At War With God

Christopher Hitchens is the kind of snarky Brit who thinks he’s doing us a favor by sharing with us his wisdom, while most of us probably wish he’d skip back to his side of the pond and take his opinions and books with him.
Hitchens hates religion and, by extension, has it in for God. He’s written all about it in a new book: “God is Not Great: How Religion Ruins Everything.”
I haven’t read it, nor will I, but it’s a safe bet he probably filled it with the foibles of the hypocritically and clumsily religious: People whose statements and activities accomplish the opposite of their stated religious goals and values: Naughty priests, holier-than-though members of Congress, anti-gay church groups, God-invoking racists and other usual suspects.
Hitchens was a guest this week of HBO “Real Time” host Bill Maher, another guy who just can’t fathom why atheism isn’t spanning the globe. If the two aren’t in love and planning joint projects, they should be.
There is plenty of fun to be made of religious hypocrisy and plenty of lessons to learn from religious malpractice. But why are the Hitchenses and Mahers of the world never content to simply eschew religion themselves, or even mock it if they wish, without turning militant atheism into their own brand of evangelism. Is there no one on the planet who has been well-served by faith, in their view? Are they so narcissistically intertwined with their own egos that they must believe it’s on them to rescue humanity from deception?
I’ve long believed that the most fierce battles people fight publicly are those that engulf their inner selves. Maybe Maher and Hitchens can’t feel truly at ease with their atheism while other people cling to, and obviously flourish from, their faith in a higher being. Maybe winning more people over to non-belief is their own form of evangelism.
In the end, it’s no great intellectual exercise to illustrate the misuse and corruption of religion. It might take more brainpower, though, to explore the balance in life between those who spread hatred, war and destruction in God’s name and those who toil at hospitals, shelters, food pantries, orphanages or other programs run by religious groups, or on their own, who consider their work in the service of their Creator.