God And Peter Hitchens

In extracts I have heard of the estimable Peter Hitchens reading from his work Rage Against God apparently inspired by his late brother Christopher's personal campaign against the Deity I was rather disappointed that he did not attempt to counter any of the innumerable charges levelled against the faith by Christopher but instead has written a sort of confessional along the lines of St Augustine perhaps, telling us the sorry story of his abandonement of God at age of 14 and his consequent temporary descent into perdition via the primrose path of dalliance and prodigality until he was mercifully saved by a damascene epiphany to become the upright stern representative of the Good we all know and are familiar with today.

In a symbolic act and break with his reverence and respect for God and Authority the plucky and anarchic schoolboy Peter set fire to the Good Book and although his attempts at holy immolation were not fully successfull this symbolic act of rebelion and defiance unleashed he believes dangerous dark forces that he had no inkling of at the time.Leaving his faith behind unleashed a capricious,rude lawless helion who was free to dabble with the dark forces of drugs,treat people contemptibly, even mocking a boy in a wheelchair, generally acting obnoxiously and peppering his vocabulary with liberal helpings of obscenities at every available opportunity.He seemed to have concluded Dostoyevsky fashion that without God 'everything is permitted.'

This is a curious and common phenomena amongst believers ie that without God no moral ethical system for man is possible or conceivable.He tells of his time in the Soviet Union, its atheism and hatred of faith, almost implying that non-faith will lead to Communism.(He was at one time an unavowed Marxist.)For those undecided folk the believers do not help their cause by refusing to even join the debate on the issues and they leave a lurking impression that they have no answers to the aethiest argument.It is hard not to conclude that Mr Hitchens has switched from one ridiculous belief system to another without missing a beat.