from around 2400 BC. Until the Greco-Roman period.

Using Shabbetaj Zvi as an example , Hitchens describes how a religious movement develops its own dynamic , how followers of this movement decorate events and how - after the disappearance of the Messiah  - new currents emerge that expand, branch out, or in the form of small sects (in the case of Shabbetaj Zvi the Dönme ) continue to exist.

Does religion bring about better behavior?

Engl. Does Religion Make People Behave Better?

Hitchens answer is no . Using the historical example of slavery and racial discrimination, Hitchens explains the supportive and justifying influence of Christianity and Islam. Even when Martin Luther King , whose words "can bring deep feelings [...] and real tears even to an atheist [...] and real tears," demanded the desegregation, white Christian leaders urged him to hold back and be patient.

As a second example, Hitchens used the freedom struggle in India . He criticizes the role of Gandhi , who wanted to lead India back into a "primitive, spiritual society" in the spirit of his religion. (chosen symbol : the hand-operated spinning wheel) Religious interests of Hinduism and Islam prevented national unity, and Nehru could not prevent the separation of parts of Punjab and Bengal .

Hitchens denies that religious belief "makes people better", as history shows that religious orientations were often introduced by force and coercion, making belief in God a willingness to believe anything if only asked. He explains with concrete experiences in different parts of the world that morally acceptable behavior is not a privilege of religious people. On the other hand, where religious beliefs play an important role in society, the worst crimes can occur. In Rwanda (65% Catholics and 15% Protestant sects), for example, the genocide of the Tutsi minority began in 1994 , in which all religious groups were involved. Hitchens specifically mentions the Bishop of Gikongoro, Augustin Misago , who was partly responsible for the murder of thousands.

There is no "Far Eastern" solution

Engl. There Is No "Eastern" Solution .

In order to substantiate the chapter heading, Hitchens first describes events (partly from personal experience) around the Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh in Pune and later in Antelope (Oregon) . It moves on to the civil war in Sri Lanka , which is brutally fought between Hindu Tamils and Buddhist Sinhalese and concludes with Japanese Zen Buddhism , which proved to be a “loyal servant and even an advocate of imperialism ” and its mass murders during World War II and whose priests trained suicide fighters ( kamikaze ) in crusader fashion . Hitchens credits Buddhism with the fact that it can be viewed in its original form as a philosophy rather than a religion.

Religion as original sin

Engl. Religion As An Original Sin .

For Hitchens, the following doctrines and dogmata prove that religion per se is not only amoral, but immoral:

• The presentation of a false image of the world to the innocent and believers : The creation myths of all religions have already been refuted and replaced by more well-founded and wonderful explanations (see also discussions in Chapter 5)
• The doctrine of the blood sacrifice : The bloody cults of prehistoric times (partly with human sacrifices) find their parallels in the Old Testament and even today their continuation (sacrificial animals) in the Abrahamic religions. Even today there are bloody battles over the alleged cave in which Abraham is said to have been buried (massacre of Jews in 1929, massacre of Muslims by Baruch Goldstein ).
• The Doctrine of the Atonement : Blood sacrifice continues in the New Testament too, in that God deliberately let his own Son kill through torture in order to impress people. How moral if it is to feel rewarded with forgiveness through this human sacrifice and to hope for eternal life? Or to believe that this killing was wanted and necessary ? Or that one is charged with original sin on the one hand and provided with free will on the other hand, whose application - contrary to the intended use - ends in eternal torments? Or how moral is the collective assignment of guilt for a killing ( necessary for salvation ) for an entire people (the Jews)?
• The doctrine of eternal reward and / or punishment : For Hitchens it means a “combination of extortion with bribery”, which is also shown in Blaise Pascal's safe-is-safe argumentation .
• The imposition of unattainable tasks and rules : For Hitchens these are all conditions that dictate what a person should or should not think. Failure to meet these requirements leads to "impure thoughts", hysterical confessions and denunciation of those who think differently and is a spiritual police state. Which person is always able to love his neighbor as himself? How much simpler and more sensible is the older golden rule compared to this .

