Interesting new book on aethism has been written by Christopher Hitchens (a polarising personality):

http://books.guardian.co.uk/digestedrea ... 98,00.html

"four irreducible objections to religious faith - its misrepresentations of the origins of man and the cosmos, its combination of servility and solipsism, its dangerous sexual repression and its wishful-thinking"

"Religion serves only the self-satisfied and the conceited; it dates back to a period of prehistory when nobody - not even the mighty Democritus - had the faintest clue what was going on and God was needed not just as an explanation but as an instrument of social repression."

I agree with a lot of his comments on the damage in the world created by religion.

He was interviewed by Jon Stewart 2 months ago.
Smart guy, but he talks like he's stoned, (or he was) which means he couldn't get his point across. Even though Stewart tried to help him out on more than one occasion.

Didn't read his book, I'll buy it if I see it lying around somewhere.

Listened to an interesting interview with him and his brother Peter on Radio 4 this morning. Peter Hitchens is known as a conservative minded journalist with a strong belief in the importance of religion and traditional values in society.

I can also recommend Michel Onfray's book "Atheist Manifesto: The Case Against Christianity, Judaism and Islam"

I would also recommended watching if possible the Channel 4 documentary by Richard Dawkins The Root Of All Evil? (it is in two parts The God Delusion and The Virus Of Faith)