44 replies to this topic

[Spademan]

As we all know, Yahweh God, the God of Abraham, has stricken Christopher Hitchens - the drinkin', profanin', militant, atheist, god-hating, extremist, Nazi-Commie, secular-socialist, filthy liberal, immigrant, intellectual elitist, subscriber to Darwininan faith, and probable Islamic terrorist and eugenics supporter - with an aggressive and malignant cancer. Out of love.For white, male, Christian, conservative right-wing dominionists of God-blessed American exceptional-ism. Awhile ago Hitchens wrote this letter to fellow non-cult members, having been unable to attend a speaking engagement due to the illness:

Dear fellow-unbelievers, Nothing would have kept me from joining you except the loss of my voice (at least my speaking voice) which in turn is due to a long argument I am currently having with the specter of death. Nobody ever wins this argument, though there are some solid points to be made while the discussion goes on. I have found, as the enemy becomes more familiar, that all the special pleading for salvation, redemption and supernatural deliverance appears even more hollow and artificial to me than it did before. I hope to help defend and pass on the lessons of this for many years to come, but for now I have found my trust better placed in two things: the skill and principle of advanced medical science, and the comradeship of innumerable friends and family, all of them immune to the false consolations of religion. It is these forces among others which will speed the day when humanity emancipates itself from the mind-forged manacles of servility and superstition. It is our innate solidarity, and not some despotism of the sky, which is the source of our morality and our sense of decency. That essential sense of decency is outraged every day. Our theocratic enemy is in plain view. Protean in form, it extends from the overt menace of nuclear-armed mullahs to the insidious campaigns to have stultifying pseudo-science taught in American schools. But in the past few years, there have been heartening signs of a genuine and spontaneous resistance to this sinister nonsense: a resistance which repudiates the right of bullies and tyrants to make the absurd claim that they have god on their side. To have had a small part in this resistance has been the greatest honor of my lifetime: the pattern and original of all dictatorship is the surrender of reason to absolutism and the abandonment of critical, objective inquiry. The cheap name for this lethal delusion is religion, and we must learn new ways of combating it in the public sphere, just as we have learned to free ourselves of it in private. Our weapons are the ironic mind against the literal: the open mind against the credulous; the courageous pursuit of truth against the fearful and abject forces who would set limits to investigation (and who stupidly claim that we already have all the truth we need). Perhaps above all, we affirm life over the cults of death and human sacrifice and are afraid, not of inevitable death, but rather of a human life that is cramped and distorted by the pathetic need to offer mindless adulation, or the dismal belief that the laws of nature respond to wailings and incantations. As the heirs of a secular revolution, American atheists have a special responsibility to defend and uphold the Constitution that patrols the boundary between Church and State. This, too, is an honor and a privilege. Believe me when I say that I am present with you, even if not corporeally (and only metaphorically in spirit...) Resolve to build up Mr Jefferson's wall of separation. And don't keep the faith. Sincerely Christopher Hitchens

He wrote another piece for Vanity Fair recently concerning the loss of his voice. (There's a page 2, btw, which I didn't notice when I first read it on my phone.)

[Roll the Bones]

Read that this morning. Hitch is awesome.

[brvheart]

Spademan, on Wednesday, May 11th, 2011, 9:01 AM, said:

Out of love.

Who told you that we are supposed to view God's decisions through a lens of human emotion? Couldn't God be merciful to some people and not to others? Why does He have to have grace for all people? If He saves everyone, then it wouldn't mean much.

[Mills]

brvheart, on Wednesday, May 11th, 2011, 7:21 PM, said:

Who told you that we are supposed to view God's decisions through a lens of human emotion? Couldn't God be merciful to some people and not to others? Why does He have to have grace for all people? If He saves everyone, then it wouldn't mean much.

Yea, I guess the most merciful being imaginable wouldn't just save anybody... oh, wait...

[BaseJester]

brvheart, on Wednesday, May 11th, 2011, 10:21 PM, said:

If He saves everyone, then it wouldn't mean much.

Why not? Step me through the logic there.

[ajs510]

Note to self, don't try reading articles heavily-laden with $5 words early in the morning with a hangover. You'll have better success reading sheet music upside down.

