A Book that Changed the Discourse of Politics and Religions: In the Case of God Is Not Great by Christopher Hitchens

• Main Authors: Ying-Che Chen, 陳英哲
• Other Authors: Shun-Jie Ji
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2016
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/dw7nvn

碩士 === 淡江大學 === 美洲研究所碩士班 === 104 === In May 2007, British born writer Christopher Hitchens published God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything, arguing that the role of religion involved in the world was getting increasingly dangerous. Hitchens became an American citizen on April 13th, his birthday which coincidentally also was Thomas Jefferson’s. Hitchens was diagnosed with esophageal cancer in 2010, and died in December 2011. During the two presidential campaigns of George W. Bush, the influence of evangelical Christian was a major topic in media and among general public. The possible breakdown of the wall between church and state set up by Thomas Jefferson in The Bill of Rights was challenged, or being compromised in the most apparent way in recent history. Hitchens stood for atheism, and promoted the idea in order to solve the problems that religions carry in the contemporary world. He was aware how impossible it was to make all religions disappear. In the book, Hitchens did not agree that the common belief between most democratic countries, secularism could be the solution because of the exclusiveness of religions. Although Hitchens’ book did not address directly on how the role of religion infiltrated in the politics in the U.S.; however, the success of the book sales and reviews that it inspired showed some strong evidence that the religious matter was an important key to the people’s minds when they thought of politics, which was realized in their voting behaviors. This research is a case study that reviews the reviews and sales records of the title. It serves duo purposes by discussing the importance of book market and publishing as part of media power; and how the reactions and discussions of the title by Hitchens reflected popular opinions as a phenomenon that religion was a matter of concern in public’s minds between 2000 and 2008.