Posted on 10/26/2009 6:44:52 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
This week sees the opening on various cinema marquees of the film Collision: a buddy-and-road movie featuring last year's debates between Pastor Douglas Wilson, who is a senior fellow at New St. Andrew's College, and your humble servant. (If I may be forgiven, it's also available on DVD, and you can buy our little book of exchanges, Is Christianity Good for the World?)
Newsweek's reviewer beseeches you not to go and see the film, largely on the grounds that it features two middle-aged white men trying to establish which one is the dominant male. I would have thought that this would be reason enough to buy a ticket, but perhaps she would have preferred the debate held in London last week featuring me and Stephen Fry (two magnificent specimens of white mammalhood) versus a female member of Parliament who is a Tory Catholic convert and the Roman Catholic archbishop of Abuja, Nigeria. It filled one of the largest halls in the city, and many people had to be turned away. For a combination of reasons, the subject of religion is back where it always ought to be—at the very center of any argument about the clash of world views.
Ever since I invited any champion of faith to debate with me in the spring of 2007, I have been very impressed by the willingness of the other side to take me, and my allies, up on the offer. A renowned scholar like Richard Dawkins, who is quite used to filling halls wherever he goes with his explanations of biology, is now finding himself on platforms with dedicated people who really, truly do not believe that evolution is anything more than "a theory."
(Excerpt) Read more at slate.com ...
Hitchens always looks like he is always in the state of chasing last night’s hangover away with the “hair of the dog.” The militant atheist movement should get a spokesman whose liver isn’t turning further into granite come every Monday morning.
I think Hitchens is a sharp dude, but he’s obviously has a lot of hate to suppress to drink that much.
Oh Christopher, Christopher! I am so fond of you; I continue to hope that you will see the light. I even remember to pray about it whenever you go off on one of your nasty natterings against the faithful. You are much too amusing to consign to hell.
I always like the ‘why does God allow evil in the world argument.’
They have it exactly backwards. God doesn’t allow evil in the world, he allows good. If he didn’t we wouldn’t have made it a thousand years past creation.
In the Tribulation he will lift back His hand and then the world will be as it would be if He wasn’t here now. Really really ugly with demons tormenting people’s flesh.
--and he is a believer, so he can stop all that denial--
as in:
"You say we've all got to believe in something, well-uh, I be-lieve I'll have another drink."
He exhibits the sloppy moral equivalence of denying difference between the beheaders who stone women who don't dance at the prospect of genital mutilation, and, say, the afternoon drive-time host of Des Moines' WHO who likes Mike Huckabee.
Chris, have another, but put the keys on the bar, won't you.
We could use Hitchens as a foil to the rantings of Jesse, Al and the other pseudo religious leftist whackjobs.
Open your eyes. How could a “cell” that is only feebly “evolved”’ possibly survive in a hostile
environment? It could not. How could this cell possibly compensate for the Heisenberg principle of particle uncertainty when assembling proteins and other complex molecules? It could not. It is pure wishful thinking that man can create a single living cell when the simplest virus cannot be understood despite spending billions of dollars on it. Did you hear about the missing link that was going to change everything regarding evolution? It was another example of grasping at straws. Just as “Lucy” was and on and on. Open your minds.
It’s always Happy Hour somewhere, right Chris?
I nod my head to Hitch and then he says “such as the mad attempt by messianic Jews to steal the land of other people”. Religion is hard. Faith is almost impossible. This twaddle about Jews taking other people’s land is pure foolishness. Everyone’s land was somebody else’s land at one time, and if you go back far enough, something else’s land. It is a good thing when good people of good culture take over. The world is a better place because of it.
“Hitchens is a diversion” would be my argumnt, Mr Hitchens.
I have seen a couple of Hitch’s debates. They all seem to revolve around Christian crimes, “eevolution,” or “whether faith is good for the world,” or about some patently flimsy, fallacious, or circular arguments for the existence of God that Hitch saw through at the age of eight.
But they don’t seem to get around to the real issues: Is God real? And if so, has there been any revelation?
“Christopher Hitchens how about you just stop dancing around the black hole of religions and tell us why you are so ticked off at the Heavenly Father.”
I find Christopher Hitchens fascinating. He must be in a lot of pain to be, he admits, a very heavy drinker. He is incredibly articulate and will be a fantastic spokesperson for faith, if and when the Good Lord deigns to touch Christopher with grace. It can happen, of course. Would be wonderful to behold.
I think he had a sister who had an early and brutal death from cancer.
