Hitchens Bros. Clash Over Belief

Posted on Jun 13, 2007

Writer Christopher Hitchens is drawing widespread attention with his latest provocative oeuvre, “God Is Not Great:  How Religion Poisons Everything.” But one person close to him questions the integrity of his atheist stance:  brother Peter Hitchens, who told the British paper The Independent (irking Christopher in the process) that he wonders if Christopher protests too much about his lack of belief.

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The Independent:

On a book tour in Los Angeles, Christopher agrees to read the review by email and then flatly rejects the idea that he is, as he put it, a “ repressed seeker.” Prefacing his response to his brother’s review with faint praise—“a quite stirring and eloquent piece”—Christopher says: “The sickly idea that this interest is a disguised cry for help ... only demonstrates the insecurity and the bad faith of the godly.” The elder brother then adds: “Though I slightly dislike to say this, [Peter] offers himself as yet another example of how the religious mentality forces honest and reasonable people to say dishonest and irrational things.”

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