Is Religion Child Abuse?

Engl. Is Religion Child Abuse?

Hitchens distinguishes and comments on the following types of child abuse that is religiously motivated or facilitated by religious authoritarian beliefs:

• Psychological “irreparable damage” as a result of the “compulsory indoctrination through faith”, which is carried out at an early age, mostly when children have not yet acquired the ability to reason. He contrasts this approach with the completely different situation of an adult who chooses a religion according to his own will.
• Lifelong physical mutilation by circumcision in boys or circumcision of female genitals in girls, which is carried out on defenseless children - in a religious environment mostly by non-medical professionals - and is neither medically necessary, nor understandable from the point of view of perfect creation , nor from that of intelligent design , and which in documented cases led to the death of the children. Female genital mutilation in particular is an expression of hostility towards sex and causes a lifelong loss of natural sexual satisfaction.
• Psychological (punishments, threats), physical (beatings) and sexual abuse (abuse, rape) of children and young people by people they trust. Such cases of child abuse have been documented for members of the Roman Catholic Church in the USA and tried in court.

Anticipating a contradiction

The last desperate objection to secularism .

Engl. An objection anticipated .

As a final pro-religious argument, it could be left that secular totalitarian systems could be worse than any religion.

Hitchens lists the similarities between religion and totalitarianism : God-like status (omnipotence) of the ruler; Control of privacy; Influencing thoughts of the individual; Demonization of dissidents and book burnings ; absolute obedience (believing instead of thinking); “Higher” values ​​and goals that are not understandable for everyone; Mummification or iconization of deceased rulers / saints and promises of salvation as a future projection, d. H. Consolation for final victories / final times / paradise. "Any criticism of the system is by definition profane"

Because of this similarity, totalitarian systems could relatively easily replace existing religious systems. Those who follow the totalitarian way of thinking do not necessarily have to wear a uniform and carry a club or a whip with them. He just had to want his own submission and enjoy the submission of others.

Hitchens explains how the rise of fascism fell on fertile ground in countries with Catholic populations: (1929) Lateran Treaties between Mussolini and the Vatican; La Cruzada (Crusade) by Franco , Admiral Horthy in Hungary, Hitler and the Catholic Church (arrangements with the Vatican, including the official celebrations for Hitler's birthday; role of Pius XII ; parallel behavior of German Protestants), Maurras' Action française and Croix de Feu in France, the Blue Shirts in Ireland.

This scheme survived the war when the Vatican helped former National Socialists escape to pro-fascist Catholic countries in South America ( rat lines ). Hitchens recognizes the merit of the Catholic Church in Germany for opposing Hitler's euthanasia plans. The Christians who did not behave in conformity before and during the war would not have done so on the instructions of their church, but from their own internal drive.

In imperialist Japan - even more clearly - the head of state Hirohito was also seen as God-Emperor . Hitchens makes similar analyzes for communist systems and draws parallels between the works of George Orwell , who said " A totalitarian state system is practically a theocracy  ... ". The mere existence of a "thought crime" is already punishable (how hellish the whole thing is, Orwell recognized in his school run by "Christian sadists"). His novel 1984 is practically an instruction manual for "necrocraticism" ( De jure government of the dead) of Kim Il-sung and his son in North Korea .

A nobler tradition: reason defends itself

Engl. A Finer Tradition: The Resistance Of The Rational .

Hitchens suspects that unbelief and unbelieving people have always existed, and that in view of the penalties that threatened it, keeping silent about this disbelief became a strategy for survival. The argument is worthless that the Christian or Islamic faith deserves the glory for architecture or science, since other more or less unbelieving people have also contributed to these civilizational advances.

