In Memoriam: Christopher Hitchens, 1949–2011 – Vanity Fair: Christopher Hitchens—the incomparable critic, masterful rhetorician, fiery wit, and fearless bon vivant—died today at the age of 62. Hitchens was diagnosed with esophageal cancer in the spring of 2010, just after the publication of his memoir, Hitch-22, and began chemotherapy soon after. His matchless prose has appeared in Vanity Fair since 1992, when he was named contributing editor.
Hey Alfie—I think this chart has been posted before, but always an interesting review. Re: belief in afterlife and other dogmas:
http://religionfacts.com/big_religion_chart.htm
Bobbo, except for Atheism and Satanism (which had n/a), they all had a belief in the afterlife.
Its almost as if you didn’t bother to read the chart.
I never heard of this guy but from this blog I get the impression he is some sort of gold standard for atheist, loons, and Dims.
It’s been interesting reading all of the rational, scientific statements debunking religion with irrefutable proof.
You should read an essay by Hitchens. It would keep your lips moving for a week.
You don’t need Hitchens to approach every subject with open mouth.
Swing and a miss. Adjust your cup and try again.
Enjoy those cigarettes, Mr. Know-It-All?
Ref:
Post #58- bobbo, the pragmatic existential evangelical anti-theist says:
12/16/2011 at 2:11 pm
Hey Bobbo, we can defeat the system !!
1. Refuse to click on any ‘Reply’ link
2. Reference the post to which you intend to reply as I did here (above) by quoting date and time. This then becomes analogous to the old system of quoting post numbers and we obtain a rational time sequence of comments once again.
What do you think?
alfie says “No one pushes against what doesn’t exist.”
So human caused global warming is real, as so many folk like alfie push against it.
Have fun I am out for the week.
It was real, until it wasn’t. Climate change does happen, that man causes it, doesn’t.
You’re confusing “Push-BACK” for “Pushing”, it is/was Al Gore and his mindless minions that were “Pushing” their global warming agenda, alfie is just pushing-back.
So lefties haven’t totally disowned him for being against Saddam Hussein, or for telling Bill Maher’s audience, none of you are smarter than this President.
http://youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=HECI4QK_mXA
I’m sorry I didn’t know more about him. He seems to have had a brain and the willingness to be blunt.
Well, #97–Fred==thanks for the support. There are 4-5 regulars here fighting the good fight in various ways. “NewFormatSux” would mean nothing to a newbie and there are quite a few newbies as well.
In truth–JCD just doesn’t care to share why the recent changes were made except to “make it modern.”
FUNCTIONALLY==it makes the forum less engaging as ideas are lost as people only focus on their own postings.
Pro’s and Con’s to all we do. I assume JCD is getting whatever he wants out of it and we poor readers can put up with it or leave. I have mostly left==posting much less than before==all to the cheers of most. Just about to get bounced off the two other forums I started attending.======UNCENSORED–has a lot going for it no matter how hard JCD tries to f*ck it up.
I enjoy the personalities here.
I planned on giving my call to masses until the end of the year to see who would play along. No mob is forming. Winter is always bad for Occupy Movements.
I think we should all find our maximum joy from the alternatives available to us.
Keep the good stuff coming.
I knew I could get a real discussion going.
That was fun.
I really think God will forgive me if I am a skeptic.
I had a lady tell me the other day that her husband had several teeth that were rotted out and needed fillings.
She said they could not afford to pay for a dentist, so they prayed to Jesus and within a couple of days, gold fillings started to grow in his teeth, and people from the church were coming by to watch the gold fillings grow.
Within a week or two, all his rotten teeth were filled with gold fillings. It was a miracle!
I told her the story was very interesting.
I explained that I have an ex-wife that has been brain-damaged for 27 years, and she requires nursing care 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. So I told her I would put her faith to a real test. I figure if Jesus can grow gold fillings in her husband’s rotten teeth, then repairing brain damage should be a walk in the park for Jesus.
She promised me her faith healing group would pray for my ex-wife and teach me a lesson about faith in Jesus.
That was more than a month ago. I have not received a phone call that my ex-wife has been made whole again.
Maybe they don’t pray good enough. Maybe Jesus doesn’t love my ex-wife.
On the other hand, maybe her story was all horseshit.
Let’s take a vote.
Truth, or horseshit?
I would vote horseshit. That story attracts too many flies to be true. It would be like God healing an amputee by giving him a brand-new prosthesis instead of a new limb. The “intelligent” choice for a dental healing would be original tooth construction finished off with real enamel.
A favorite of mine is the frequent claim that God performs medical healings using modern doctors as his tools. My mom tried to tell me that God healed her vision through the doctor who performed Lasik eye surgery on her. The story was attracting flies even as she was telling it, but she was convinced.
Verdict: Horseshit.
Nothing dangerous about your attacks, they lack reason on fact.
