On 08/07/2013, at 10:45 AM, meekerdb <meeke...@verizon.net> wrote: > On 7/7/2013 6:56 AM, Bruno Marchal wrote: >> >> On 07 Jul 2013, at 07:28, meekerdb wrote: >> >>> >>> >>> >>> http://www.salon.com/2013/07/06/god_is_not_great_christopher_hitchens_is_not_a_liar/ >> >> >> I love Christopher Hitchens. I agree with many points. He is more an >> anticlerical than an atheist to me ... > > Everybody called him an atheist. He called himself an atheist. I think you > just don't like the term. > > Brent >
Forgivable though, don't you think? I used to call MYself an atheist too - until, bless me, I ran into the machine theology of one B. Marchal. Atheism seemed rather dull after a while, compared to this exciting new perspective on reality which ties in with quantum mechanics, mathematics, logic, computer science, and, as the Americans say, "Christ knows what all". The reason some of us don't want to call Hitch an atheist is because that tars him with the wrong brush: the brush of public religion - IF you can handle the comp definition of atheism as a sibling public religion of the Jesus cult. I mean - either you believe in Big Daddy, JC and Spooky or you do not. If you don't believe in that trio, then you have no right (if you are an Englishman, that is) to believe in Mohammed and flying horses etc. An Englishman (essentially a racist entity) is going to have to bite the bullet and be an Atheist if he can't stand Xtianity. Public religions are about ethnicity and the power-groups that arise from tribalism - do not be fooled. Public religions are political parties; it's just that they do not appear on ballot papers because "God Always Wins". Let me clarify: there is organised ('public' or 3-p) religion (Jesus and his pals, Mohammed and his pals, Yaweh and his pals, Buddha and his pals and - for many - there is always football.) And, there is personal (1-p) religion. Every single one of us, even if we don't know it or believe it to be the case - has the latter because the only authentic definition of 'personal religion' is "what you believe". I do not "believe" that any two people can Believe the exact same thing in terms of ultimate things, because there is only a very little shareable component to ANY first person experience, right? We can't even agree whether some bloody thing is green, turquoise, aquamarine or blue let alone shake hands on what some unseen supernatural Sky Daddy is all about. Hitchens was religious only in the personal sense, but then we all are - it's impossible not to believe something. Hitchens' signing on to the public religion of atheism was the same as my acting AS THOUGH I am a devout atheist in my daily public doings (I slag off at theocrats, clerics and the whole pedophilic secret-enclave corporate structure of the Catholic Church - exactly as the Late Great Hitch did so punishingly and eloquently whenever he could) yet, in private - and talking to you lot (which, strangely enough seems to be much the same thing) I will admit to "leaps of faith" with regard to my personal beliefs, but now that I understand why I have to make these LOF (that's thrown in for John Clark) I don't get embarrassed by them anymore. Kim -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to everything-list+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to everything-list@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.