Christopher Hitchens

[Brown]

Oh the irony. Reason? Convininced that someone is going to an imaginary place? You don't know what reasonable is.
Would it also be equally ok with you for an atheist to try to convince a terminally ill Christian that they are wasting their final days praying etc.

It seems to me that the irony you point out was one of the principal themes of Hitchens's book, "God Is Not Great."

Hitchens said that he had been willing to leave others alone to practice their religions, and that he would have appreciated it if they had returned the favor. But this is something they would not do. Hitchens hypothesized that not only WOULD the religious folks not leave him alone, many of them seemed to be INCAPABLE of doing so.

Part of the dynamic is that many religious believers are under the impression that the stakes are as high as could possibly be, so that they feel they have to engage the unbeliever for the unbeliever's own good (and in some cases, for the believer's own good).

Edited to add: We see that dynamic at work in Hitchens's case. In the minds of some, Hitchens will be sent to an existence of eternal torture if he does not accept as valid some religious principles that his reason has already examined at length and found to be unsound. We also see an extreme longing among some believers that the hardship he is enduring will cause him to declare that his previous criticisms of religious faith were in error (and that their belief is in that way validated).

 

[hgc]

Well he's closer to it then he was before.

Aren't we all?

 

[Undesired Walrus]

C.H on C.R:

http://www.charlierose.com/view/interview/11168

 

[Patricio Elicer]

C.H on C.R:

http://www.charlierose.com/view/interview/11168

Thanks for the link, that was interesting to see.

 

[DC]

 

[Patricio Elicer]

Touching!

 

[Lamafarmer]

Meh, I watched (or rather said listened to while working) a debate with him and was said to think that in the near future, that not only there won't be any debates with him, but every I will watch will feature at least one guy who shouldn't be dead already.

Touching!

I find the theme of "coming out as an Atheist" really weird.

 

[DC]

Meh, I watched (or rather said listened to while working) a debate with him and was said to think that in the near future, that not only there won't be any debates with him, but every I will watch will feature at least one guy who shouldn't be dead already.




I find the theme of "coming out as an Atheist" really weird.

why?

 

[Lamafarmer]

Personally, I've never encountered this as a problem in Germany. Be it myself, who didn't do confirmation class and aborted it because I thought it was really silly to learn the nonsense just for the money, or any of the people I know and are atheists or agnostics.

 

[Raconteur]

Same here in England. I hardly knew a single religious person before I left home for university, so there was certainly never a problem with 'coming out'. It's always weird to me to hear how different that is for some people in the U.S.

 

[DC]

Personally, I've never encountered this as a problem in Germany. Be it myself, who didn't do confirmation class and aborted it because I thought it was really silly to learn the nonsense just for the money, or any of the people I know and are atheists or agnostics.

i never had troubles in Switzerland, but in Belgium it was a bit more difficult.

 

[bit_pattern]

Makes you wonder how an Englishman could become such combative atheist. Americans I can understand, they have that **** pushed down their collective throat, and Dawkins I can understand because he is at the coalface of the religious attack against evolution. But Hitchen's? He strikes me as sensationalist, look-at-me, polemicist cashing in on the Dawkins controversy and the backlash against religion in the wake of 9/11.

The guy really is an A-grade jerk who feeds off controversy, the very epitome of Eric Hoffer's 'true believer'. Galloway said it best; bloated, drink-sodden,Trotskyist apostate.

 

[Guybrush Threepwood]

The guy really is an A-grade jerk who feeds off controversy, the very epitome of Eric Hoffer's 'true believer'. Galloway said it best; bloated, drink-sodden,Trotskyist apostate.

I thought it was 'Bloated, claret soaked popinjay' ?

Regardless, while I sympathise with him and his family for his illness I never could understand the hero worship for him.

 

[bit_pattern]

I thought it was 'Bloated, claret soaked popinjay' ?

Google seems to agree! I'm certain Galloway called him a Trotskyist apostate at some point though, there's no way I could have come up with such a colourful adjective myself

 

[bit_pattern]

Before the hearing began, the independent MP for Bethnal Green and Bow had some scorn to bestow generously upon the pro-war writer Christopher Hitchens. "You're a drink-soaked former Trotskyist popinjay," Mr Galloway informed him. "Your hands are shaking. You badly need another drink," he added later, ignoring Mr Hitchens's questions and staring intently ahead. "And you're a drink-soaked ..." Eventually Mr Hitchens gave up. "You're a real thug, aren't you?" he hissed, stalking away.

--The Guardian

 

[Aepervius]

I don't particularly worship him, I find some of its point good, but it is a question of opinion. That said attacking somebody's opinion using his drink problem is one good example of ad hominem.

 

[bit_pattern]

That said attacking somebody's opinion using his drink problem is one good example of ad hominem.

Oh, no doubt, but it was a FUNNY ad hominem! Which was the only reason I put it out there As much as I find Hitchen's distasteful he is probably ten times the intellectual that Galloway is, so cut him some slack, the fat fool needs something to attack such a cutting intellect and personality with, even if it is puerile ad hom's. And, ****, I'm nobody to talk, I have a respectable drinking problem of my own

 

[Pardalis]

Makes you wonder how an Englishman could become such combative atheist. Americans I can understand, they have that **** pushed down their collective throat, and Dawkins I can understand because he is at the coalface of the religious attack against evolution. But Hitchen's? He strikes me as sensationalist, look-at-me, polemicist cashing in on the Dawkins controversy and the backlash against religion in the wake of 9/11.

The guy really is an A-grade jerk who feeds off controversy, the very epitome of Eric Hoffer's 'true believer'. Galloway said it best; bloated, drink-sodden,Trotskyist apostate.

You don't think there is reason for concern about religious extremism after 9/11?

Oh right, let me guess, you're one of those who thinks 9/11 wasn't caused by Islamists.

 

[Pardalis]

Before the hearing began, the independent MP for Bethnal Green and Bow had some scorn to bestow generously upon the pro-war writer Christopher Hitchens. "You're a drink-soaked former Trotskyist popinjay," Mr Galloway informed him. "Your hands are shaking. You badly need another drink," he added later, ignoring Mr Hitchens's questions and staring intently ahead. "And you're a drink-soaked ..." Eventually Mr Hitchens gave up. "You're a real thug, aren't you?" he hissed, stalking away.

--The Guardian

At least Hitchens didn't receive blood money from the Hussein mafia regime, and isn't working for the Islamic propaganda machine Press-TV.

 

[bit_pattern]

Oh right, let me guess, you're one of those who thinks 9/11 wasn't caused by Islamists.

Yeah, it was the j00's wot done it! There you go, that should fit nicely into your pathological need to typecast everybody you disagree with into the most extreme stereotype you can come up with