Religion: Real or Fake

[Guynemer]

I don't think anyone is beyond repentance.

You haven't seen the things I've seen, Imran.

[Elok]

I remember when threads used to be closed after 500 posts...

[Zoetstofzoetje]

I remember when threads used to be closed after 500 posts...

New technology FTW

[giblets]

How is it related to technology?

[Docfeelgood]

How is it related to technology?

It's a miracle!

[Kidlicious]

Like most things that some people like to attribute to religion, forgiveness depends on the individual, not the religious brain washing they have received.

And Ming thinks forgiveness must be earned which makes no sense, but a christian actually understands what forgiveness is and actually forgives people.

Sorry Ming but you're the perfect example of what christianity can do for a person. Christianity might not be for you, since you don't care about such things, but other people need it. So what's it to you?

[Kidlicious]

You haven't seen the things I've seen, Imran.

I suppose he's seen what he's seen. I don't know why he should be concerned about what you've seen.

[Kidlicious]

Christopher Hitchens is well known as a member of "The New Atheists", a group that believes religion is evil and pollutes everything (I actually believe that's a paraphrase of a tagline for one of Hitchens' books).

I'm familiar with him. He says christianity is evil because it causes wars and is totalitarian in nature. But he is pro-war so long as it is against religion and he will attack a person such as Mother Teresa so long they are religious. That's the new way for humanity without religion I guess.

edit: He's also a heavy drinker. I guess that's his proposed solution to living without God.

[giblets]

I'm familiar with him. He says christianity is evil because it causes wars and is totalitarian in nature. But he is pro-war so long as it is against religion and he will attack a person such as Mother Teresa so long they are religious. That's the new way for humanity without religion I guess.

Uhh when has Hitchens advocated a war? Unless you're saying that criticizing religion is warfare?

edit: apparently he supported the Iraq War but I don't see how that's "against religion"

[rah]

Kid, Are you saying that religions haven't caused wars and is not totalitarian in nature?
Is being religious a shield from any criticism?

I'm not saying he is correct in his criticisms, just saying.

[Ming]

And Ming thinks forgiveness must be earned which makes no sense, but a christian actually understands what forgiveness is and actually forgives people.

Gee... so once again, it's ONLY Christians that understand forgiveness... and they have a monopoly on it. That makes no sense.

Sorry Ming but you're the perfect example of what christianity can do for a person.

And you are perfect example of the the brainwashing of chrisitianity. From raping children so that they can learn forgiveness to only christian can forgive... do you even think about the nonsense you say under the spirit of christian beliefs?

Christianity might not be for you, since you don't care about such things, but other people need it.

Yeah... silly me... I only care about thinking for myself. I guess some people need to have things spoon fed to them so that they can function. Enjoy your brainwashing. Why don't you teach some more children how to forgive. I'm sure they will appreciate your christian spirit.

[Kidlicious]

Uhh when has Hitchens advocated a war? Unless you're saying that criticizing religion is warfare?

edit: apparently he supported the Iraq War but I don't see how that's "against religion"

Christopher Hitchens blasts religion, favors Iraq war

Christopher Hitchens spent more than an hour attacking organized religion Tuesday night to nothing but laughter and applause. Then he expressed support for U.S. policy in Iraq and was cursed at by someone in the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall.


Photo by Eliza Sohn.Christopher Hitchens at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall on Tuesday. It was only one person, and the word in question was the same one fans at basketball games chant when they disagree with a referee's call. Hitchens appeared to hear it -- it was repeated at least twice -- but made no mention of it. He finished his ringing defense of U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan by saying there is no moral equivalency between the U.S. military and the Taliban, "and I bet you wouldn't dare say it to their faces."

The sharp right turn into foreign policy was a reminder to the Portland Arts & Lectures series crowd that Hitchens, a full-throated atheist who had no problem calling evangelical minister Rick Warren a "palpable fraud and dolt," is not a conventional liberal. If any doubt remained, Hitchens wiped it away a moment later with his answer to a question about whether the Catholic Church should refuse communion to politicians who favor abortion rights.

The Catholic Church, which Hitchens had excoriated earlier in the evening for the way it tolerated and protected priests who abused children, is well within its rights to refuse communion to those who disagree with its position against abortion. Not only that, he said, its stand on abortion is "the only moral point it has left."

To be clear, although Hitchens -- a regular contributor to Vanity Fair and The Atlantic Monthly -- identified himself as pro-life in a 2008 interview with Newsweek, he said he does not favor overturning Roe v. Wade and would like abortion to become more of a contraceptive procedure than a surgical one, a distinction that surely would be meaningless to those who oppose it on religious grounds.

It was an interesting conclusion to an evening that began with Hitchens joking that the Schnitz felt "uncomfortably like a cathedral" and comparing heaven to "a celestial dictatorship, North Korea with more clouds." The 60-year-old Hitchens has written more than 20 books, whose titles leave no doubt about where he stands: "The Missionary Position: Mother Theresa in Theory and Practice," "No One Left to Lie to: The Values of the Worst Family" and "God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything."

"God Is Not Great," published in 2007, was a best-seller, even though Hitchens said Salman Rushdie told him the title is one word too long. Hitchens has embraced his role as the most outspoken of the group of writers known as the New Atheists (the others are Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett and Sam Harris) and has participated in numerous forums and debates the past few years. The experience showed in his presentation Tuesday; he spoke with only an occasional glance at his notes and made casual, knowing references to physics and history.

The audience laughed at Hitchens' jokes and appreciated his "sense of wonder at the extraordinary beauty and symmetry of the universe." Atheists "have real convictions and principles," he said, and the wall between church and state should be higher.

[giblets]

So the Iraq war is a war "against religion"?

[Kidlicious]

So the Iraq war is a war "against religion"?

Obviously for him it is.

[Wezil]

he will attack a person such as Mother Teresa so long they are religious.

No, there is more to it than that. He wouldn't have time to be critical of people simply because they are religious.

His complaint (iirc) was with her methods. Suffering was good and she liked to see lots of it, even if it was needless.

Another fair criticism was her willingness to whore herself out for photo-ops with some of the world's worst human rights abusers so long as they cut her a cheque. She got some cash and they gained respectibility/credibility.