You objection is substantiated by the fact that Dawkins talks about space aliens seeding the world.
“...I have discovered that the so-called Christian right is much less monolithic, and very much more polite and hospitable, than I would once have thought, or than most liberals believe....I much prefer this sincerity to the vague and Python-esque witterings of the interfaith and ecumenical groups who barely respect their own traditions and who look upon faith as just another word for community organizing.”
And old saying goes something like, “the enemies you make by standing for what you believe will respect you more than the friends you gain by compromising.
Of course, this presumes that there is moral virtue, the ultimate authority on which is the issue, the transcendent wisdom of the Bible, or the finite reasoning of man. While one may misuse the former (and such is made evident when this is so), the “golden compass” of man can be more destructive i degree when it points south, as it so easily has.
‘I even remember to pray about it whenever you go off on one of your nasty natterings against the faithful. You are much too amusing to consign to hell.”
You are a sweet soul. There is something about CH that rings honest and true with me too. He’s quite lovable...even if I think he’s totally wrong on faith.
Related threads:
Christopher Hitchens vs. Douglas Wilson
The Controversialist [Idaho pastor Doug Wilson is becoming a "mainstream evangelical"]
Reformed Pastor Preaches on the Proper Role of Ministers [Douglas Wilson / John Piper]
I love this youtube video about God and evil. Watch if you have a chance. It’s brilliant.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rby5itnDloI
If it doesn’t work, go to youtube and search “does God exist”
Pick the one that says “a true story” and shows an image of a large building behind a gate. Priceless!
Atheism is often close to anarchism, due to their shared antipathy toward authority. And as man is religious by nature, in atheistic societies man ends up being worshiped.
It is not real belief in God that atheists rebel against, but the moral authority He represents, and the eye through which they see Him in the Bible (and thus misrepresent Him) is is a result of that rage, which is present in the sinful nature of all of us.
(Rom 8:7) “Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.”
In contrast to the atheists creation (depiction) of god, the thousands of hymns written about God and Christ (in addition to other things) by stable and rational souls, testify to the reality of Him and God’s work in their heart and life, and i think are unique in their scope and depth.
I switched off to his rantings at that point.
He's a pitiable wretch who needs bow-coo prayers!
The argument is one thing, but saying Einstein said it is another.
Christopher drinks like he does not because he’s an alcoholic, he’s an alcoholic to avoid the still small voice within. Many have gone sober when they realized there was someone after them, after their soul. Perhaps one day Hitch will awaken to see the Hound of Heaven, also.
He has a conservative brother with whom he was estranged for years. They did get together a couple years ago, but it appears something has re-ignited the falling-out. He has and does write for just about everything in the print media. He lectures and appears on TV occasionally. He's a fellow at the Hoover Institute think tank. He's both a workaholic and an alcoholic.
Not much time to squeeze religion into such a busy, lusty life, perhaps. But then really, who cares?
Leni
bump
Has Hitch quit smoking?... I forget
I agree he is sharp, and I don’t consider myself the most religious guy, but his arguments are so full of venom and hate and his public appearances are so plagued with bloodshot eyes and slurred eyes, it’s gotta be the booze.
I think you’re right.
And they have and continue to spend how much money and resources trying to prove their is life out there and have come up with how much proof? Zero.
I like Christopher, too. My prayers join yours. Only The LORD God Almighty can turn the light of faith on. Hopefully Christopher will not reject The LORD God Almighty to keep his station in this realm. Nothing is worth his soul.
It is an interesting argument...presented in a way I’ve never thought of. I, too, doubted the Einstein angle, but he may have been a different child than adult. I’d love to see it debunked/proven. I don’t know if it’s on Snopes — I haven’t checked.
Snopes says he did not say it, and finds the analogy wanting.
Leni
Watch the video. I saw the screening at the Desiring God conference and ordered a copy for a Christian student group that I advise.
I think that you will be surprised by a statement made by Hitchens. Certainly, Doug was at the time and the conference attendees were when they saw the video. I think that the Holy Spirit is working on Christopher Hitchens' heart. He might be closer than most think. I'm sure that Saul of Taurus was a tougher nut to crack than Hitchens, so there is always hope.
Even worse was the death of his mother. It was when he was a young man at University - she eloped off to Greece with another man - then Christopher was suddenly summoned to identify her body. Her lover had either killed her or got her into a suicide pact. This homicidal lunatic was (I think) a deranged ex-priest, or something of that sort.
Thanks for this - no wonder the poor guy drinks. Hard to make sense of all the pain in the world.
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