Comments on: Bah, Hitchens!

By: Tim Oren

Tim Oren — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 00:34:01 +0000

I’m usually a Hitch fan, but he’s off base on this one, and Roger has it right. Higher powers and an afterlife are uncertain, long winter nights and a need to party are for sure. Happy Hanukkah, you all!

By: TomTom

TomTom — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 00:15:55 +0000

dclydew-
Odd that a spate of books trumpeting atheism has recently leapt into print, if challenging “the belief system of someone else rarely works”. Odd, too, that Christian missionaries converted more than a few over the years….

By: dclydew

dclydew — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 19:14:06 +0000

Part of that is his unwillingness to leave my belief system unchallenged. Won’t work.

Trying to challenge the belief system of someone else rarely works… but I think we’d do well to constantly challenge our own belief systems. Too many people seem to confuse the Map and the Territory.

By: TomTom

TomTom — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 14:28:55 +0000

(Militant) atheism is ultimately nihilistic.
That a Power higher than myself exists seems painfully obvious to me. That cells in the young embyro of all mammals migrate toward the same point and join together to start forming a kidney is an example; one cell line forms the blood-filtering structures, the other line the urinary collection system. Or, that 1+1 always=2. Or, that long strings of pure prime numbers dimensionally exist in the real world. Or, that water is densest at +4C.

Hitchens is clearly an alcoholic; an alcoholic personality at the least, featuring self-centeredness. Part of that is his unwillingness to leave my belief system unchallenged. Won’t work.

By: Richard Nieporent

Richard Nieporent — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 00:41:41 +0000

It appears that the militant atheists have become the new Puritans – they can’t stand the idea that someone somewhere is enjoying a religious holiday.

By: Wellspring

Wellspring — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 23:16:20 +0000

Hitch is in over his head.

The glory days of the greeks were long behind them when the Maccabees revolted, and the Jews revolted for good reason. Not to impose a theocratic orthodoxy that couldn’t win on its own merits, but because the once-tolerant greeks had decided to impose their own ideals by force and the Jews wanted the right to practice their own religion at all.

They appropriate the Temple for their own religion. They banned Torah study. The celebration includes gelt and the dreidel game for a good reason: Jews had to study Torah in secret, and when the greek secret police (or its equivalent) caught them, they would whip out their dreidels and coins and pretend that they had actually been gambling.

It’s ironic, because Greek philosophy posed the first serious intellectual challenge to Judaism. Had the Greeks not not tried to impose their polytheistic-but-mostly-secular world view by banning the study of Torah and occupying the Temple to their own ends, then they might have had a better chance of stamping judaism out.

So the lesson as I read it is twofold: first, in Iraq, that respect for local culture and religion are paramount. Our forces’ respect is certainly paying off at the moment, and al Qaeda has suffered grievously for their lack of tolerance of the locals.

Second, to secularists in the United States: defending the separation of church and state is good and important. However, as the state grows to absorb more and more of our daily life, it’s pushing religion out of the way. People should be free to have and practice their own beliefs, however superior your philosophy seems to be to you. If you’re really that smart, they’ll come around in time. And if not them, their kids. Impose your views by force and they might still be around twenty five hundred years later gloating about their victory.

Happy Hanukkah!

By: Steven

Steven — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 21:48:28 +0000

I agree with Roger — this is way over our heads, and agnosticism seems to be a more sensible response than atheism. Imagine trying to explain the workings of a computer to an ant. You won’t get very far. The ant’s brain simply isn’t capable of processing the information. I think when it comes to understanding the nature and origins of the universe and of life, we are in the position of the ant trying to understand the computer. How anyone can claim to know with certainty (or anything remotely close to it) that there is no God is beyond me.

As for Chanukah, it’s one of those holidays that fits the generic Jewish holiday description:

1) They tried to kill us all.
2) We won.
3) Let’s eat!

(See also: Purim, Passover)

By: Lem

Lem — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 20:44:19 +0000

What is really strange to me is that just 48 hours ago the murderers of Shawn Taylor would have been shown more compassion than the compassion shown to the teddy bear teacher who named the teddy bear the merciful and the compassionate Muhammad.

Ohy vey.

By: Barry Dauphin

Barry Dauphin — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 19:36:30 +0000

What’s wrong with a little mythology if it’s a good excuse to have a few drinks and exchange gifts.

Hitchens, of all people, can’t be totally against something that encourages drinking. Surely, that’s a cause he can rally to!

By: heather

heather — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 19:30:27 +0000

I agree with Roger, the existence of God is way over my head too. However, I have noted that the closer we look at tiny things, like viruses, the more complex they are; while looking the other way, there seems to be SEVERAL universes. Which means that ????

Whatever. Roger’s explanation re Hannukah is GREAT. Children. Food. Light. FUN.

Does Christopher Hitchens know about ‘fun’? Maybe that will be his next book!