He discusses the situation of rational thinkers who have questioned the given and only followed their own inner guidance and whose individual thoughts and writings have been passed on by the following generations: Socrates , Democritus (whose atomism was persecuted by Christianity for centuries), Epicurus , Aristophanes , Lucretius , Galileo, in the 17th century in the tolerant Netherlands with Bayle , Descartes , Spinoza (who was cursed several times by the Jewish community in Amsterdam, to the applause of the Pope), Paine , Montesquieu , Diderot , Voltaire , Matteo de Vincenti , Kant , Priestley , Gibbon , Hume , the founding fathers of the USA (who would have written the constitution as a secular document without reference to God), Darwin later in life, Einstein , who had repeatedly mentioned his disbelief and expressed his rejection of Zionism.

Conclusion: the need for a new education

Engl. In Conclusion: The Need for a New Enlightenment .

In the last chapter, Hitchens points out the danger that politicians with access to weapons of mass destruction could feel entitled - or even called - by their religious beliefs to impose their own beliefs on those of other faiths or to bring about Armageddon . He closes with the words:

“Above all, we are in need of a renewed enlightenment, which will base itself on the proposition that the proper study of mankind is man, and woman. [...] The pursuit of unfettered scientific inquiry, and the availability of new findings to masses of people by easy electronic means, will revolutionize our concepts of research and development. [...] 'Know yourself', said the Greeks, gently suggesting the consolations of philosophy. To clear the mind for this project, it has become necessary to know the enemy, and to prepare to fight it. "

“What we need above all is a new enlightenment that recognizes human beings, men and women , as the central research areas of humanity . […] Unhindered scientific research and the wide availability of new knowledge by means of simple electronic aids will revolutionize science and development. [...] 'Know yourself' the Greeks gently pointed out to the comforting effect of philosophy. In order to free the mind for this, we have to recognize the enemy and be ready to fight against him. "

Publication and public recording

The book was published on May 1, 2007 in the United States and within a week reached position 2 on the Amazon bestseller list and on June 3, position 1 on the New York Times bestseller list .

God Is Not Great was on 10 October 2007 in the category non-fiction ( non-fiction in the list of candidates for the US) National Book Award 2007 was added.

The German edition was published on October 11, 2007 by Karl Blessing Verlag ( ISBN 3-89667-355-6 , ISBN 978-3-89667-355-8 ). The book's top placement was 21st on the bestseller list on October 15, 2007.

Reviews

“This is not religious fundamentalism or fanaticism at the collar, but religion in and of itself. Everyone, really everyone, is meant and is rammed into the ground unsharpened: Catholics, Protestants, Muslims - regardless of whether they are Shiite or Sunni -, Hindus, Buddhists, Osho followers and, last but not least, the Jews. […] However, it is in the nature of the subject that after this intellectual execution - as unexpected as it is inevitable - there will be a resurrection. Because Christopher Hitchens is thoroughly wrong, not in some details, but in the main. [...] If religion is really only evil, why has it inspired so many people to such great artistic achievements? [...] But if religious belief is the natural enemy of science - how is it then that so many religious people were scientists? [...] This clever mind does not understand that Jewish monotheism is something very unique, actually something paradoxical: a religion that is critical of religion. [...] The bottom line is that all of this could sound as if 'The Lord is not a shepherd' is a missed, superfluous book. But that's not true. Eventually, every honest believer on this planet will have to admit that they have felt the pull of doubt on their own chests. Conversely, there will probably not be an atheist [...] who has never asked himself in his life whether there is something above our heads after all? "

