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| Image via Wikipedia |
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| Cover via Amazon |
Christopher Hitchens is dead at 62. Many do not know who he
was and what he did. To me, he is the author of the book GOD IS NOT GREAT: How
religion poisons everything. He also authored countless essays about religion
and our religious society.
He was brash and outspoken and one of the first of the new
atheists (he called himself an anti-theist) who took the confrontational
approach to religion instead of just politely co-existing with it.
He called himself an anti-theist because he maintained that
no evidence exists for the belief in a god(s) so why are we pretending that one
exists.
I did not agree with him on many topics and issues but he
was a ground breaker for the new atheism and the new way of looking at religion and talking about religion and for that he will be remembered by history.
One thing that disqualified this book in my eyes right away is that Hitchens, like others who provide such attacks, fails to realize that he is guilty of the very thing he accuses religion of supposedly fostering- intolerance, bigotry, exclusionism, etc. It is apparently okay to mock religion, to stir up contempt for it amongst people, to try to exorcise it from society.
ReplyDeleteI don't think HITCHENS, et.al. are trying to exorcise religion from society, they are just challenging the might and blind acceptance that religions have enjoyed for centuries in our culture(s). They are trying to say that there are people out there that can no longer suffer the power of religions over our society and are merely pointing out that the Emperor really does not have new clothes; challenging the delusion. Believe what you want but don't force it on others and that is the main reason that HITCHENS and others, do not want to be ruled by our religious society; they want to be recognized by our society as legitimate members even if non-believing members. He fought fire with fire and its too bad he did not have more time to fight the good fight.
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