| Topic: |
Religions > Atheism |
| User: |
"Jason Spaceman" |
| Date: |
06 May 2007 05:41:47 AM |
| Object: |
Toronto Star columnist reviews Hitchens' book |
From the article:
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Nature certainly appears highly imperfect, as well as beautiful and
orderly, but arguments based on these aspects of reality quickly veer
away from science. Science, for example, rightly dismisses the unseen
as a factor in its experiments, but the question of whether the unseen
exists is not a question for science.
Design and randomness are similar philosophical issues. Can a dead and
blind environment mechanically and blindly produce a new kind of
animal and endow it with new qualities? Hitchens would say he believes
with certainty that the answer to that is yes. But this belief, akin
to a scientist discussing morality, is of no more authority than the
opinion of what Hitchens calls "yokel creationist fans." Yokels may
not be wrong when they notice Hitchens' view of evolution is like a
vision of more and more water pouring from an empty jug.
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Read it at http://www.thestar.com/artsentertainment/article/210869
J. Spaceman
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| User: "Jason Spaceman" |
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| Title: Re: Toronto Star columnist reviews Hitchens' book |
06 May 2007 05:47:13 AM |
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Also see 'An ecumenical contempt for religion' at
http://www.thestar.com/artsentertainment/article/210861
From the article:
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Pretty much every faith is fair game in Hitchens' new book
May 06, 2007 04:30 AM
Vit Wagner
Make no mistake, Christopher Hitchens is not of the view that
political discourse is improved when U.S. presidential candidates are
invited to publicly state a preference for boxers or briefs.
But since the formerly unmentionable subject has long since been
broached, maybe it's time someone asked current Republican hopeful
Mitt Romney if he favours the sacramental, chastity-supporting
undergarments endorsed by others of his Mormon faith.
Not that Hitchens, an English-born journalist and author who has
adopted the U.S. as his home, is holding his breath. Such a question
regarding Romney's unseen sartorial preferences would be deemed an
unfit topic for even the most adversarial debate, the assumption being
that since the matter is an extension of religious faith it is
generally understood to be off-limits.
Hitchens, author of the newly published god is not Great: How Religion
Poisons Everything, couldn't disagree more.
"(Mormonism) is supposed to be his core belief," says Hitchens, during
a phone interview from his hotel room in New York. "No one should be
thinking, `Oh dear, we shouldn't be bringing up the chap's religion.'"
Not, Hitchens hastens to add, that Romney, a former governor of
Massachusetts, is dodging the issue. It's more that the media rarely
think to inquire.
If you read Hitchens' assertively argued book, you will discover its
author has serious reservations about Mormonism – as well as
Christianity in general, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism and pretty
much every other set of religious beliefs ever espoused in human
history. The volume is nothing if not ecumenical in its contempt for
religion, a stark contrast to the customarily respectful way issues of
faith are discussed, even among non-believers.
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J. Spaceman
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