I'm Sure God is Scared
by hogonice.com

http://richarddawkins.net/article,1183,n,n
Reposted from:
http://www.hogonice.com/2007/05/im_sure_god_is_scared.html

Hitchens to Jehovah: "Had Enough?"

"I went to see Christopher Hitchens speak tonight. It was quite an
experience.

The event was hosted by Temple Judea, a synagogue a few blocks from
here. I realize it sounds insane, having a religion-hating atheist
speak at a synagogue. That's Reform Judaism for you. It's the Jewish
version of gay-pastor, Jesus-was-really-just-like-Buddha Christianity.
Salt without its saltness. Not a religion, but the effigy of a
religion.

I just love lite religion. Soothe your conscience by sitting on a pew
for an hour a week, get along with absolutely everybody, and don't get
bogged down in an embarrassing relationship with that imaginary,
demanding, judgmental "God" character. Tastes great. Less filling. And
you can screw around and have all the abortions you want. God would
have made religion like this in the first place. If He had only been
as smart as we are.

My father and I went in and sat down among 500 or so chairs. The place
eventually filled completely. I looked around at the crowd and
marveled. They were in a church, but they dressed like refugees from a
rummage bin. Jeans with ragged unhemmed ends. Shorts. Tennis shoes.
And most of the people there slouched and looked flabby and a bit
grimy. Lots of beards. Lots of male/female couples in which the men
were clearly gay. In fact, lots of gays, period. In retrospect, I
realize I should have expected that. After all...Leviticus.

Before Hitchens came in, I turned to my dad and asked him if he had
noticed there were no Cubans there. That's an exaggeration, but a
small one. No one was speaking Spanish. In Miami, that never happens.
Not unless you're in the ghetto or Little Haiti. But these were
Caucasians.

The Rabbi--Rabbi Goldberg--got up and made an obsequious, fawning,
assimilating fool of himself. He said Temple Judea was "tolerant of
atheism." Silly me. I had this insane idea that the purpose of a
synagogue was to advance the cause of Judaism, which is generally
considered to be a religion.

He quoted some French Jew who died in the nineteenth century. The gist
of the quote was that Judaism was great because it didn't require
adherents to shut off their brains and abandon reason. Rabbi Goldberg
thought it was a good idea to bring in people hostile to God and
Judaism and let them speak, because it "challenged" believers. Again,
I guess I'm crazy. I thought the secular world challenged believers
day in and day out, and the purpose of a synagogue was to provide a
sanctuary and an authoritative response.

Hitchens slouched in and began speaking. One of the first things he
did was to inform us of what he had wanted to say on Hannity & Colmes
this week, before being cut off. It was about the late Reverend
Falwell. I didn't catch all of it, but I heard the phrase "immense
carcass was found, unraptured..." And the audience burst into
applause.

That explained the disrespectful clothes, the oily eyeglasses, the
cheesy beards, the slumped shoulders, and the lack of Spanish. The
place was packed with garden-variety liberals.

Hitchens went on to insult Judaism just about has hard as he could. He
insulted Abraham for offering to sacrifice his son, describing
Abraham's faith--Judaism--as "base and servile." He made fun of
circumcision. He used crude language. He did his best to get thrown
out of the place, but as of the time I left, Rabbi Goldberg seemed
thrilled to have him.

I saw nothing new here. "Life is hard. Scripture doesn't seem to make
sense. God was pretty harsh in the Old Testament. Therefore God is a
myth." It was facile. It was a parade of clumsily constructed,
transparent straw men. It was bigoted. It was deliberately offensive,
either because Hitchens despises the church or because he just wants
to sell books.There wasn't one second of warmth or humility or
compassion or tolerance in it. It was trite, predictable, and
shopworn. And the boobs in the crowd ate it up because, like Hitchens,
they had already decided they hated God before they showed up.

It's a funny world we live in. Believing in a God you have never seen
makes you close-minded and hateful, but being sure that God does not
exist and exhibiting coarse, overt hostility to religion proves your
mind is open and you love all humanity.

