Christopher Hitchens on Critical Thinking

[MakeshiftEstablished]

Hitch gives me mindgasms...

[aquiace]

How can an educated person, after hearing something of profound insight, turn and say something so demonstrably ignorant? I would have been embarrassed.

Saying nothing would have been better because at least there's a chance they're pondering it. But no, stone wall stupidity again.

[jessebohler]

no hhhhhhhha....... (no hang on) :)

[MrOceanPenguin]

Every individual has reason but few of us utilize it to the fullest. If Hitchens has faith in reason then so does he. Just to a marginal extent, of course, because he's dismissing the overwhelming majority of reason that speaks against his fairy tale belief in a God derived from an ancient book.

[mroldschoolhiphop1]

faith in reason???

where do they get these things. it doesn't even make sense.

btw even if he had ''faith'' in reason, why would it be a bad thing?

[pythor2]

LOL I like the little remix at the end

[katinkers]

I'm so glad he said the bit about Bill Mahar, the guy's a pretty sleazy excuse for an intellectual and an even worse representative of atheism.

[mouthyweasel]

There is only one reasonable person sitting on that stage.

[dannytibi]

Does Wilson seriously think that he begins with the Bible, and not Reason? Wilson, reading the Bible and trying to figure out what it is telling you is an exercise of Reason, everyone begins with Reason, whether they apply it correctly or not.

[LuckynumberSlevin11]

painful viewing. ooch

[Wulfyn99]

It saddens me that Hitchens wasted so much of his life in the company of retards such as this.

[Aprilshowersss]

@Wulfyn99 Don't be. He did good work.

[carmeltangub1]

I wish Christopher Hitchens could have lived forever. He was brave and honest with an inspirational intellect. Thank you for posting this.

[324wilson]

"If you laugh at that, you are like a Bill Maher's audience" LOL

[3ohs0unds]

This is why it is nearly impossible to debate the religious. They believe that the turn of a phrase can be offered as proof of their beliefs.

[dfairbanks06]

@3ohs0unds or any immature person for that matter

[lacontrabasse]

We don't have to rely on One Book now, a Book that was the interpretations of Bronze-Age and Iron-Age scribes.

We now have a YouTube video, posted directly from the Creator. The video explains the creation of the world, your place in it, and the meaning of your life.

See ' God says sorry ' .

[PodzniakovisElite]

@lacontrabasse what the fuck.

[lacontrabasse]

@PodzniakovisElite What the fuck "what the fuck " ?

[PodzniakovisElite]

@lacontrabasse Lol are you seriously saying God has a Youtube account?

[lacontrabasse]

@PodzniakovisElite Of course the Creator has a YouTube account - so much more efficient than carving in stone tablets, or getting iron-age scribes to transcribe and interpret.

As a sequel to the ' God says sorry ' video the Creator posted a seasonal message ' God's Christmas message ' , clarifying the meaning of Christmas.

[PodzniakovisElite]

@lacontrabasse Oh okay you're trolling haha. Nvm carry on.

[lacontrabasse]

@PodzniakovisElite No, not trolling. Both videos, ' God says sorry ' and ' God's Christmas Message ' have serious messages.

[camelotradio]

@lacontrabasse You are a failure troll sir.

[godsentyes]

If you didn't think that was a total and unbelievable smackdown then you're probably not very good at critical thinking.

[nick794]

the other guy is so drowned in his own delusion that he has no idea what brilliant thought process is right in front of him

[theDuctapeUnion]

How Hitchens can cultivate a friendship with this man is testimony to his patience.

[MasterRobinHood]

"I am more inclined to doubt something if its truth would suit me." Christopher Hitchens never fails to blow my mind with phrases like that. I could never have refined what i wanted to say in such a simple sentence as that.

[MasterRobinHood]

Poor hitchens has to deal with dumb debates like this on a almost daily bases.

[JaKSaph]

Why is is that creationist's main argument is "you make the same argumentative fallacies that I do"?

[tueblichfeldt]

Hitchhhhslapp!

[oldpiq]

I'm so sick of being pulled in the crazy people's game. "We believe in a man born from a virgin, you 'believe' in DNA, thus we are the same". WRONG! We are not the same. You are delusional! I'm not. It's simple.

[Grifiki]

"To me everything written is fiction, until I find out otherwise myself! How do I do that? I need logic, and I don 't get it by belief. "

[smithhedgehog]

this makes me so angry that the guy does not understand what chris is trying to say

[ragnarok343]

I think the other guy must be on Hitchens' payroll to act as a strawman. He's (the other guy, not Hitchens) is a pathetic debater, and they claim to be friends in another video... There's no way he's for real.

[rycka1983]

Reason is not dogma you can believe in. It is a process which can lead you to one or another conclusion, and that conclussion can not mactch what you're believe in. But if you're man of reason, you trust that conclussion despite your personal preferences. Talking about dogma, you come to onw presupposed conclusion despite all facts which contradits this conclusion.

