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 beat 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 ...
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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