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akhuseby's review
4.0
This is WELL worth the read. I loved that the essays were fairly brief. You can read one or two and mull them over. I always think it's a wise thing to explore all the sides of a debate. Many of my closest friends are atheists, and I wanted to understand that. I qualify myself as agnostic and there were just as many fascinating thoughts here to satisfy and agree with conclusions I've reached. Plus, it might just blow your mind how many famous folks and writers held this viewpoint. I didn't know Mark Twain was an atheist. I love George Eliot's fiction and had no clue she was a militant (and hilarious) opponent of religion. I actually found this book so worthwhile that I might use it in a class on comparative religion some day as the text. The only reason I didn't give it a five is that I haven't finished reading the entire thing yet.
jhen's review
challenging
informative
reflective
slow-paced
4.0
Just because I understood 30% of the book, it doesn't mean it's not good. You definitely need to have a good basis of philosophy. Even with a college course, i was still not able to process most of it. But it's definitely quite thought provoking.
mark_lm's review
4.0
A wide ranging collection of essays, poems and selections from larger works arranged chronologically, starting with a selection from Lucretius' De Rerum Natura and ending with part of Ayaan Hirsi Ali's How and why I became an Infidel. Even the seasoned atheist is likely to find something "new" here: there is an excellent introduction by Chris Hitchens, a reminder that there is nothing new under the sun with the writings of Thomas Hobbes, Baruch Spinoza, David Hume and John Stuart Mill, a discussion of the TV evangelist equivalents of her time by Mary Ann Evans, the thoughts of Charles Darwin from his autobiography, the unusually vitriolic comments of Samuel Clemens, an entertaining list of Einstein's attempts to deny his belief in the supernatural (many wanted the "smartest man" to be religious), and more from Emma Goldman, Thomas Hardy, Joseph Conrad, Ian McEwan and Philip Larkin. I found Martin Gardner's history of the idea of the wandering Jew, Sam Harris' discussion of the persecution of witches and antisemitism and Ibn Warraq's discussion of the Koran and Sharia law to be unusually interesting. All the selections can't be equally strong, but my only negative comment would be that I had the opportunity to be reminded how extraordinarily opaque the writing of Karl Marx is.
jpbradt's review
5.0
Christopher Hitchens is resting in peace since 2013, but while he was alive, must have been an excellent journalist. He has an highly intelligent, intrepid style and a penchant for clear critical thinking about "what is up."
What's up? The universe (and probably a multiverse). Thinking of it realistically, as the pieces "The Hitch" has compiled in The Portable Atheist have one do, what do we need other than the natural world anyway?
Nothing.
The world we have is full of awesome magnificence.
Think.
Wonder.
What's up? The universe (and probably a multiverse). Thinking of it realistically, as the pieces "The Hitch" has compiled in The Portable Atheist have one do, what do we need other than the natural world anyway?
Nothing.
The world we have is full of awesome magnificence.
Think.
Wonder.
iggnaseous's review
5.0
It's unusual to read through an anthology from start to finish. Yet, this collection offers such a compelling series of essays, that are equal parts thoughtful and entertaining, that I did just that. From Hitchens's brilliant introduction to Mark Twain's hilarious reflection on the purpose of the fly to Salman Rushdie’s damning critique religious fundamentalism, the essays are delicious reflections atheism. Other notable contributions by John Stuart Mill, Bertrand Russell, and Charles Darwin.