Here is Hitchens' challenge. Let anyone name one ethical statement made, or one ethical action performed, by a believer that could not have been uttered or done by a nonbeliever. And here is his se...
Here is Hitchens' challenge. Let anyone name one ethical statement made, or one ethical action performed, by a believer that could not have been uttered or done by a nonbeliever. And here is his second challenge. Can any reader of this column think of a wicked statement made, or an evil action performed, precisely because of religious faith? The second question is easy to answer, is it not? The first -- has been asked for some time -- awaits a convincing reply. By what right, then, do the faithful assume this irritating mantle of righteousness? They have as much to apologize for as to explain.
Essentially conceding that philosophy and secularism do not condemn their adherents to lives of unbridled selfishness, and that (say) the Jewish people did not get all the way to Mount Sinai under the impression that murder and theft and perjury were okay, and also that we could not have evolved unless human solidarity was in some way innate, religionists end weakly by posing what is a rather moving problem.
"In a world without God," Michael Gerson writes, "this desire for love and purpose is a cruel joke of nature -- imprinted by evolution but designed for disappointment." He substitutes the wish for the thought. We very probably are, as he admits, not the designed objects of the Big Bang or of the process of natural selection. But this sober conclusion, objective as it is, is surely preferable to the delusion that we have been created diseased, by a capricious despot, and then abruptly commanded to be whole and well, on pain of terror and torture. That sick joke is one that we can cease to find impressive, that belongs in the infancy of our species, and gives a false picture of reality that we would do well to outgrow.
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Not only are there secular organizations that perform philanthropy as religious ones do, but they often do it better. Any one who disagrees is free to compare Paul Farmers' work to Mother Teresa's to see what I mean.
LOL! ur right. part one is just the guy that introduces the guy who introduces the guy who introduces part 2 who introduces the guy who introduces the guy we're all waiting for. oh yeah, theyre jewish....they did this in the bible all the time! so and so BEGAT so and so...and so on and so forth! LOL
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