“I am afraid that Hitchens does not really respect his creationist adversaries. He is glad that the courts have protected Americans from ‘the inculcation of compulsory ‘creationist’ stupidity in the classroom’ . . . Now I understand a fierce uppercut, and I actually respect the ability to deliver one. But you really shouldn’t write things …
Something Always Was, Right?
[Answering the objection of the infinite regress, “who created the creator?”] Unless there is a known principle excluding the eternality of anything at all, there could be no basis for such an objection. And were we to cook up such a principle, we would find that it excluded, not only God, but the possibility of …
Medicine Kills
“For Hitchens to point out all the problems in the world and blame them on ‘religion’ is like writing a book attacking ‘medicine,’ that well-meaning endeavor which has killed its untold millions. But to get this result we have to define medicine as ‘anything that comes, promising relief, in bottles or any other container.’ That …
Related in Their Turn to the Primordial Bicycle
“To argue that the Ford Taurus evolved from the Model T because they each have four tires is a dubious procedure. Maybe four tires is just a good idea, and anybody who wants to build a car should use it. Maybe a pig liver does the same thing that a human liver does, and for …
Which They Don’t
“But for someone who bases an awful lot on reason, I think he needs to pay closer attention to what he is doing in the name thereof. His conclusion does not follow from the evidence being presented, not unless wet streets cause rain” (God Is, p. 11).
The Real Culprit
“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 Weber. Actually, we need to use the wide-angle lens and admit that it is Evolution that kills” (God Is, p. 10).
Indignation That Floats Like a Helium Balloon
“How can a chemical reaction be hypocritical? How can the chemical reaction that is man be a hypocrite? Given [the atheist’s] premises, it is like being indignant with a tornado, or vegetable soup, or sand on the beach — but Hitchens does it. They all do it . . . I am happy to make …
It’s a Gift, Really
“I believe I also know how to make a metaphor crawl up your back and make an unpleasant smacky noise in your ear” (God Is, p. 2).
Reason Is Not Dry
[Hitchens] “does not write like so many other atheistic rationalists — men who believe that the authority of reason (all rise!) necessitates a turgid kind of book that reads like it was put together by a committee of certified public accountants trying to write a phone book” (God Is, p. 1).
Different Kinds of Serious
“The issues are important, but no sense getting really worked up over it. If we were all sitting on a used car lot, and one of the F-250 trucks began questioning the existence of Henry Ford, we would all think it was a serious situation, but that is not the same thing as thinking it …