- The world

"Hitchens' dense descriptions of religiously motivated violence are convincing because it breaks through the fixation on Islamists that dominates the German discourse and also vividly unfolds the high propensity to violence of Christian actors ... Unfortunately, like Dawkins, Hitchens then begins to make modern icons of faith all sorts of wrong things, Bad to say. Ascribing a 'nebulous humanism' to Dietrich Bonhoeffer and devaluing Martin Luther King's religious protest against slavery by offsetting the racism of white southern Christians reveals little expertise, but a lot of embarrassing small-mindedness. Hitchens also lacks the analytical means to recognize the elementary ambivalence of all religious symbolic languages, their high degree of openness to interpretation, and to offer explanations as to why beliefs, paradoxically enough, include tendencies towards becoming absolutized by being aligned with God as well as beneficial potentials of humble self-limitation. The transcendence cipher 'God' can serve the hopeless self-delimitation, but also promote the knowledge of one's own finitude. It's a shame that Hitchens creates false uniqueness here and refuses to play with ambiguity. Perhaps he should be reminded of Dawkins-Moses' new Tenth Commandment: 'Question everything!' - best yourself first. "

- Friedrich Wilhelm Graf

“In contrast to Der Gotteswahn, Hitchens does not primarily carry out a philosophical and scientific criticism of religion, but rather accuses religion from a historical, cultural and literary perspective. […] Hitchens substantiates all these theses in the following chapters in detail and convincingly. One learns of the constant suppression of freethinkers by all religions, of the history of skeptical thinking, and receives an answer to the questions whether religion ensures better behavior and whether Far Eastern religions are a viable alternative. [...] When Hitchens talks about the disturbed relationship between religion and sexuality, he becomes particularly vicious. "

- Humanistic press service

Peter Hitchens , Conservative Anglican and brother of the author, published the book “The Rage Against God: Why Faith is the Foundation of Civilization” in 2010 as a replica.

expenditure

• Christopher Hitchens: The Lord is not a shepherd: how religion poisons the world (original title: God Is Not Great , translated by Anne Emmert), Blessing, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-89667-355-8 , as paperback by Heyne, Munich 2009, ISBN 978-3-453-62036-0 ;

