Atheist Reading

Book Review

The title of Christopher Hitchens’s the Portable Atheist suggests that its a handy reference. At nearly 500 pages, it is on the heftier side of portable to be sure. Past treatments on the subject have too often come from the theist point of view. Here is a guide to Atheism through the ages made more credible given that the author comes from within the Freethought community. Hitchens is today recognized as a leading author in the field, though in this work he is necessarily standing on some shoulders.

In the introduction, Mr. Hitchens claims the intent to identify those religious reckonings and postulations that have occasionally come to renown in culture and lead to the worst of human behavior and to highlight the works and words of those who “have always counterposed enlightenment to the bane”. If that is accomplished here, it is left for the reader to elicit from the various works chosen for this compilation.

The chapters are a chronological sampling of the noteworthy individuals of Freethought; mostly atheist, some agnostic and at least one anarchist. From the earliest empires to present day Western society, household names and the lesser known have championed the virtue of reason. The writings that have endured over time, as well as those that certainly will are well represented. The author offers brief introductions to most sections and lets others stand on their own allowing the reader to experience these writings unprejudiced.

With the escalating interest in Atheism in the U.S. and abroad, the Portable Atheist is a well-timed work appropriate for those looking to get a deeper understanding of the movement and its roots. The inclusion of expoundings by Salman Rushdie, Ian McEwan and Ayaan Hirsi Ali, heretofore unseen, makes Mr. Hitchens’s latest a must-have for any Freethought library.