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6 months ago ::
Dec 16, 2011 - 8:52AM
#1
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I have heard on the news that Christopher Hitchens had died. His voice well be missed by some and not by others. Personally I will be one of those who will miss his voice. I liked the books he wrote. I saw him in a debate with a Muslim reformist named Tariq Ramadan at the 92nd Street Y. The title of the debate was "Is Islam a Religion of Peace" www.youtube.com/results?search_query=chr... z1g4&aql=&gs_sm=c&gs_upl=6072l11013l0l15187l13l13l2l6l8l0l263l955l0.2.3l5l0
HAVE A THINKING DAY MAY REASON GUIDE YOU
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6 months ago ::
Dec 16, 2011 - 9:18AM
#2
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The obit in the HuffPo observes that Hitchens rallied a lot of folks to a belief in rational thinking by describing organized religion as the main source of hatred and tyranny in the world. In the final years of his life, he debated both religious and political figures about the nature of faith and the existence of God. "Faith is the surrender of the mind; it's the surrender of reason, it's the surrender of the only thing that makes us different from other mammals," Hitchens said. "It's our need to believe, and to surrender our skepticism and our reason, our yearning to discard that and put all our trust or faith in someone or something, that is the sinister thing to me. Of all the supposed virtues, faith must be the most overrated." Even after being diagnosed with cancer of the esophagus in 2010, Hitchens refused to turn to a deity or organized religion for comfort. He made it clear that if anyone ever claimed he had converted at the end of his life, it would be either a lie propagated by the religious community or an effect of the cancer and treatment that made him no longer himself. "The entity making such a remark might be a raving, terrified person whose cancer has spread to the brain. I can't guarantee that such an entity wouldn't make such a ridiculous remark, but no one recognizable as myself would ever make such a remark," he said.
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6 months ago ::
Dec 16, 2011 - 9:34AM
#3
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I have heard on the news that Christopher Hitchens had died.
His voice well be missed by some and not by others. Personally I will be one of those who will miss his voice. I liked the books he wrote.
The only text by Hitchens that I have read is his 1998 essay on the Dalai Lama, "His Material Highness," which can be read here.
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6 months ago ::
Dec 16, 2011 - 10:03AM
#4
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Just heard a profile on NPR about him. He was certainly opinionated and controversial but had such a keen wit and intellect. While I didn't agree with everything he said he certainly framed his arguments in such a way that were difficult to dispute. I will miss his voice.
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6 months ago ::
Dec 16, 2011 - 10:07AM
#5
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He was indeed VERY articulate ... I have been with a couple of Congregants who went through the long strange Death of Throat Cancer -- VERY terrible, not to be wished on anyone ... May he Rest in Peace ... May "God" have Mercy(+) on his Soul ...
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6 months ago ::
Dec 16, 2011 - 10:17AM
#6
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I think Hitchens would have enjoyed hearing the hypocritical tributes of those who despised him. He would not have been taken in by them for a moment.
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6 months ago ::
Dec 16, 2011 - 11:55AM
#7
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I think Hitchens would have enjoyed hearing the hypocritical tributes of those who despised him. He would not have been taken in by them for a moment.
Ain't that the truth.
Sad truth; religious hypocrisy even about death.
The World is divided into armed camps ready to commit genocide just because we can't agree on whose fairy tales to believe.
The belief in supernatural religion will kill us all if we don't outgrow it.
When I first read "End of Faith" I thought Sam went too far. The more I read and listen to these "believers" the more I wonder if maybe he wasn't right after all.
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6 months ago ::
Dec 16, 2011 - 1:09PM
#8
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Hitchens said that a person "could be an atheist and wish that belief in god were correct," but that "an antitheist, a term I'm trying to get into circulation, is someone who is relieved that there's no evidence for such an assertion." Sounds like an interesting fellow. Also sounds like he did not pretend to have a lack of belief but was a straight up anti-theist. He has found rest or is relieved. TransJ.
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6 months ago ::
Dec 16, 2011 - 1:18PM
#9
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Hitchens said that a person "could be an atheist and wish that belief in god were correct," but that "an antitheist, a term I'm trying to get into circulation, is someone who is relieved that there's no evidence for such an assertion."
Sounds like an interesting fellow. Also sounds like he did not pretend to have a lack of belief but was a straight up anti-theist.
Of course he had a lack of belief. He was an antitheist because he found all the conceptions of God with which he was acquainted extremely distasteful and was glad that he lacked belief in them.
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6 months ago ::
Dec 16, 2011 - 2:42PM
#10
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Hitchens said that a person "could be an atheist and wish that belief in god were correct," but that "an antitheist, a term I'm trying to get into circulation, is someone who is relieved that there's no evidence for such an assertion."
Sounds like an interesting fellow. Also sounds like he did not pretend to have a lack of belief but was a straight up anti-theist.
Of course he had a lack of belief. He was an antitheist because he found all the conceptions of God with which he was acquainted extremely distasteful and was glad that he lacked belief in them.
Is that how he defined antitheism as a lack of belief?
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