The Portable Atheist

An excellent collection of essays, letters and other writings about atheism collected by none other than Hitch.

The book is dedicated to Primo Levi:

Dedicated to the memory of Primo Levi (1919–1987) who had the moral fortitude to refuse false consolation even while enduring the “selection”process in Auschwitz:“Silence slowly prevails and then, from my bunk on the top row, I see and hear old Kuhn praying aloud, with his beret on his head, swaying backwards and forwards violently. Kuhn is thanking God because he has not been chosen.Kuhn is out of his senses. Does he not see Beppo the Greek in the bunk next to him, Beppo who is twenty years old and is going to the gas-chamber the day after tomorrow and knows it and lies there looking fixedly at the light without saying anything and without even thinking anymore? Can Kuhn fail to realize that next time it will be his turn? Does Kuhn not understand that what has happened today is an abomination,which no propitiatory prayer, no pardon, no expiation by the guilty, which nothing at all in the power of man can ever clean again?If I was God, I would spit at Kuhn's prayer.”

- Primo Levi, If This Is A Man