Hitchens: Why fight Religion?
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- Published on Thursday, 07 October 2010 07:07
- Written by John Draper
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Do you ever wonder why Hitchens and others go around “fighting religion”? Apart from selling books and making a living, why do that? Why not something else? In answer to an audience question at a debate with Frank Turek in October 2008, Hitchens responds. Like everyone else, when deciding on what to do with one’s life, Hitchens wants to do something that is useful and help the world. In the video below he explains that he wants to help people in countries like Somalia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon and Israel. These countries (and more) are subject to the death wish of extremists who want the world to end soon – the extremists are obsessed with death. In the U.S., many Christians believe in the coming of Armageddon and try to make it happen soon. It’s also a cult of death. Such people clearly need help.
Hitchens is impassioned about this subject and is in good form in this clip.
Original You-Tube version was removed - this is a "backup" version hosted on this site. You can see the full debate here.
I think it's fair to say that the response by Hitchens speaks for most vocal atheists and certainly I agree with his sentiment.
I would add that “fighting religion” is a worthwhile thing even if there were no extremists. Religion is a way of looking at the world irrationally - it was invented thousands of years ago when mankind did not know what we know now. It is counter-productive to progress in the world since it can stop clear thinking about problems that need to be solved. The only reason that some (although not all) religious people can still solve certain problems is that they partition religion off somehow and don’t let it colour their thinking when it’s important. Their religion is selectively applied when it suits. Much like the Bible and Qu’ran are believed selectively.
First published in May 2010 on this site.