Christopher Hitchens Was Wrong
By: Dean Van Drasek
Beat Me Now
OK, I know. One of the worst things an atheist blogger can do is disparage
the great Christopher Hitchens, famed for the verbal “Hitchslap.” It’s akin to
whatever the atheist equivalent of blasphemy would be. I must admit, I
even enjoy reading him, and watching his often combative videos on
YouTube. The problem I have with him and with a lot of best- selling atheist
authors is that they often confuse what actions the religious champion with
what is in the religion itself. The problems are often more deep-rooted and
pernicious than that. Religion and politics/laws are the coercive vehicles of
legitimacy through which these offensive cultural norms maintain and
propagate themselves into societies.
My approach to atheism is different from, say, a Hitchens or a Harris “let’s
bash down the gates” approach (although some people only respond to
simplistic arguments and firm language – let’s call them the intellectually
lobotomized). If I know someone who is religious and who has doubts, I will
not recommend any of the best-selling atheist authors; I will probably
recommend something by Joseph Campbell (although Israel Finkelstein is
pretty good too, albeit on a different level). If you aren’t familiar with Joseph
Campbell, I urge you to google him and find one of his many wonderful
books to read.
To a believer, God may be a monster part of the time, or indeed all the time.
Gods are always and without exception anthropomorphized and they are
often like kids torturing ants with a magnifying glass. Sometimes they care
for us, sometimes they can’t be bothered, and sometimes they are in a foul
mood, so watch out. From Shinto to Sumer, from the Aztecs to the Russian
Orthodox, from Hinduism to Australian aboriginal religions, it’s all about the
same. Gods are really no better than people are on a good day (Buddhist
bodhisattvas, by definition, being the exception). Even the supposedly loving
Jesus was a bastard if you happened to be a gentile, a pig or a fig tree (just
to name a few).
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