Christopher Hitchens - Antitheist Anthem

Christopher Hitchens "Antitheist Anthem"
Download mp3: http://soundcloud.com/ascendingparadigm/christopher-hitchens

Debate: Christopher Hitchens vs Tony Blair - Munk Debates 2010
Instrumental: Little People "Moon"

Ladies and Gentlemen, Brothers Sisters, Comrads, Friends,

Here is my proposition,

What we have here, and picked from no mean source, is a distillation of precisely what is twisted and immoral in the faith mentality.
Its essential fanaticism, it's consideration of the human being as raw material. And its fantasy of purity.

Once you assume a creator and a plan, it makes us objects, in a cruel experiment, whereby we are created sick, and commanded to be well. I'll repeat that. Created sick, and then ordered to be well.

And over us, to supervise this, is installed a celestial dictatorship, a kind of divine North Korea. Exigent, I would say, more than exigent greedy for, uncritical praise, from dawn until dusk. And swift to punish the original sins with which it so tenderly gifted us in the very first place.

An eternal, unalterable, judge jury and executioner, against whom there could be, no appeal. And who wasn't finished with you, even when you died.
However! Let no one say there's no cure, salvation is offered, redemption, indeed, is promised, at the low price, of the surrender of your critical faculties.

Religion, it might be said, must be said, would have to admit, makes extraordinary claims, but though I would maintain that extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, rather daringly provides not even ordinary evidence for its extraordinary supernatural claims. To insist that we are created and not evolved, in the face of all the evidence.

Religion forces nice people to do unkind things, and also makes intelligent people say stupid things.

Handed a small baby for the first time, is it your first reaction to think, "beautiful, almost perfect. Now please hand me the sharp stone for its genitalia, that I may do the work of the Lord"? No.
As the great physicist Stephen Weinberg has aptly put it, in the ordinary moral universe, the good will do the best they can, the worst will do the worst they can, but if you want to make good people do wicked things, you'll need religion.

Religion, and in fact any form of faith, --because it is a surrender of reason, a surrender of reason in favor of faith is a fantastic force multiplier.

A tremendous intensifier, of all things that are in fact divisive rather than inclusive. That's why its history is so stained with blood.

Not just of crimes against humanity, crimes against womanhood, crimes against reason and science, attacks upon medicine and enlightenment, all these appalling things.

There is no conceivable way, that by calling on the supernatural, you will achieve anything like your objective of a common humanism which is, I think you're quite right to say, our only chance of -- I won't call it salvation, thank you.

Category:

Nonprofits & Activism

Tags:

• Christopher
• Hitchens
• atheist
• antitheist
• anthem

[AscendingParadigm]

Christopher,

We love you brother. Thank you so much for being who you were. You are among the world's greatest orators. Every time you spoke, you eloquently delivered captivating brilliance which impacted everyone fortunate enough to hear. Your inspirational words will continue to positively effect people's lives for ages to come. Live on through us.

Love & Light,

Your brothers & sisters, comrades & friends.

[uniteordie1]

Awesome! The man comes close to death and he comes back better than he was before. Theists, this man should be an example to you of how to think rationally and logically.

[CzechTechnik]

Spoken like no one else could

I'll miss you hitch!

Especially every time I see some one who desperately needs a good Hitch slap! Like

Wendy wright during her talk with Dawkins on evolution grrr brainwashed moonie!

[BlackDahliaMurder22]

You will be missed Christopher.

[samcarr6]

@Stomper9999 Premise 1. What ever begins to exist has a cause. Premise 2. We don't know if the universe began to exist. Conclusion 1. It is possible to have always have existed in some form Conclusion 2. Therefore a creator is not necessary

[Cacacos]

Hitchens 4Ever!

Although the Man has gone, his work and teachings will forever stay with us!

Cheers to HITCHENS ! ! !

[rcguy69]

Hitch the secular oracle!

[spehizle]

There are not many people I admire, or would even call heroes. Hitchens IS a hero. He IS a person worthy of admiration. When that sad day comes when he dies, we must NOT spit on his memory with mountains of well wishes and videos commemorating his past. He would not want that. He would want us to look to our future and take it in hand. Continue his struggles and honor his memory. And I don't think he has to be dead for us to start.

[AscendingParadigm]

@Stomper9999 Love may be provable. As far as I know, mind reading technology is still primitive but advancing. Whether one is experiencing love, or thinking about a race car, exclusive energetic signals are omitted from one's brain. When the mind reading machines have a bank of transcribed signals, they'll clearly reveal a subject's true experience. This data combined with an advanced polygraph could confirm.

Why are biblical claims about the natural world not supported by physical evidence?

[Stomper9999]

@AscendingParadigm Reason and proof is delivered supernaturally. For instance - I can't prove I love my kids. I can externally sacrifice for them people can see that, but that doesn't can't prove my love for them. But they know that their dad loves them and can't prove it. After searching for 37 years I have found hope, joy, contentment, selflessness and true comfort that I never knew existed. My freinds call me a moron, physco, zealot, and loser, that's cool - I still love them.

[AscendingParadigm]

@Stomper9999 But how is it reasonable to believe that the bible god is the source of everything? If a non-physical entity talked to me through a snake or donkey, or the fossil record was compatible with Genesis, then I might have a different opinion. If the supernatural claims of the texts had supernatural evidence to affirm their truth, we could reasonably assume more of the content were true; but since the stories are demonstrably untrue, there's no good reason to believe the basic premise.