A Little Touch Of Hitchens

[poliphilo]

A little Hitchens goes a long way, but is also quite bracing. Like Dawkins he isn't really equipped to debate religion with its more sophisticated practitioners, but with its less sophisticated ones he can be devastating. I've just been watching a clip of him debating circumcision with a grandfatherly rabbi. It's probably the first time the poor old man has been told to his face how disgusting he is and how he should be ashamed of himself. Rabbis, priests and imams are accustomed to deference- even from unbelievers- and I'm sure this kind of rough handling does them good. 

Comments

[wolfshift.livejournal.com]

The "New Atheists" are idiots.

[oakmouse]

Thank you. This.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Dawkins annoys me and I disagree with Hitchens on various things, but I wouldn't call them idiots.

[wolfshift.livejournal.com]

Well, no: You're a nicer person than I am.

[michael john grist (from livejournal.com)]

care to elaborate? why are they idiots?

[loxian.livejournal.com]

I'm really sorry - I think you're lovely, but I absolutely hate Hitchens, and I made a post saying why.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

My position is something like this. I'm anti-clerical. I think priests and rabbis and imams need taking down a peg or two- and I applaud anyone who has the guts to do it.

[michaleen.livejournal.com]

You are going to have to choose between idiot and lunatic. Given Hitchens's full-throated support of George W Bush, he must be one or the other.

Also, would you consider taking his fat drunken ass back? by force, if necessary? It's one extraordinary rendition of which I approve whole-heartedly. You can take back Andrew Sullivan, too.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Wiuth Hitchens I pick and choose. I think he was right about Nixon, right about Clinton, wrong about Bush. I applaud his anticlericalism but find his view of religion and science old-fashioned. I don't hero-worship him- far from it- but I do admire and enjoy some of his work.

[michaleen.livejournal.com]

I cannot admire anyone that supported Bush. One either supports liberal democracy, and aligns oneself with the human race, or one does not. When the chips were down, Hitchens did not.