I live in the north part of Idaho, in the portion that looks like a rock chimney. I bring this up merely to lend credence to my next claim, which is that the lakes up here are pretty cold year round. When you are swimming, or water skiing, even in August, you are always in …
The Need for Human Sacrifice
I think I will treat the next two chapters together. Chapter Seven of Hitchens’ book is on the nightmare we call the Old Testament, and Chapter Eight informs us why the evil of the New Testament surpasses that of the Old. That which is good in the Old Testament is, according to Hitchens, not unique …
Mucho Macaronic Mirabile Dictu
Chapter Six of Hitchens’ book is all about “Arguments from Design.” I have gone back and forth in my mind about how to approach this one. Should I do a slow inexorable build to the point in my last paragraph where I place the capstone of a fun quotation from this chapter, doing so with …
Because My Brain Burbles
It used to be possible for believers to have a brain, but no more. This is because our ancestors lived in the blackest of ignorance, and theologians like Aqinas or Maimonides were just playing cards with the hand they were dealt. Ya know? I said in an earlier post that I was going to point …
Would There be a Vice Squad in Hitchensville?
Okay, so the next chapter is Hitchens on health, to which health the religion of your choice is almost certainly hazardous. We are only on the fourth chapter, and it is of average length, but the mistakes Hitchens makes are starting to accumulate, so it might take a little bit of extra time to get …
Foolishness to the Greeks
Chapter Three is “A Short Digression on the Pig; or, Why Heaven Hates Ham.” Since it is a brief chapter, it warrants a comparable response. In this chapter, Hitchens has a case of the cutes — there is a lot here to make fun of, this is something he is good at, and so he …
Wet Streets Cause Rain
The second chapter of Hitchens’ book is entitled “Religion Kills.” Well, in this world of hardscrabble Darwinism, nature red in tooth and claw, what doesn’t? Religion kills, but so does cancer, old age, hunting accidents, radiation from the sun, other predatory species, too much mayonnaise, and the music of Andrew Lloyd Webber. Actually, we need …
Lo, the Bombasticator Cometh
Comes now Christopher Hitchens in his new book, God is Not Great, and he thwacketh us believers upon the mazzard. The book promises to be an engaging read; Hitchens writes fluidly and well, and he knows how to go over the top rhetorically, but not by too much. More on this shortly. His rationalism is …
Irrelevant Details
I had seen on Richard Dawkins’ blog that he was going to be on the O’Reilly Factor, which he in fact was. He and Bill skirmished, as could have been predicted, and I only want to say one thing about it. O’Reilly brought up Stalin and Hitler, good job, and Dawkins pointed out that both …
Slavery and Atheism
In Letter From A Christian Citizen, I argue two basic points concerning slavery. The first is that atheism does not provide us with any solid ground for condemning slavery. This does not keep atheists from condemning slavery. It just keeps them from having a good reason for doing so. “From an atheistic perspective, how can …