Fellow atheist trashes Christopher Hitchens.

[Jmpty]

After reading the entire article, I thought he made some good observations.

[Agramon]

Relatively unknown writer making his reputation by taking on big names. Nothing to see here, move along.

[Brian37]

After reading the entire article, I thought he made some good observations.

Again exactly what "good observations"?

The entire article is arguing the same stupid crap I have argued for 12 years now online. "You are not taking into account the beauty of it, it isn't all bad". That is the crux of the writer's argument.

Again, if we were talking about people who were viewing the bible merely like a fictional book or movie review, certainly you can find some pretty motifs in that book. The problem is it is taken as fact and people act politically and even in violence over their holy books, not just the bible.

I can find pretty motifs in Star Wars or Harry Potter, but no one writes Star Wars or Harry Potter based laws, and no one starts wars over those works of fiction.

Hitchens simply cuts through the crap and puts a mirror to the face of superstition.

What this author is doing is as stupid as saying "The pyramids are pretty", yea they are, but that doesn't change the 3,000 years the Egyptians wasted falsely believing the sun was a god, instead of trying to figure out what it actually was.

It takes people like Hitchens saying "bullshit" to be the cold water on humanity's face to wake them up out of their fantasies. People think of hippos as cute, but the reality is that they kill more humans than gators in Africa. Religion is not cute. It is a self inflicted placebo that retards human intellect and progress.

If our species never questioned social norms our species never would have left the caves.

[surly74]

If our species never questioned social norms our species never would have left the caves.

that's ironic given the title of this thread.

[GurrenLagann]

Again exactly what "good observations"?

How about his observations that Hitchens was wrong, and numerous times it seemed to have been done for rhetorical flair, such as with regard to the historicity of the Exodus account, his hand-waiving about Eastern religions and his somewhat simplistic take on the Abraham-Isaac story? The author made good and valid points.

The entire article is arguing the same stupid crap I have argued for 12 years now online. "You are not taking into account the beauty of it, it isn't all bad". That is the crux of the writer's argument.

That was not the crux of his argument. Most of the article is pointing out the topics on which Hitchens seemed to be intellectually dishonest, or at least lazy and exaggerating.

Again, if we were talking about people who were viewing the bible merely like a fictional book or movie review, certainly you can find some pretty motifs in that book. The problem is it is taken as fact and people act politically and even in violence over their holy books, not just the bible.

His critique of Hitchens in that regard was the fact that Hitchens mostly acted as if the only thing that people "got" from the Abraham story was that of a father trying to kill his son, when so simplistic a message is rarely, if ever, what people got from the story.
It would be tantamount to saying that all the Greeks and Romans ever got from their myths was that there were innumerable powerful assholes that ruined your life and like fucking every female in sight.

I can find pretty motifs in Star Wars or Harry Potter, but no one writes Star Wars or Harry Potter based laws, and no one starts wars over those works of fiction.

Wrong again.

Hitchens simply cuts through the crap and puts a mirror to the face of superstition.

If in the process of having done so he had to sometimes seem intellectually dishonest, was it really helpful?

What this author is doing is as stupid as saying "The pyramids are pretty", yea they are, but that doesn't change the 3,000 years the Egyptians wasted falsely believing the sun was a god, instead of trying to figure out what it actually was.

Exaggeration. It's not like they spent the entire 3000 years "wasting their time". Not to mention, the author's main point is - again, I repeat - not merely that Hitchens didn't acknowledge that the story was "pretty".

It takes people like Hitchens saying "bullshit" to be the cold water on humanity's face to wake them up out of their fantasies. People think of hippos as cute, but the reality is that they kill more humans than gators in Africa. Religion is not cute. It is a self inflicted placebo that retards human intellect and progress.

Again, if in the process of calling "bullshit" you make a number of haphazard and exaggerated assertions, that sort of defeats the purpose.

If our species never questioned social norms our species never would have left the caves.

As the last poster said, that's kinda've ironic given the thread title.  :rollin:

[josephpalazzo]

Curtis White is entitled to his opinions but not to "his" facts. The whole episode of the Exodus was debunked by Finkelstein and Siberman. And so trashing Hitchens that he was wrong on the Exodus, when in reality he was right, makes Curtis White look like an ignoramus.