I can only assume that at one point in his childhood, Hitchens was
spanked too hard by a nun. Something happened that turned him against
God, and whatever it was, he has decided to make the rest of us pay
for it. Anger this strong cannot possibly be based in reason.

You know how atheists are. Grammy or Grampy or Fluffy dies, or Sister
Mary hits them one too many times with the steel ruler, and God gains
a lifelong enemy.

The amazing thing is how much joy they get from getting together and
sharing their hatred of God. How can it possibly be that much fun? I'm
no fan of Islam or Mormonism, but I wouldn't exactly get off on
watching a preacher give the Muslims or the Mormons hell for half an
hour. The atheists enjoyed Hitchens the way men enjoy a good stripper.

I wonder if this explains his liberal-vexing opposition to
Islamofascism. Tonight he said religious people all fell somewhere in
a "continuum" between Shia Islam and snake-handling. Maybe the
religious aspect of Islamofascism is what really drives his fury.

In any case, it was a sad, ignominious spectacle. A rabbi sucking up
to a man who showed up to revile his faith. A middle-aged journalist
basking in the reflected glow of his own sophomoric bigotry, glorying
in his half-baked, pretentious theories. A crowd of benighted toadies
encouraging Hitchens in his foolishness. Puerile, fatuous vain
conceits masquerading as good. Good called evil, to mindless applause.
On the whole, I like Hitchens a lot more when he sticks to politics.

This week Ann Coulter praises Jerry Falwell and scolds his detractors.
Funny how she forgot to mention Hitchens. Probably an oversight. He
only appeared on every cable news channel. It would have been easy for
her to miss.

One thing is for sure. God and Jerry Falwell are fine. Gullible people
here on earth may be harmed by Hitchens publicly flagellating his
weird inner demons and using shallow sophistry and an armory of
hand-me-down canards to mock religion. But the two people Hitchens
seems to want to hurt the most are beyond his reach.

Somehow I doubt that royalties will make a satisfying substitute for
revenge."

I'm Sure God is Scared
by hogonice.com

http://richarddawkins.net/article,1183,n,n
Reposted from:
http://www.hogonice.com/2007/05/im_sure_god_is_scared.html

Hitchens to Jehovah: "Had Enough?"

"I went to see Christopher Hitchens speak tonight. It was quite an
experience.

The event was hosted by Temple Judea, a synagogue a few blocks from
here. I realize it sounds insane, having a religion-hating atheist
speak at a synagogue. That's Reform Judaism for you. It's the Jewish
version of gay-pastor, Jesus-was-really-just-like-Buddha Christianity.
Salt without its saltness. Not a religion, but the effigy of a
religion.

I just love lite religion. Soothe your conscience by sitting on a pew
for an hour a week, get along with absolutely everybody, and don't get
bogged down in an embarrassing relationship with that imaginary,
demanding, judgmental "God" character. Tastes great. Less filling. And
you can screw around and have all the abortions you want. God would
have made religion like this in the first place. If He had only been
as smart as we are.

My father and I went in and sat down among 500 or so chairs. The place
eventually filled completely. I looked around at the crowd and
marveled. They were in a church, but they dressed like refugees from a
rummage bin. Jeans with ragged unhemmed ends. Shorts. Tennis shoes.
And most of the people there slouched and looked flabby and a bit
grimy. Lots of beards. Lots of male/female couples in which the men
were clearly gay. In fact, lots of gays, period. In retrospect, I
realize I should have expected that. After all...Leviticus.

Before Hitchens came in, I turned to my dad and asked him if he had
noticed there were no Cubans there. That's an exaggeration, but a
small one. No one was speaking Spanish. In Miami, that never happens.
Not unless you're in the ghetto or Little Haiti. But these were
Caucasians.

The Rabbi--Rabbi Goldberg--got up and made an obsequious, fawning,
assimilating fool of himself. He said Temple Judea was "tolerant of
atheism." Silly me. I had this insane idea that the purpose of a
synagogue was to advance the cause of Judaism, which is generally
considered to be a religion.

