Christopher Hitchens vs. Dinesh D'Souza, debate at CU-Boulder (Part 12 of 13)

Chris Hitchens and Dinesh D'Souza debating religion at CU-Boulder on Monday January 26th.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Hitchens
• D'Souza
• Religion
• Christianity
• Atheism

[emailgarbage20]

Hitchens here makes the interesting statement that, even if he saw a dead person arise from death, he wouldn't believe it since he might be hallucinating. Hitchens' atheism is thus impervious to evidence.

[deBeuk]

"Hitchens here makes the interesting statement that, even if he saw a dead person arise from death, he wouldn't believe it since he might be hallucinating. Hitchens' atheism is thus impervious to evidence."

What does seeing that have to do with atheism?

[emailgarbage20]

Hitchens is an atheist. This means that he doesn't believe in supernaturalism. The resurrection of a dead person would be a supernatural event. Thus if Hitches witnessed a dead person resurrect then his atheism would be falsified. But Hitchens says that, even if he personally saw a dead person resurrected, he would still disbelieve! Hitchens atheism is thus totally impervious to evidence.

[deBeuk]

"Hitchens is an atheist. This means that he doesn't believe in supernaturalism."

No, atheism means not believing in gods.

"if Hitches witnessed a dead person resurrect then his atheism would be falsified"

Atheism, not having the belief that deities exist, is not capable of being falsified.

"Hitchens atheism is thus totally impervious to evidence"

No, what he said was that seeing a dead person resurrected wouldn't convince him that gods exist.

[emailgarbage20]

Atheists assert that there is no god. In other words, the atheist makes a knowledge claim, unlike agnosticism, which makes no claim to knowledge. Every atheist of which I am aware disbelieves in supernaturalism. Do you know of any atheists who believe in miracles or other supernatural events? If so, to what agent do they ascribe such phenomena? Hitchens clearly fits the pattern - he believes God does not exist (i.e., he is an atheist) and he disbelieves in supernaturalism.

[deBeuk]

"Atheists assert that there is no god"

No, look up what weak and strong atheism mean.

"In other words, the atheist makes a knowledge claim, unlike agnosticism"

Agnosticism is a form of atheism, which is the absence of theistic belief.

"Every atheist of which I am aware disbelieves in supernaturalism"

So what?

[Gonardia2nd]

Why does God allow people to lie after swearing on the bible?

Its a good question; I'd suggest that it is the same reason God doesn't heal amputees...

[badad4444]

I know atheists who believe in the supernatural.

They do not believe a god is behind supernatural events.

They are half right.

[T3rraBahamut]

theres always one...

[mymentor]

"But Hitchens says that, even if he personally saw a dead person resurrected, he would still disbelieve! "

That's not what he said at all. He said the logical conclusion to draw from such an occurrence would be that there was a logical explanation. Perhaps the person didn't get crucified, perhaps it was a hoax, perhaps there's another person who looks exactly like another who was crucified...

If bodily resurrection were proved, then I'd believe it. But it hasn't been, and won't be.

[harbinger79]

First of all, he's entertaining a scenario that really doesn't happen. Of course people have been clinically dead and been revived. The revived claimed to see God or rising above their own body, which can be best explained by the revived party's lack of understanding of the pineal gland than the existence of God.

The origin of this fanciful question oddly enough is the mind of a believer in the Almighty. It's quite pointless. An explanation of proof that Jesus walked at all is still unmet.

[weversonman]

And if you did a study and it found that people being prayed are more likely to succeed or recover, etc. in a statistically significant manner, it would have to do with the action of praying and believing in it, it would not then prove that a Christian God was resposible for it. But as we know, the few studies done on that show it has no effect whatsoever. It surely does more harm because people say things like "We'll just put it in God's hand and not think rationally about it".

[weversonman]

The question is dumb anyways, its really asking "If Christianity was true would you admit it was true?" If a dead person is walking and everyone else around you notices him, maybe there's something happening, but religious experiences are ALWAYS perceived only by individuals. There has never been a group of average credible people who weren't already members of some cult or devoutly religious who all come running in saying "We just had some angel come down and talk to us!".