[IbsaUtube]

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOW

[aphoxema]

You can't win if they don't know how to play the game.

[Jornev]

What an absolutely ridiculous comparison to make. Imagine if faith in the bible had been prioritized over reason; would we be having any sort of discussion on anything even resembling youtube? We'd still be living in earthen houses and stoning people to death.

[Norwification]

@Atheisophy If that's true, we need a new word to describe those who don't see it. I was happy calling people who put faith above reason fools.

[missrc1]

Reason IS faith. They are confusing reason with rationality which is "justified true belief" as valid to justify experience as knowledge. This is a circular argument and NOT proof or evidence. Reason says "I exist" w/ no reference to what it is merely based on the fact that if something can think there must be a thinker - rationality says "I exist as X" where X is an asserted belief. The best man can do "reasonably" is assert it exist as a mind, because thinking is its only "proof" it exists.

[missrc1]

@missrc1 cont..

If one doesn't "know" what it is and asserts itself as X as anything other than a mind, then X is a presupposition and will "hide" the actual identity of the thinker, because the mind has now dissociated from itself and displaced its identity w/ the assertion X - this has become its security blanket out of fear of not knowing what it is, it "needs" something - anything for its own survival. Ironically as long as it believes X is itself it cant see itself. X = thought projection

[missrc1]

What can be asserted without evidence can also be dismissed without evidence. ~Hitchens

He is absolutely right - but science does exactly this when it asserts as its premise that "observation evidences reality" when science itself can disprove this. Nothing man observes as objects are actually physical-they are a chemical reaction in his own brain that "forms" that object. They are also a preconceived idea-there is no way to prove that man's own bias didn't create the world he BELIEVES he SEES.

[missrc1]

@missrc1 cont...

Scientific method was formulated as a means to weed out this bias, but in the end the results must be observed... so it is deception. Neuroscience has also discovered that the brain "naturally" thinks in scientific method- it also thinks logically, justifying the observed object to its own belief. Scientific method is merely a glorified syllogism which always is a tautology.

[missrc1]

@missrc1 cont..

To say this is a world because I can see it, touch it, smell it, hear it, taste it is as circular as Hitchens accuses the believer who says "Jesus loves me this I know because the bible tells me so" - rebuttle: "science (eyes) says this is true because science (eyes) sees it so it must be true" ...Funny - the one thing Jesus repeated was "they have eyes to see but do not see and ears to hear but do not hear" all science is proven by exactly this single BELIEF as FAITH

[AGNOSSI]

"You have faith in reason."

When I heard I almost had to vomit.

[AGNOSSI]

Wilson is an intellectual cripple compared to Hitchens.

[jeevs182]

@AGNOSSI i think anyone would be next to him



[AGNOSSI]

@jeevs182 Yes, and I include myself in that comparison. I am, however, confident that I could out think Wilson any day.

[Hirnlego999]

That Bill Maher audience comment was quite ridiculous...they do not laugh at everything...often they are in fact very silent, especially when Maher starts to talk about his views on human health, which are often not scientifically supported. Maher often is too non-PC even for his own audience.

Randi is right, everyone can be fooled. Even Hitchens went nuts for the WMD bogus hunt in Iraq.

[socalcraigster]

@Hirnlego999 - Saddam claimed to have WMD; he used biologicial weapons against the Kurds and Iranians. Congress passed a resolution under Clinton that stated it was the objective of the United States to get rid of Saddam. Bush outlined 23 reasons why Saddam must go; one of them that he harbored terrorist; and you cling to WMD? In fact, they found WMD in Iraq. Stop deluding yourself and/or intentionally distorted facts to boolster your agenda. Shame on you!

[Hirnlego999]

@socalcraigster WMD was the mean reason to sell the wars, the most often repeated selling arguments, in order to scare the 'ignorant masses' to support another military adventure. Yes, he used those, American weapons, America watched and didn't care, he was 'our' butcher back then. The terrorist claim was false too, as they have said, no AQ link. What exactly is my agenda? Not to be mislead by a bunch of neo-colonialists (who had a great day on 9/11)? Are the weapons in Syria?

[michaelwitbeck]

I love how Hitch holds Douglas in such distain that he looks away from him even when he's talking to him.

[shaneanthonypitts]

Hitchens at his best

[omegavalerius]

@cnestudy1

Basically the Hitch pushed him into a corner yes.

[debaser71]

lol theism

[damres]

what kind of world is this when free thinking smart men must debate imbeciles

SICK OF IT

[Zimnyification]

Reason and the Bible are two distinct things. Reason, on it's own, doesn't do anything. Reason does exist, it is axiomatic, but it does absolutely nothing left by itself. The Bible, with silly propositions at best and maniacal propositions at worst, requires some semblance of proof of the theory it asks it's readers to believe.

