If you haven’t heard of Christopher Hitchens, here is the Wikopedia posting: Christopher Hitchens
He is an editor for Slate magazine, among others. He is a former Brit to whom our government granted citizenship less than one month ago.
He posted the following comment:
The discovery of the carcass of Jerry Falwell on the floor of an obscure office in Virginia has almost zero significance, except perhaps for two categories of the species labeled “credulous idiot.”
Like many fanatical preachers, Falwell was especially disgusting in exuding an almost sexless personality while railing from dawn to dusk about the sex lives of others. His obsession with homosexuality was on a par with his lip-smacking evocations of hellfire.
It’s a shame that there is no hell for Falwell to go to, and it’s extraordinary that not even such a scandalous career is enough to shake our dumb addiction to the “faith-based.”
I assume it comes as no surprise that he is an atheist and recently published a book called “god Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything.” He also doesn’t like Mother Teresa (Link here.). My favorite quote: “…she tends to the dying, because if you were doing anything but dying she hasn’t really got much to offer.” Unless you are really brave and ready to be nauseated, don’t do the site any favor and link into it. If you are Catholic, force yourself to – you need to see the venom out there.
Oh to be fair, he doesn’t like Islamic terrorists either, but more because they believe in God.
Well, he and Hannity tangled tonite on Fox about the above quote. It seems Christopher views Falwell and other conservative Christians as bigots, but doesn’t recognize that he himself is an anti-Christian bigot. I guess it takes one to know one. My Christian beliefs forbids me from saying what I would really want to, so I’m not sure how my religion hurts him or anyone else. If we had a world of people like him, we would all be in the streets screaming at each other….
It is a pity that decency seems to have been lost in American debate. I have no problem with a healthy debate about Falwell’s organization and his contribution to politics. But wait until he is at least buried, and bury the venom with him.
I’m awaiting the anti-Christian crowd to show up now. In the words of our President: Bring ‘em on!”
May 16th, 2007 at 6:52 pm
Shocking idiot. I didn’t know this side to Hitchens.
May 16th, 2007 at 6:53 pm
It’s sad to say that (as of yesterday) his book was number two at Amazon. It’s kind of hard to imagine that there is that much demand for his books.
May 16th, 2007 at 6:55 pm
I’m curious McCain, what side of this nut do you know?
May 16th, 2007 at 9:34 pm
That he is by far one of the most articulate voices for the reasons we need to fight Islamo-fascists right now. Unfortunately his view of extremists seems to be the view of a moral relativist, since it is morally preposterous to equate Wahhabism with Falwell.
May 16th, 2007 at 9:51 pm
Yeah…live and let live, celebrate diversity. Unless, of course, we don’t like what you do and/or are (hey, isn’t that the reason people like Hitchens give for not liking the people they say don’t like people for what they do and/or are? Hmm. What’s the definition of hypocrisy, again?).
May 16th, 2007 at 10:11 pm
“Yeah…live and let live, celebrate diversity. Unless, of course, we don’t like what you do and/or are …”
i think it is celebrate diversity unless that person is interfering in your life …
i had a good friend in the peace corps who was a liberal back in the 60’s … she was about 60 when i knew her. we had the opportunity to see the malcome x movie, and movies in english were always a treat. she refused to see it. obviously my curiosity was peaked, since she was a big 60’s lib who i figured would like malcome x
she said she refused to support anyone who was against her, which malcome x was in her mind because she was white.
i think the same principle may apply here — not to me, i am oly vaugely aware of who falwell is, but it seems he was not an accepting type.
May 16th, 2007 at 10:32 pm
Ok – if experience is any guide, there will be plenty of people who will think this is a ridiculous, picky, trivial point yada yada yada. Let me check the care-o-meter on the carping……nope, don’t care. Also, I hope the author of this post will take this as simply the constructive criticism intended. This is an interesting post, just trying to add to, not tear up.
