The Christian God, The Jewish God, or No God
A discussion between Dinesh D’Souza, Christopher Hitchens, and Dennis Prager. Hitchens is his usual brilliant self, and he holds nothing back.
Topic Agnostic Illustrated daily news, salacious gossip, opinion & discussion on religion & atheism.
Posts Tagged ‘Christopher Hitchens’
Catholics PWNED By Athiests
Put on by BBC World, the Question was “Is the Catholic church a force for good in the world?” The majority of the people at this debate decided that NO, it was not a force for good, and those people that were on the fence at the start (a poll was taken at the beginning and end of the debate) were swayed to the NO side.
Speaking for the motion, Archbishop John Onaiyekan and Ann Widdecombe MP. Speaking against the motion, Christopher Hitchens and Stephen Fry.
Religion Makes People Do Disgusting Things
Christiopher Hitchens makes this point in a discussion with a Rabi about male and female circumcision.
Banning Blasphemy: UN resolution curtails speech that offends Islam
No one should be harmed, incarcerated, denied health care or necessary services, or otherwise deprived of liberty or basic needs because they have stupid ideas. No one should be presumed to have stupid ideas because of the colour of their skin.
The UN thinks differently. It believes the value of ideas shouldn’t be judged, that religion “makes a valuable contribution to modern society”, and that “defamation” of religion “could lead to social disharmony and violations of human rights” (unlike the practice of religion which hardly ever lops people’s heads off).
Defamation: “false or unjustified injury of the good reputation of another”.
Resolved 12/19/06, UN Resolution 62/154: Combating Defamations of Religions is the subject of much conversation in this, the week of its annual renewal. The focus of the resolution is the protection of religions, particularly and specifically Islam, from defamation, criticism or offence. You know, blasphemy.
Islamophobia is thought, by the Organization of the Islamic Conference, anyway, to have intensified to the point of defamation after Sept 11. The UN concurs and wishes to curtail such unjustified injury of Islam’s good reputation.
Christopher Hitchens, on Slate.com:
In the same weeks that this resolution comes up for its annual renewal at the United Nations, its chief sponsor-government (Pakistan) makes an agreement with the local Taliban to close girls’ schools in the Swat Valley region (a mere 100 miles or so from the capital in Islamabad) and subject the inhabitants to Sharia law. This capitulation comes in direct response to a campaign of horrific violence and intimidation, including public beheadings. Yet the religion of those who carry out this campaign is not to be mentioned, lest it “associate” the faith with human rights violations or terrorism.
Why is the UN kowtowing to religious pressure? Perhaps they realize that the 80% or so of the world that claims to profess a belief in various unsubstatiated phenomena isn’t going to smarten up any time soon, and that we better tolerate each other’s fantasties or there will be blood. Fair enough; that 80% are by various degrees a fanatic bunch and we atheists don’t want any trouble.
But harken unto the most sinister passage in the resolution:
10. Emphasizes that everyone has the right to hold opinions without
interference and the right to freedom of expression, and that the exercise of these
rights carries with it special duties and responsibilities and may therefore be subject
to limitations as are provided for by law and are necessary for respect of the rights
or reputations of others, protection of national security or of public order, public
health or morals and respect for religions and beliefs;
Freedom of expression is apparently a lesser human right than that of believing in primitive sky gods. The UN insists that the world “respect” belief in nonsense, to the point that your ability to question or criticize religion “may be subject to limitations”.
That’s terrifying. Contact the UN if you’re concerned about this precedent.
Dawkins reads his email
Can you imagine wading through the mountains of curse-word-laden email this man must get? Between missives of hate (from loving Christians, mainly) and limited-time offers on wiener supplements, I wonder that the good doctor even opens his Outlook.
And what the heck, Hitchens on religion:
via videosift.com
Christopher Hitchens on Real Time
Atheist author Christopher Hitchens on Bill Maher, discussing politics, hypocrisy and the Pew Forum Report posted below.
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