[LongLiveYorke]

brvheart, on Wednesday, May 11th, 2011, 10:21 PM, said:

If He saves everyone, then it wouldn't mean much.

brvheart, on Wednesday, May 11th, 2011, 10:21 PM, said:

Who told you that we are supposed to view God's decisions through a lens of human emotion?

[digitalmonkey]

[brvheart]

BaseJester, on Thursday, May 12th, 2011, 7:09 AM, said:

Why not? Step me through the logic there.

Jesus supposedly died to "save us". If everyone is saved, why die? What are we saved from? It doesn't even matter, because everyone is saved.

[vbnautilus]

brvheart, on Thursday, May 12th, 2011, 11:22 AM, said:

Jesus supposedly died to "save us". If everyone is saved, why die? What are we saved from? It doesn't even matter, because everyone is saved.

He said "logic".

[Skeleton Jelly]

vbnautilus, on Thursday, May 12th, 2011, 11:27 AM, said:

He said "logic".

Ha. Yeah, brv, that was awful.

[brvheart]

vbnautilus, on Thursday, May 12th, 2011, 1:27 PM, said:

He said "logic".

Skeleton Jelly, on Thursday, May 12th, 2011, 1:31 PM, said:

Ha. Yeah, brv, that was awful.

Whatever, losers.

[SilentSnow]

I think the logic usually is that Jesus died to give us a chance to be saved. If we reject Jesus then we are not saved, and possibly sent to eternal hell depending on the sadictiveness level of the belief system. Although some Christians reject this in an attempt to solve the free-will contradiction and believe in predestination instead. As for the spockblock, looks like he got there a little too late.

[brvheart]

SilentSnow, on Thursday, May 12th, 2011, 2:47 PM, said:

Although some Christians reject this in an attempt to solve the free-will contradiction and believe in predestination instead.

I agree with this.

[solderz]

brvheart, on Wednesday, May 11th, 2011, 6:21 PM, said:

Who told you that we are supposed to view God's decisions through a lens of human emotion? Couldn't God be merciful to some people and not to others? Why does He have to have grace for all people? If He saves everyone, then it wouldn't mean much.

I wouldn't have near the problem with religion as I have, if all the true believers that I run into didn't prove themselves to be complete and utter douche bags. And what makes it worse is they have absolutely no awareness of it.

[SuitedAces21]

I wish Brvhrt hadnt skipped over LLY's retort. LLY brought some sweet chin music there. Real nasty cheddar.

[ajs510]

solderz, on Thursday, May 12th, 2011, 4:44 PM, said:

I wouldn't have near the problem with religion as I have, if all the true believers that I run into didn't prove themselves to be complete and utter douche bags. And what makes it worse is they have absolutely no awareness of it.

Like the old saying goes, it's not God I have a problem with, it's his fan club.

[Roll the Bones]

solderz, on Thursday, May 12th, 2011, 4:44 PM, said:

I wouldn't have near the problem with religion as I have, if all the true believers that I run into didn't prove themselves to be complete and utter douche bags. And what makes it worse is they have absolutely no awareness of it.

I think you mean "true believers" as more of the evangelical or fundementalist type of religiosity. I don't think most people really give much of a thought about it to be honest and don't care too. It's something they learn as a kid and it's a card they pull out in dire circumstances and such, but doesn't really factor into their thinking on a daily basis or anything. I guess I am saying that I don't think 94% of the American population are douchebags.It's probably more like 86%.

[brvheart]

solderz, on Thursday, May 12th, 2011, 3:44 PM, said:

I wouldn't have near the problem with religion as I have, if all the true believers that I run into didn't prove themselves to be complete and utter douche bags. And what makes it worse is they have absolutely no awareness of it.

In what way are they douchebags?

[brvheart]

SuitedAces21, on Thursday, May 12th, 2011, 4:18 PM, said:

I wish Brvhrt hadnt skipped over LLY's retort. LLY brought some sweet chin music there. Real nasty cheddar.

"It wouldn't mean much" wasn't supposed to conveying emotion, but reality. What would be the point of Jesus dying?