[AntiFed1791]

That bloviating fat man to the right does not exist in the same intellectual universe. Pearls meet Swine.

[TheSlowThinker]

"Faith is the willingness to assume what you have to prove." If this definition of faith is not in the dictionary, it should be.

[MrTruthAddict]

Did that idiot just assert that reason and the bible are both axiomatic?

Un. Fucking. Believable.

[TheEpisteme]

Saying you have faith in reason is like saying you have reason in faith. Reason and science are not beliefs so much as they are means to come to a belief. Faith and reason are both means of coming to a conclusion that something is true. With one you use an analytical process to determine what the most likely truth is based on empirical evidence and rational thought. With the other you have already decided on what you want to believe and do whatever you must to convince yourself that it is true.

[jefferen86]

Wow Hitchens. You raise the bar every time..

[TurboDally]

Faith in reason 0_o???????

I've hear this kind of crap so much, "you have faith in reason, you have faith in science", for crying out loud, reason/science has had a track record of success, a track record full of discoveries...Whereas faith/superstition has had a track record of failure.

[jojoinhere]

religious people have the answer first, then they try real hard to reason with it.

and always fail

[UtopiaMinor666]

haha i love how he still owns bill mahers audience haha. I like mahers show, but those fuckers do clap too much, and sometimes you can tell Maher is thinking: for fuck sake, let someone finish their sentence.

[omegavalerius]

@cnestudy1

Please don't use caps lock. He was using a form of argument many religionists use which is to claim the opposite position (rationalism or atheism) is also based on faith and since it wasn't going anywhere against Hitchens the pastor tried to salvage the situation with a childish remark like "man of one thought" which doesn't really even mean anything.

[kramdoog]

Douglas, "Your a man of one thought". To contemplate uttering, thinking, imagining, allowing to be captured on video that statement pretty much says it all about Mr Wilson and his position.

[chriswads]

@kanmoreti Hitchens obviously, this other guy is clearly on the ropes throwing wild swings of shite in defence of the indefensible

[Loustrikesagain]

What religious people don't realize is that they use reason as well. They just aren't good at it. People often misunderstand what "reason" is. Christians are using reason when they say that they believe because the bible tells them. The reason is that the bible tells them. The difference here is that they are ignoring other potential conclusions such as understanding that you can't be sure of something without evidence to support it. Faith is a reason. It's just a poorly conceived one.

[doom032]

@Loustrikesagain Yep. I cannot understand why there are still so many religious people in the 21st century. How can someone just take a book for granted and ignore everything else?

[twooffour]

@Loustrikesagain

Brilliant.. Was about to post something of this sort, then I read your comment ;)

[chriswads]

This man is a linguistic assassin, just watching him makes me feel dumb

[StephenFryphile]

Reason is a process, its not axiomatic.

[waszak]

Could anyone send me a transcript of this video? In English? I will be very grateful.

[msarary]

I wonder if Mr. Hitchens will agree to a public debate with Muslims like Hamza Andreas Tzortzis? That would be interesting!!

I think that the Muslims are the natural defenders of the Abrahamic religion (Christianity and Judaism).

[msarary]

I would like to see Mr. Hitchens have a publice debate with Muslims like Hamza Andreas Tzortzis.

[krazedwasian]

Hitch used Critical Thinking.

ITS SUPER EFFECTIVE!

[anzwertree]

@krazedwasian theist has fainted

[nagaslrac]

and you're a man of ... um ... you're a poohead.

[Zantaer]

When Hitchens talks it sounds like I'm listening to an audio book.

[jacobromu]

That guy is nonsensical!

[queenastilon]

Wilson is clearly not used to losing, and can think on his feet, but that argument "I start with the Bible, you start with reason" is so fallacious it's just pathetic.

[globalchaos1984]

Hitchens owned that bumbling idiot.

[yegorletoff]

"And you are a man of one thought" - that's an embarrassingly childish statement

[TheraminTrees]

@yegorletoff '"And you are a man of one thought" - that's an embarrassingly childish statement'

—It is embarrassingly childish isn't it — reeks of a desperation to come up with some impromptu face-saving retort. In the panic of that moment, what came out of his mouth was laughably puerile and plainly unworkable.

[rawssremix]

@TheraminTrees It's so funny, even the guy saying it laughs. He knows how ridiculous it is.

[sitemountain]

@yegorletoff I reckon he was ABOUT to say to Hitchens '& you are a man of MANY books' & the hesitation occurred because he suddenly realised that this would only STRENGTHEN Christopher's case!

[HeavyweightThinker]

"Man of one thought" - When somebody says that to Christopher Hitchens, *insert funny analogy*

[fubintien]

Man, Wilson's argument doesn't even have a ghost of a chance.

[azimizdude]

what happend to "thegreatestbak"? 

[themanofearth]

YEAH HITCH!

[frankdarabont]

ownage