Monday, October 19, 2009

christopher hitchens.




well said sir....

5 comments:

Unknown said...

Ah yes, I have seen this gentleman on many shows and I do think he makes a great deal of sense.

This may sounds strange but I actually do NOT believe in anything that the bible (the book is a complete mess) says in a literal fashion, nor do I put blind faith in a supreme entity controlling us like puppets. I hold the possibility open there could be something but not until I see something more concrete. It does me no good to shut off my brain and ingest the trappings blind faith.

I am NOT required to accept the existence of a God within my realm of Judaism. In fact it is discouraged to arrive at any conclusion without using your intellect. This sounds strange but there are spiritual components to Judaism and a set of ethical real world practices that you can do. These can be applied to all aspects of life and it is rather amazing how ahead of its time some these ethics are. I subscribe to the latter. Now obviously there are spiritual components that do creep into the set of ethics. And really, all of the major religions do have ethics which look wonderful on paper. Now obviously if people of the three major religions adhered closely to these ethics instead of turning it into a racket as said in this video, we would have less problems.

Hitchens has criticized my religion and many others and looking at the wars and perversion of spirituality, he has proper cause to be mad. Look at the middle east. What is the main source of their problems? The west is merely a scapegoat. Why are they so far behind the western world in human rights and technology? It's not because they aren't capable, they have been hobbled by religion the most. And are we to really believe the mullahs have the peoples interests at heart OR their thirst for power? They aren't fooling anyone outside their borders and likely within. But those within would be killed for disagreement. Even here in the US we are hobbled by it. Politicians are catering to people who would have this land turned into a theocracy. Have they ever seen what good that did for the Saudis?

Dr.Alistair said...

yeah. you and i would be so dead over there.

Unknown said...

The hole in Hitchens argument is that he feels anyone who subscribes to any faith is on the level of fanatic or Billy Graham. It is not that cut and dry and but I still appreciate his observations.

Dr.Alistair said...

acting upon faith is a slippery slope.

i tell my girlfriend to call her children to find out of they are coming for supper, otherwise we will have way too much food.

one has to plan to be disappointed, and i see the devoutly religious setting thmselves up for extreme disappointment time and time again, putting faith in priests is a classic example.

i really don`t know how cathoholics can reconcile the behaviour of a significant portion of thier officers.

Unknown said...

Oh that's a can of worms if there ever was one.