English version

• Christopher Hitchens: God Is Not Great. How Religion Poisons Everything. Twelve, Boston / New York, NY 2007, ISBN 978-0-446-50945-9 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Christopher Hitchens, God Is Not Great , Hachette Book Group , New York, 2007, p. 4; The Lord is not a shepherd , Karl Blessing Verlag, Munich, ISBN 978-3-89667-355-8 , p. 15.
2. ^ God Is Not Great , pp. 10-11; The Lord is not a shepherd , u. a. P. 22
3. ^ God Is Not Great , p. 18; The Lord is not a Shepherd , p. 30
4. ^ God Is Not Great , p. 27; The Lord is not a Shepherd , pp. 36, p. 38.
5. ↑ God Is Not Great , pp. 28-30; The Lord is not a Shepherd , pp. 43–46.
6. ^ God Is Not Great , p. 32; The Lord is not a Shepherd , p. 47.
7. ^ The Sun, Oct. 1, 2005 (in Engl.)
8. ↑ The Lord Is Not a Shepherd , p. 63
9. ↑ God Is Not Great , pp. 44-45; The Lord is not a Shepherd , p. 60
10. ^ God Is Not Great , p. 47; The Lord is not a Shepherd , p. 61.
11. ^ God Is Not Great , p. 49; The Lord is not a Shepherd , p. 66.
12. ↑ The Lord Is Not a Shepherd , p. 67
13. ↑ The Lord Is Not a Shepherd , p. 68.
14. ↑ God Is Not Great , pp. 59-61.
15. ↑ God Is Not Great , pp. 63-64; The Lord is not a Shepherd , pp. 83–85.
16. ^ God Is Not Great , p. 64; The Lord is not a Shepherd , p. 84.
17. ^ God Is Not Great , p. 67; The Lord is not a Shepherd , p. 87.
18. ^ God Is Not Great , p. 67; The Lord is not a Shepherd , p. 88.
19. ↑ God Is Not Great , pp. 73-74; The Lord is not a Shepherd , pp. 95–96.
20. ↑ God Is Not Great , pp. 77-89; The Lord is not a shepherd , p. 100 ff.
21. ↑ God Is Not Great , pp. 99-100; The Lord is not a shepherd , p. 124 ff.
22. ↑ The Lord Is Not a Shepherd , p. 128.
23. ^ God Is Not Great , p. 110; The Lord is not a Shepherd , p. 137.
24. ^ God Is Not Great , p. 110; The Lord is not a Shepherd , p. 138.
25. ↑ The Lord Is Not a Shepherd , p. 144.
26. ^ God Is Not Great , p. 129; The Lord is not a Shepherd , p. 160
27. ^ God Is Not Great , p. 131; The Lord is not a Shepherd , p. 163.
28. ^ God Is Not Great , p. 141; The Lord is not a Shepherd , p. 173.
29. ↑ Described in Hitchens film documentary about Mother Teresa
30. ↑ God Is Not Great , p. 153: "But in general I feel better [...] and you will feel better too, I guarantee, once you leave hold of the doctrinaire and allow your chaniless mind to do its own thinking."; The Lord is not a Shepherd , p. 187.
31. ^ God Is Not Great , p. 173; The Lord is not a Shepherd , p. 213.
32. ^ God Is Not Great , p. 182; The Lord is not a Shepherd , p. 223.
33. ^ God Is Not Great , p. 184; The Lord is not a Shepherd , p. 226.
34. ↑ God Is Not Great , p. 185; The Lord is not a Shepherd , p. 227.
35. ^ God Is Not Great , p. 190; The Lord is not a Shepherd , p. 232.
36. ^ God Is Not Great , p. 201; The Lord is not a Shepherd , p. 244.
37. ^ God Is Not Great , p. 211; The Lord is not a Shepherd , p. 256.
38. ^ God Is Not Great , p. 213; The Lord is not a Shepherd , p. 258.
39. ^ God Is Not Great , p. 217; The Lord is not a Shepherd , p. 263.
40. ^ God Is Not Great , p. 223; The Lord is not a Shepherd , p. 270.
41. ^ God Is Not Great , p. 226; The Lord is not a Shepherd , p. 273.
42. ^ Catholic News Agency, Sep. 27. 2002
43. ^ God Is Not Great , p. 231; The Lord is not a Shepherd , p. 279.
44. ^ God Is Not Great , p. 246.
45. ↑ The Lord is not a Shepherd , p. 280.
46. ^ God Is Not Great , p. 235; The Lord is not a Shepherd , p. 284.
47. ↑ God Is Not Great , pp. 238-239; The Lord is not a Shepherd , p. 288.
48. ^ God Is Not Great , p. 232; The Lord is not a Shepherd , p. 280.
49. ↑ God Is Not Great , p. 233: The Lord Is Not a Shepherd , p. 281.
50. ^ God Is Not Great , p. 248; The Lord is not a Shepherd , p. 299.
51. ^ God Is Not Great , p. 254; The Lord is not a Shepherd , p. 307.
52. ↑ The Lord is not a shepherd , pp. 307 ff.
53. ^ God Is Not Great , p. 259; The Lord is not a Shepherd , p. 313.
54. ↑ God Is Not Great , pp. 261-262; The Lord is not a shepherd , p. 314 ff.
55. ^ God Is Not Great , p. 271; The Lord is not a shepherd , p. 325 f
56. ^ God Is Not Great , p. 272; The Lord is not a Shepherd , p. 326.
57. ^ God Is Not Great , p. 283; The Lord is not a Shepherd , p. 338.
58. ↑ New York Times bestseller list from June 3, 2007  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )
59. ↑ List of candidates in all categories for the 2007 National Book Award
60. ↑ Book report bestseller archive ( Memento of the original from June 7, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
61. ↑ Welt-Online: Operation successful. God dead. (Sep 22, 2007)
62. ↑ Süddeutsche Zeitung of September 11, 2007: Graf's review of current books by Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens
63. ↑ Humanistic Press Service (Sep. 27, 2007)
64. ↑ by: Continuum, London / New York, NY 2011, ISBN 978-1-4411-9507-4