Monday, October 15, 2007

The New (Old?) Face of Atheism

Little known facts about Christopher Hitchens.
"He showed up drunk to an exclusive NY dinner club meeting (hosting by
David Horowitz), proceeded to make anti-Semitic remarks, insulted a member of
the club (a priest, who also happened to be a 9/11 hero), and had to be
physically restrained twice as he flew into rages aimed at said priest."

Read about it here, and here.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

You had also mentioned that atheism is incredibly prevalent in Europe. Scenes of parents being dragged to jail for telling their children there is a God is chilling.

Knowing this we should fall to our knees in thanksgiving to God for the grace He's given us to live in a country that so far allows Christians to openly share our faith. That being said we should take any and every opportunity to share Christ. Militant atheists would love nothing more than to turn the U.S. into an atheistic Europe and while that could very well happen we should thank God that here and now we have opportunity to spread the Gospel and freedom to worship in public.

I know step down from my soapbox... :-)

Anonymous said...

It hardly seems fair or reasonable to make an attempted attack on atheism on the basis of the personal behavior of one of its well-known adherents. Is it fair to condemn the whole of Christianity/Catholicism simply because Mel Gibson is a drunk-driving, anti-semitic, volatile firebomb? All these things he may be, but that doesn't change the fact that much of his work (i.e. Passion of the Christ, Signs, etc.) holds great Christian value and has arguably done a great deal for the church, much as Hitchens's work has done a great deal for atheism.

I suggest that referring to such a display by Hitchens as the "face" of atheism is both unfounded and immature. Much as Mel Gibson is the exception, not the norm, among leading Christian/Catholic public figures, Hitchens is much the same for atheists. In fact, statistically speaking, atheists are the least violent minority in the United States, and the number of atheists in prison represents the smallest percentage jailed of any minority.
For every explosive Hitchens (who is also a rare example of an atheist inasmuch as his political conservatism is concerned), there are twenty mild-mannered, soft-spoken, civilly-conducted Richard Dawkins.

Let's be careful before stooping to ad hominems in attempts to attack an entire (dis)belief system.