Christopher Hitchens and Tony Jones 2 of 11 , 06 October 2009 10:00

If there were any doubts about writer and general provocateur Christopher Hitchens ability to pull a crowd, they were entirely dispelled by the sold-out opening night of the first ever Festival of Dangerous Ideas. Presented by the Sydney Opera House and the St James Ethics Centre, the Festival brought together some of the more controversial thinkers from Australia and around the world. Hitchens's keynote address, followed by a discussion with our own Tony Jones, was an expansion on his bestselling, "God is Not Great: Religion Poisons Everything". Hitchens was at his polemical best, delivering a beautifully constructed speech supporting his argument that religion is not only completely implausible, but often actively destructive.

Christopher Hitchens's other books include "Letters to a Young Contrarian", "Why Orwell Matters" and "The Missionary Position: Mother Theresa in Theory and Practice." He also writes a regular column in "Vanity Fair".

Category:

Education

Tags:

• christopher
• hitchens
• antitheism
• atheism

[josephortizgarcia]

You know, I always like "Star Trek" because they almost never referred to god.

[jeffparr123]

Cutting your kids throat and thowing him on the barbee because you heared voices in your head - THATS SCIZOPHRENIA. Abrahans your guy.

[Typho0n86]

@josephortizgarcia The Klingons have their afterlife but...

[toolblox]

@brindow1 He means you're a dumbass, shut up

[MrJivePirate]

Fuck cancer!

[bubblebutt1950]

A great teacher has left us...

[TomVodkaCollins]

@brindow1 The line about, "so much nothingness is built right in and heading right for us," is about the inevitability of our extinction by whatever means, including evolving into something we ourselves would not recognize as being human any longer. This is the nothing he's talking about.

[TomVodkaCollins]

@brindow1 The nothing that he's talking about is that the universe is expending faster and faster and in another 15-20 billion years, or however long, even the constituent parts of matter down to the sub atomic level will fly apart and everything will cease to exist. There will be nothing. The Andromeda Galaxy was a separate point, not related to the coming nothing.

[cygnusx555]

rip hitchens

[brindow1]

Dont understand Hitchens reasoning here..he says there's a load of NOTHING heading our way ! Well,certainly the Andromeda Galaxy is SOMETHING ! What does he mean ?