Peter Hitchens will likely sell a lot of copies of this book because of his brother, famed atheist Christopher Hitchens (I’ll be honest, that’s why I snagged a copy). Fortunately, this book stands well on its own.

Peter uses autobiography and argument to make this point: Societies founded on atheism fail spectacularly. Having lived as a journalist in the Soviet Union, he witnessed the results of Lennin’s failed enforced-atheism. Upon returning to England, he was shocked to see the culture he was raised in degenerating in similar fashion.

A major pillar of radical atheism is the premise that religion causes suffering. This book undermines that pillar and actually proposes the opposite. Most wars fought in the name of religion are not really religious, but ethnic wars with religious labels. The worst suffering is found in atheistic societies.

I’d like to believe his argument but there’s one big hole unaccounted for. He nowhere accounts for the role that government style has to play in the situation. Can he really say that theistic societies are more civil than atheistic ones, or is it simply the case that democratically governed societies are more civil than communist-run states?

My last quibble is the way this book was marketed. The Rage Against God: How Atheism Led Me to Faith is not the main point of this book. A more accurate title would be The Rage Against God: Why Societies Founded on Atheism Fail. He really said very little about how his atheism led him to faith.

While I didn’t agree with all of his ideas, the overall argument of the book has certainly forced me think. What more can you ask for in a book?

Disclaimer: This review copy was provided free of charge by Zondervan.

Hitchens, Peter. The Rage against God: How Atheism Led Me to Faith. Zondervan, 2010.