The origin of the horseshit smell is the open mouth you approach every subject with.
It’s good to be skeptical. Live a life, not a death which is what religious dogma promises you.
If there is a heaven and a hell (how simplistic?) then I suspect Mr Hitchens would prefer hell over the parochial tyranny of heaven that religion prefers.
I regret the entire world doesn’t repent of their sin and beg God’s forgiveness so He would heal all of their afflictions.
But what you propose is a False dilemma, there are other more likely reasons for the events you described.
Her story might have happened, but it wasn’t Jesus who did it as evidenced by the poor quality of the healing. Christ would have caused the old teeth to regenerate without cavities at all, not fill them with gold and it likely would have happened instantly or over a few minutes, not longer.
AND many Christians like myself are “cessationists”, that is, we believe miracles and healings were done to authenticate Christ, His apostles and therefore the Bible as “of God,” but that “job” was done in the 1st century and so the miracles no longer happen. Notice the past tense:
3 how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation, which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed to us by those who heard Him,
4 God also bearing witness both with signs and wonders, with various miracles, and gifts of the Holy Spirit, according to His own will? (Heb 2:3-4 NKJ)
But God might heal, but rarely does make exceptions.
Mankind got kicked out of paradise for stealing God’s property and wanting to be “like God”, so we are on our own just as we chose to be. So lack of health is mankind’s fault, his choice.
AND until we repent and believe in Jesus, we aren’t getting back into paradise. So illness, disease, birth defects, natural disasters, ARE OUR FAULT collectively.
But God in His providence allows we have doctors etc to help in our time of need, and often His help in getting that assistance isn’t appreciated. People are so thankless now.
Just the other day I gave woman $20 daily food, and when I suggested she thank God for her daily bread she refused, and complained the hospital kicked her out onto the street after spending more than $50,000 making her well, but didn’t have next weeks rent.
No thanks to Jesus at all, neither my $20 or Christ’s $50,000+ was appreciated.
Prayer for your ex-wife helps in many ways, but i wouldn’t expect a miraculous healing until God’s kingdom comes…or there once again is someone God wants to authenticate…
And that certainly wasn’t the woman’s prayer group.
And her story could be self or mass delusion, that Satan excels at. Fatima is a good example of that:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Miracle_of_the_Sun
The ’69 Mets. Now that’s a real miracle.
> I regret the entire world doesn’t repent
> of their sin and beg God’s forgiveness
> so He would heal all of their afflictions.
And yet, he created us with sin and the ability to not be healed and knew we wouldn’t be healed before we had even been created. Your deity is sadistic.
> Christ would have caused the old
> teeth to regenerate without cavities
> at all, not fill them with gold and it
> likely would have happened
> instantly or over a few minutes, not longer.
And you know the exact time for Christ to regenerate teeth how exaclty?
> AND many Christians like myself
> are “cessationists”, that is, we believe
> miracles and healings were done to
> authenticate Christ, His apostles and
> therefore the Bible as “of God,” but
> that “job” was done in the 1st century
> and so the miracles no longer happen.
> Notice the past tense:
Oooooh. So you admit that all claimed miracles past the first century by the Church are outright lies? That would mean pretty much every “saint” is a lie right?
> Mankind got kicked out of paradise
> for stealing God’s property and
> wanting to be “like God”, so we
> are on our own just as we chose to be.
According to Christian mythology, God is (present tense) so pissed about his “property” being stolen that he has punished every generation of mankind since that even. Again, I say your deity is a sadist.
> AND until we repent and believe in Jesus, we aren’t getting back into paradise.
Those that did repent did not get into paradise the moment they repented. Furthermore, those that had no sin (babies with birth defects, the Christian righteous, those in comas etc.) were equally punished.
> So illness, disease, birth defects, natural disasters, ARE OUR FAULT collectively.
Wouldn’t that imply that you are subject to illness because others are no righeous? Hate to tell you slick, illness isn’t going away.
> No thanks to Jesus at all, neither my $20 or Christ’s $50,000+ was appreciated.
Jesus didn’t was neither the one that gave her 20 dollars nor the one the charged her 50K dollars. Yet, both were likely done in his name.
It’s as if your prayer, absolution, grace nor thankfulness had any bearing whatsoever on reality. It’s as if the story about this deity thing is made or something.
Don’t tell such nonsense about me.
Leave me alone.
I call Horseshit on the tooth story. Taxed loves Jesus tho Taxed cheeks are virgin. Meaning he (taxed) attacks instead of turning and offering up the other cheek.
RIP Hitch.
It’s a sad loss for sure.
The man truly was a master debater.
I doubt anyone who is reading this would have lasted 5 minutes with him in a debate.
Hearing him argue was thrilling when you agreed, frustrating when you did not.
I regret that he never recanted in his support for invading Iraq.
