Christopher Hitchens' Letter to the American Atheist Convention - 4/22/2011

Dear fellow-unbelievers,

Nothing would have kept me from joining you except the loss of my voice (at least my speaking voice) which in turn is due to a long argument I am currently having with the specter of death. Nobody ever wins this argument, though there are some solid points to be made while the discussion goes on. I have found, as the enemy becomes more familiar, that all the special pleading for salvation, redemption and supernatural deliverance appears even more hollow and artificial to me than it did before. I hope to help defend and pass on the lessons of this for many years to come, but for now I have found my trust better placed in two things: the skill and principle of advanced medical science, and the comradeship of innumerable friends and family, all of them immune to the false consolations of religion. It is these forces among others which will speed the day when humanity emancipates itself from the mind-forged manacles of servility and superstition. It is our innate solidarity, and not some despotism of the sky, which is the source of our morality and our sense of decency.

That essential sense of decency is outraged every day. Our theocratic enemy is in plain view. Protean in form, it extends from the overt menace of nuclear-armed mullahs to the insidious campaigns to have stultifying pseudo-science taught in American schools. But in the past few years, there have been heartening signs of a genuine and spontaneous resistance to this sinister nonsense: a resistance which repudiates the right of bullies and tyrants to make the absurd claim that they have god on their side. To have had a small part in this resistance has been the greatest honor of my lifetime: the pattern and original of all dictatorship is the surrender of reason to absolutism and the abandonment of critical, objective inquiry. The cheap name for this lethal delusion is religion, and we must learn new ways of combating it in the public sphere, just as we have learned to free ourselves of it in private.

Our weapons are the ironic mind against the literal: the open mind against the credulous; the courageous pursuit of truth against the fearful and abject forces who would set limits to investigation (and who stupidly claim that we already have all the truth we need). Perhaps above all, we affirm life over the cults of death and human sacrifice and are afraid, not of inevitable death, but rather of a human life that is cramped and distorted by the pathetic need to offer mindless adulation, or the dismal belief that the laws of nature respond to wailings and incantations.

As the heirs of a secular revolution, American atheists have a special responsibility to defend and uphold the Constitution that patrols the boundary between Church and State. This, too, is an honor and a privilege. Believe me when I say that I am present with you, even if not corporeally (and only metaphorically in spirit...) Resolve to build up Mr Jefferson's wall of separation. And don't keep the faith.

Sincerely,

Christopher Hitchens

http://tinyurl.com/3hd33gj

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[euralj06]

I wonder why all atheists only rag on Jesus? I never see them bitching about buddha, allah or krishna. Maybe ther's something to this Jesus guy after all.

[CRUClEFICTION]

@euralj06 No, there isn't.

[sketto]

100 years from now, learned people will refer to Hitch the same way he now refers to Jefferson, Paine, and Spinoza - another in a long line of freethinkers hoping to raise mankind above the base level of superstition.

[0122460166]

@euralj06 "I never see them bitching about buddha, allah or krishna"

Really? You don't a lot about atheists then.

[rooski1191]

@euralj06 and women must bare children they do not want. Because christian morality is preventing scientific discovery by preventing stem cell research. Research that could potentially save and improve coutless lives. ok? get it now? ok, so stfu

[rooski1191]

@euralj06 beacuase 76.4% of Americans are christian. because, every December they have to see Christmas Trees, verse from the bible and other Christian propoganda displayed in public veiw around every corner. Then when Atheist say one thing against it, all the christians have to jump on their shit. Because Christian morality plays to big of a role in American politics, in which is a Government that is supposed to keep church SEPRATE from state, and yet gays cannot get married.

[GrapplingIgnorance]

@euralj06 Probably because you, and the atheists you speak to are surrounded mostly by Christians, are most negatively impacted by Christian fundamentalists, and are most familiar with that particular religion. Buddhists and Hindus aren't as vitriolic in their belief systems as fundamentalist Christians. Also, non-believers in the places where Islam is prevalent don't have the same freedom of speech as those in Jesus land do. That being said, there's plenty Anti-Islam atheist work on youtube.

[Sarothi]

Religion is a poison that robs a person of their ability to appreciate life for what it is, both the bad and the good.

[Sarothi]

@euralj06

The majority of vocal atheists live in predominantly christian societies, where the ignored but all too real bigotry presents itself in full force. We (atheists) "rag on jesus" because it's christians who are working so hard to impose their view on others, impeding scientific progress, trying to inject their beliefs into schools, and actively promoting a bigoted mentality in which it is ok to view someone as less than human because they do not believe as the many.

[proprodigySD]

Don't keep the faith.

That's the best parting phrase ever.

[billygutter01]

If only I had Hitchens' gift of words....

[Razaiel]

@AshMbrs1 The effect of wind is demonstrable. The effect of gravity is demonstrable. Show me how god is demonstrable.

[KINGOFHELLANDYOU]

@AshMbrs1 are... are you.... are you retarded