Seems this part should have read:
‘Cause:
Myth #3 allah is the same as the God of the Bible
http://www.studytoanswer.net/myths_ch3.html
May 16th, 2007 at 11:48 pm
Oh please. Quite literally from a historical perspective, Allah, God, and the Yahweh Man are the same. This analytical fudge with big words and esoteric interpretations of biblical passages is a study of the leaves rather than the forest. If five humans could actually complete that monograph I would be surprised. If three of them understood it I would be shocked. If one of them learned from it, I would be disappointed. The problem with Islam isn’t God. The problem is the radical Islamists themselves.
May 17th, 2007 at 3:11 am
McCain is right. Muslims are considered Sons of Abraham, as are we. They were considered a sect of Judaism at the beginning, until most Jewis leaders rejected them as heretics. I have good Muslim friends with whom I’ve prayed, exchanges stories of faith and life.
What we see now is Wahbisim, spread in part by all those oil dollars flowing out of Saudi Arabia into radical Islamic schools throughout the world.
As for the paragraph, much of it can also describe very fundamentalist Christians – God hate sinners, who will go to hell without redemption – I’ve heard the stories before of an old woman with a tear-stained Bible who will never go to heaven b/c she was so bad… Many Jewish scholars also believe in the aloof God who would never lower himself to the level of humans, or involve himself in my little old problems or your either.
Christianity was radical at the time. Jesus taught of a loving God who was actually involved in people’s lives and was interested in becoming one of us, as Jesus, so he could teach us. This is one reason why Jesus was dismissed as a hertic and blasphemer.
“Love your neighbor as yourself” was in direct opposition to “eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth,” the old laws of Hanarabi, which are followed by traditional Jews and Muslims (hence many of the problems in the middle east). Jesus taught that even the non-believers love their friends, but we should also love our enemies…
This paragraph only enflames the situtation – it becomes part of the problem and not the solution. I do not believe that Muslims have it right. They are terribly burdened with the guilt that Jesus sought to free us from, but they do believe in God, even if I don’t believe in their vision of Him. If the Muslim, Christians and Jews that truly believe that God made us all brothers and sisters worked together, that would be an awesome force that could not be stopped. Wouldn’t it be great if we all tried that for once?
Ok, enough sermons for today….
May 17th, 2007 at 4:12 am
I do not like this Hitchens guy.
I still have computer issues – but I’ve called out Cory the Clown at Dave’s site about the 2000 election and Hillary and her ad using Bill.
May 17th, 2007 at 5:22 am
Tina – Cory is a piece of work too. He and Hitchens would get along just fine.
Sorry about your computer issues. These machines are great when they are behving themselves….
May 17th, 2007 at 8:42 am
McCain- The first time I ever heard of Hitchens was several years ago (3 or 4) and he was a guest on one of those wee hour of the morning radio talk shows I listen to. He was rambling on about the atheist point of view, so I was completely unaware that he did anything else other than make his rounds on the AM radio talk show circuit denouncing religion and trying to dispel the existence of God.
May 17th, 2007 at 10:32 am
Heh heh Joe, now we both know something.
Hey IM1, don’t take offense to my little rant late last night. I appreciate the link but its just not historically correct.
Tina, don’t get that computer fixed ’cause you just might get addicted to blogging!
May 17th, 2007 at 12:39 pm
are there any countries where the predominate religion is islam, that also has tolerance for religious minorities?
May 17th, 2007 at 1:16 pm
lisab – Iraq and Palestine used to be two places. 30-40% of Palestinians used to be Christian. Iraq was a hodge-podge of different groups, including Christians (Remember Tariq Azziz? He was Christian).
Unfortunately, the crazies have taken over and the minorities have moved out (only about 2-5% left in the Palestinian territories) and the moderate Muslims have been silenced.
May 17th, 2007 at 1:32 pm
lebanon was christian, and once they lost the majority they collapsed
turkey is famous for being secular, but actually christians have been almost eliminated.
i can’t think of one muslim country where religious minorities are tolerated … thus they fail my diversity test.
May 17th, 2007 at 1:37 pm
MBT- I tend to think that Christians have been tolerated in places like Iraq because the political leaders wanted a few “token Christians” around so they could point to them as proof that they are a tolerant society.
Now that there is so much tension between the Islamic states and western world (especially the US) Christians are not nearly as useful as they once were, so riding themselves of non-Muslim peoples has become just another phase in the Islamic revolution.
