by thetrueone 8 Replies latest watchtower bible
I think Hitchens had some very honest and redeemable thoughts about religion on how religion itself has effected humanity
in the past and how it still despairingly effects humanity today. Worthy to listen to what he has to say, at least in my opinion.
This public debate which Hitchens took a part of is on this video in its entirety.
This discourse or debate about atheism is a good one there are strong points made for both sides.
Who comes out the winner ? well you decide.
The world has lost a great thinker!
I think so too Cantleave , a courageous self expressive thinker !
Not to long ago a person such as this would be either killed or imprisoned for the rest of his life.
When you consider why this would have happened brings credence and support to what he was really trying to say.
I've got his book God Is Not Great - one of the most incisive books about the inherent stupidity of belief in the Biblical god.
I liked him sometimes, but I'm not sure I want someone who supported the war in
Irag for years being my authority about not wanting people hurt or killed unnecessarily.
He tended to compare not the basic God concept but the worst of conservative
Christianity with the basic concept of atheism, which is a forced point.
Neither the basic concept of God nor of atheism come with stipulations to hurt
or kill anybody. The worst stipulations of some 'centric conservative believers
and non-believers alike get on lists of abominations, and the nicer non-believ-
ers and liberal believers, who understand faith as such, share similar ethics
for good behavior--about not wanting anyone hurt or killed over such things.
Hitchens had some pretty good debate performances with Tony Blair awhile back. Even Blair himself was impressed.
Hitchens would have been the first to concede he was a deeply flawed human being. God, if he were such a clear rational thinker in terms of his physical health the way he was a clear rational thinker in terms of religion, he would have lived to a ripe old age, rather than dying prematurely. Hewasoften seen with a drink in one hand and a cigarette in the other.
On the other hand, it's also worth remembering that he was one of the very few English-speaking academics who championed Salmun Rushdie whilst most other academics were either strangely silent or went out of their way to "see" the other side and taking Rushdie to task for "attacking" one of the world's great religions (Islam). Woofters the lot of them prepared to take an understanding stance on a price being put on Rushdie's head.
