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There's no question that Hitchens makes some points well, even if the points have been made by myriad others. I must agree that the Catholic Church cannot seriously maintain that its leadership is somehow in closer or truer contact with God than the rest of us. Never mind the debate over how much Pope Pius XII did or didn't do on behalf of the Jews during World War II. Read any reliable account of the papacy during the Renaissance. Somehow it's not satisfying to hear that the pope is both the Vicar of Christ and a completely time–bound human being. I understand why Hitchens is uninterested in learning about how this crooked path can be made straight.

And it's true that these problems concern "religious" people. But here we come to the really relevant point about this book's irrelevance. The overwhelming majority of people who have lived and who live now are "religious" in some way. Add to that the obvious fact (pointed to so nicely in the early chapters of Genesis) that, given enough time, human beings will screw up everything. "Religion" isn't the problem. This book could have just as easily been titled People Are Stupid. Hitchens knows this, and he has the decency to acknowledge the mind–bending atrocities committed by atheist governments such as existed in Stalin's Soviet Union and Pol Pot's Cambodia. There's a reason why people need salvation.

Hitchens calls for a new Enlightenment. But I notice that the Western Civilization textbook chapter following the one on the first Enlightenment often focuses on the French Revolution, which in part devolved into one of the world's notable anti–religion bloodbaths.

Christopher Hitchens is wrong. Intellect by itself cannot save us. As this interesting but mostly irrational tome shows, it can't even save him.

Preston Jones, a contributing editor to Books & Culture, teaches history at John Brown University. He has recently published books with InterVarsity Press and the University of Alaska Press.

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