But he’s beyond the reach of his critics and any retribution they might imagine.
But not beyond God…much to his dismay.
I guess God don’t like free thinkers.
The Founding Fathers of this country must be burning in Hell.
One of my ancestors was a Founding Father.
Richard Henry Lee.
I really like Thomas Jefferson too. I guess we will all dance with the devil some day. So be it.
Yes, beyond God. That’s exactly what I meant.
Dead war monger.
Dead war monger that gave you free speech and human rights.
#112–Somebody==you don’t think you could debate with Hitchens as to the wisdom of Invading Iraq?===Why not? Seems pretty straight forward to me. Already in one war in Afghanistan. That should have ended the debate right there.
Re: TeaDude: your post at 12/16/2011 at 10:39 pm
“The nun was right, you are going to hell…nothing so far has proved the nun wrong.
That you will learn immediately upon death. Evidently gravity pulls the soul down in the hell, so God dispatches angels to bring the righteous to “paradise” or “Abraham’s bosom”, while the unsaved descend into the earth…” [bla, bla, bla]
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Not only was the nun wrong but she is nothing but dust now. The bacteria and worms have done with her and are waiting for you. It won’t be torture as your “god” would have it… you will simply rot slowly in the ground, unaware. They may even dig up your remains in 200 years and discard it as more dirt to be moved for socially assisted housing. When you die TeaDude, everything you knew and who you were will instantly become meaningless. As time goes by, there will be less and less of your kind of hypocrite… the kind that takes handouts from the mentally challenged as you deprive them for your luxurious lifestyle, and you pass on the crumbs to other bureaucrats to dip into until the “donation” disappears. You claim to be a follower of Christ, but you complain about the taxes that get distributed into society so that those not so inventive and devious as you can survive in your preferable heartless environment. Your interest is only to protect your wealth, and all your ‘stuff’. You are the opposite of the Jesus that you pimp.
You will be forgotten within a generation, and as time marches on to enlightenment, more of the poor gullible and needy in so many ways, will finally see you for what you really are… a shyster for personal gain. Rot in the ground Tea Dude, or burn to ashes. It makes no difference. You will be no more… gone forever, and good riddance.
Yup that would end the debate because Chris Hitchens would realize he was debating an intellectual blathering idiot.
Hitchens also wrote a book about Bill Clinton describing some more women who Clinton has raped, called No One Left to Lie to.
He submitted an affidavit that Sidney Blumenthal committed perjury during Bill Clinton’s impeachment hearing, saying that Blumenthal described Monica Lewinsky to them as a stalker.
Hitchens also wrote books bashing Henry Kissinger and Mother Theresa.
Just a tip o’ the hat to fred’s idea, that he posted 12/16/2011 at 3:01 pm, for naming comments. An alternative to the “reply system” and more accurate to whom you are actually replying to…. like the old system.
I was a huge Hitchens fan but got sour on him for war mongering over Iraq.
As intellectual as he was, it seems like his anti-religious bigotry got the best of him on that one.
Many have mentioned Hitchen’s support for the Iraq war. I think its time to go google his position. 10 to one he gave a reason?
I wonder what it could have been? Did he consider the cost in money? alternatives? the fact that Sadam was already totally contained?===well almost–we should have imposed a total air cap and helped the Swamp People after encouraging their uprising and then leaving them defenseless against Sadam’s Helicopters.
People righteously should have been put in prison for THAT diplomatic fubar.
I’m looking forward to a read. I’ll post a link when I find/read a good one.
Seems Hitchens laid out his ideas in a paperback collection of 22 essays called: A Long Short War: The Postponed Liberation of Iraq
available on Amazon: http://amazon.com/Long-Short-War-Postponed-Liberation/dp/0452284988
and from the excellent comments there fairly summarized by this HuffPo article: http://huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/16/christopher-hitchens-dead-iraq-war_n_1154152.html
More detail here than elsewhere if you don’t ever buy the book:
https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:XPUjwnjnejAJ:www.reasonpapers.com/pdf/27/rp_27_8.pdf+&hl=en&gl=us&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESj4PVV69kDYthhlJn4kKce8TmsZcuxsrR4gM-eJyRvIFDmzVpy5cJJmwVtva6498SgieSWFz4IJ-ZbHFY2HtThAa6hFID47O__bgTf5MEYhkoUd27teVKua16TUeyIK9K3wK89f&sig=AHIEtbRb8ibjzCpeXbSM2F7ml6LGX5RtYw
All to the criticism that Hitchen’s position is a “moral” one flowing from the undisputed fact that Sadam was “evil.” Well–that is sad. Starting and concluding with the obvious is not “analysis” of which evidently Hitchens does none.
Real Politik is like that: not for idiots, nor for geniuses caught up in a moral position.
Compare and contrast, pro’s and con’s===don’t get pulled in my dogma.