Like John Ruskin and Tennyson, he was a Rationalist, but he did not go out of his way to criticize religion.

“I resist all established beliefs... Do unto others: How much deeper into religion do we really need to go?”

Hitchens says, "I'm an atheist. I'm not neutral about religion, I'm hostile to it. I think it is a positively bad idea, not just a false one. And I mean not just organized religion, but religious belief itself."