I like nice words, and I couldn’t help reprinting this sentence:
Perhaps no journalist is so admired by his peers, in part because he has actually pulled off the life we imagined our profession would afford. Dashing off 1,000 ‘pater le bourgeois words before a two-bottle lunch, blagging through war-zone checkpoints, starry parties, whisky-fuelled late-night geo-politics and crackling media feuds. Yet as most of hackdom has knuckled down to colourless, desk-bound sobriety, there is Hitchens, still larging it, a 3-D cartoon of what we might all have been, given his ego and intellect, his brass neck and neoprene liver. #
And of course this snippet:
But Hitchens is never far below boiling point. He is an evangelical secularist, an atheist warlord.
Nice.
I would love to just quote the entire thing verbatim, as it is a great piece of writing. At least if you happen to be an evangelical secularist. If on the other hand you find yourself on the side that believes in the great-eye-in-the-sky… not so much.
your are a “strong athiest” as you say yourself… would you say that you hate the idea of god? (i apologise if i offend you in anyway)
I think God is construct and religion is superfluous.
i see… i apologise if i offended you.. i seem to have a knack in doing that even thought i try my hardest not to.. i try to see myself as a christian, but i still question the existance of “god”.. only because i think of the world and at what a state it is in (hunger and disease..) and think if there really was a “god” then this all wouldn’t be like this.. anyways (changes subject) this is my first time commenting on your blog site, i have acually followed it for a month or two but never got around to commenting. and as you have probably heard many time, You’ve done a great job, keep it up! also as i looked at this site one of your podcasts cam on =P (binary bonsai podcast # 8)
P.s i had to look “superfluous” up =P
Sorry, I got a laugh out of the combination of the words Evangelical Secularist; Let me share:
evangelical
adjective
of or according to the teaching of the gospel or the Christian religion.
• of or denoting a tradition within Protestant Christianity emphasizing the authority of the Bible, personal conversion, and the doctrine of salvation by faith in the Atonement.
secular
adjective
denoting attitudes, activities, or other things that have no religious or spiritual basis. Contrasted with sacred.
Thus we have someone who emphasizes the authority of the bible on subjects that have no religious or spiritual basis. I’d say that a better combo of words for you would be Zealous Atheist – Putting energy into the pursuit of the cause of Atheism.
Personally, I always felt there was no point in spreading Atheism, mostly because of Blaise Pascal’s wager; “I do not know whether God exists, but I know that I have nothing to gain from being an atheist if he does not exist, whereas I have plenty to lose if he does. Hence, this justifies my belief in God.”
But there is no poetry in ‘zealous atheist’.
Oh, but there is MUCH to be lost by believing that something influences your life, when it doesn’t.
Anyway, here’s a quote from an interview with Douglas Adams concerning the amazing “oh, why don’t I believe, just in case” idea:
“People will then often say “But surely it’s better to remain an Agnostic just in case?†This, to me, suggests such a level of silliness and muddle that I usually edge out of the conversation rather than get sucked into it. (If it turns out that I’ve been wrong all along, and there is in fact a god, and if it further turned out that this kind of legalistic, cross-your-fingers-behind-your-back, Clintonian hair-splitting impressed him, then I think I would chose not to worship him anyway.)”
The full interview is to be found here.
Thank you for that :D