I would also argue that the folks that we refer to as “radicals” and “extremists” are not so radical or extreme anymore. In fact, they are just about to the point of being considered mainstream; unless of course you are a PR person for one of the various Islamic organizations.
May 17th, 2007 at 2:33 pm
lisab – you have a point about Lebanon.
Joe – I absolutely refuse to lower myself to their level…
May 17th, 2007 at 5:16 pm
MBT- Unless you’re fighting the urge to behead someone or strap on a vest full of dynamite before you go to the grocery store, I’d say you have nothing to worry about.
May 18th, 2007 at 2:28 am
Joe – no such urges – whew!
What i meant was that their ignorance about our religion and their intolerance is fueling the terrorist movement. I refuse to be intolerant of them and lower myself to their ignorant level.
May 18th, 2007 at 2:29 am
…intolerant of Islam, I mean. I am extremely intolerant of terrorists.
May 21st, 2007 at 1:46 am
“Can’t we all just…get along?”
Uh, nope. Danger Will Robinson. That’s ecumenism, people (OK – a big word, but the fine folks at Progressive Living are gonna help us out with a definition).
“Ecumenism is a movement that seeks to achieve unity among all religions through cooperation and the fostering of greater mutual understanding. Most humanists have little to complain about where ecumenism is concerned, as the ecumenical process is inherently one that dispels fanaticism and that, at its best, attempts to arrive at the truth through a careful weighing of contending viewpoints. This is, of course, one of the methods of arriving at the truth advocated by Humanism as well.”
“In its broadest meaning ecumenism is the religious initiative towards world-wide unity.”
Hmm. Sounds ok, right? Unity. Who’d have a problem with that?
Let’s explore why a world religion may not be such a good thing:
http://fatima.freehosting.net/
There’ve been plenty of things written on this subject pro and con, but here’s one I think is pretty close to the mark.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/fr/713675/posts
Ok – but I wonder what they think about the koran saying:
O believers, take not Jews and Christians as friends; they are friends of each other. Those of you who make them his friends is one of them. God does not guide an unjust people. – 5:54
It’s not some special Wahhabi version of the koran that says:
Allah is an enemy to unbelievers. – Sura 2:98
On unbelievers is the curse of Allah. – Sura 2:161
Slay them wherever ye find them and drive them out of the places whence they drove you out, for persecution is worse than slaughter. – 2:191
Fight against them until idolatry is no more and Allah’s religion reigns supreme. – Sura 2:193 and 8:39
Those who believe fight in the cause of God, and those who reject faith fight in the cause of evil. – 4:76
But if they turn renegades, seize them and slay them wherever you find them. – 4:89
O Prophet! Exhort the believers to fight. If there are 20 steadfast men among you, they shall vanquish 200; and if there are a hundred, they shall rout a thousand unbelievers, for they are devoid of understanding. – 8:65
It is not for any Prophet to have captives until he has made slaughter in the land. – 8:67
When the sacred months are over, slay the idolaters wherever you find them. Arrest them, besiege them, and lie in ambush everywhere for them. – 9:5
Fight those who believe neither in God nor the Last Day, nor what has been forbidden by God and his messenger, nor acknowledge the religion of Truth, even if they are People of the Book, until they pay the tribute and have been humbled. – 9:29
O Prophet! Make war on the unbelievers and the hypocrites. Be harsh with them. Their ultimate abode is hell, a hapless journey’s end. – 9:73
Fight unbelievers who are near to you. 9:123
When you meet the unbelievers, smite their necks, then when you have made wide slaughter among them, tie fast the bonds, then set them free, either by grace or ransom, until the war lays down its burdens. – 47:4
Muhammad is Allah’s apostle. Those who follow him are ruthless to the unbelievers but merciful to one another. Through them, Allah seeks to enrage the unbelievers. – 48:29
September 21st, 2007 at 12:40 pm
lisab – I used to work in Jordan, and among my colleagues were several Jordanian christians. They were obviously a minority in an officially muslim country, but none voiced any disatisfaction about unfair treatment by the gov’t or anyone else. One family I knew were Palistinian in origin, others were christian Arabs.