He quoted some French Jew who died in the nineteenth century. The gist
of the quote was that Judaism was great because it didn't require
adherents to shut off their brains and abandon reason. Rabbi Goldberg
thought it was a good idea to bring in people hostile to God and
Judaism and let them speak, because it "challenged" believers. Again,
I guess I'm crazy. I thought the secular world challenged believers
day in and day out, and the purpose of a synagogue was to provide a
sanctuary and an authoritative response.

Hitchens slouched in and began speaking. One of the first things he
did was to inform us of what he had wanted to say on Hannity & Colmes
this week, before being cut off. It was about the late Reverend
Falwell. I didn't catch all of it, but I heard the phrase "immense
carcass was found, unraptured..." And the audience burst into
applause.

That explained the disrespectful clothes, the oily eyeglasses, the
cheesy beards, the slumped shoulders, and the lack of Spanish. The
place was packed with garden-variety liberals.

Hitchens went on to insult Judaism just about has hard as he could. He
insulted Abraham for offering to sacrifice his son, describing
Abraham's faith--Judaism--as "base and servile." He made fun of
circumcision. He used crude language. He did his best to get thrown
out of the place, but as of the time I left, Rabbi Goldberg seemed
thrilled to have him.

I saw nothing new here. "Life is hard. Scripture doesn't seem to make
sense. God was pretty harsh in the Old Testament. Therefore God is a
myth." It was facile. It was a parade of clumsily constructed,
transparent straw men. It was bigoted. It was deliberately offensive,
either because Hitchens despises the church or because he just wants
to sell books.There wasn't one second of warmth or humility or
compassion or tolerance in it. It was trite, predictable, and
shopworn. And the boobs in the crowd ate it up because, like Hitchens,
they had already decided they hated God before they showed up.

It's a funny world we live in. Believing in a God you have never seen
makes you close-minded and hateful, but being sure that God does not
exist and exhibiting coarse, overt hostility to religion proves your
mind is open and you love all humanity.

I can only assume that at one point in his childhood, Hitchens was
spanked too hard by a nun. Something happened that turned him against
God, and whatever it was, he has decided to make the rest of us pay
for it. Anger this strong cannot possibly be based in reason.

You know how atheists are. Grammy or Grampy or Fluffy dies, or Sister
Mary hits them one too many times with the steel ruler, and God gains
a lifelong enemy.

The amazing thing is how much joy they get from getting together and
sharing their hatred of God. How can it possibly be that much fun? I'm
no fan of Islam or Mormonism, but I wouldn't exactly get off on
watching a preacher give the Muslims or the Mormons hell for half an
hour. The atheists enjoyed Hitchens the way men enjoy a good stripper.

I wonder if this explains his liberal-vexing opposition to
Islamofascism. Tonight he said religious people all fell somewhere in
a "continuum" between Shia Islam and snake-handling. Maybe the
religious aspect of Islamofascism is what really drives his fury.

In any case, it was a sad, ignominious spectacle. A rabbi sucking up
to a man who showed up to revile his faith. A middle-aged journalist
basking in the reflected glow of his own sophomoric bigotry, glorying
in his half-baked, pretentious theories. A crowd of benighted toadies
encouraging Hitchens in his foolishness. Puerile, fatuous vain
conceits masquerading as good. Good called evil, to mindless applause.
On the whole, I like Hitchens a lot more when he sticks to politics.

This week Ann Coulter praises Jerry Falwell and scolds his detractors.
Funny how she forgot to mention Hitchens. Probably an oversight. He
only appeared on every cable news channel. It would have been easy for
her to miss.

One thing is for sure. God and Jerry Falwell are fine. Gullible people
here on earth may be harmed by Hitchens publicly flagellating his
weird inner demons and using shallow sophistry and an armory of
hand-me-down canards to mock religion. But the two people Hitchens
seems to want to hurt the most are beyond his reach.

Somehow I doubt that royalties will make a satisfying substitute for
revenge."

That's Reform Judaism for you. It's the Jewish
version of gay-pastor, Jesus-was-really-just-like-Buddha Christianity.
Salt without its saltness.