Christopher Hitchens -- Behind the Scenes -- God: Big Questions...Bigger Questions

Selected full Forums now available at www.theforumchannel.tv Forum panelist Christopher Hitchens' answers a question about water boarding and faith. For more information, please visit our website at www.ctforum.org

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Christopher
• Hitchens
• Connecticut
• Forum
• Hartford
• God
• waterboarding
• water
• boarding
• atheist

[CTFORUM]

See the full Forum on The Forum Channel.

[GaiusIuliusTaberna]

@TylerNull If you understand the central point of atheism as "I don't believe in god because there is no evidence to suggest that he exists" then you have no argument. Its totally supported by the laws of reason.

However if you create a straw man of the atheist position and claim it means "there is no god as a definite fact" then yes I suppose that would be an illogical assertion.

To add I find your use of all capital letters in the word conclusion to be childish and unnecessary.

[TedDGPoulos]

Discovered in 2003: The underlying law of nature.

Discovered in 2008: The empirical process by which one may identify the underlying law of nature first hand, for oneself.

This knowledge comes with no middleman wearing a fancy hat, cape, scarf, ring or necklace to obey and pay.

Think about it.

The underlying law of nature is the observable, constant, most fundamental way of all things -- all matter, energy, forms, forces, thoughts, behaviour, events and conditions.

Google it.

[MagikarpPower]

@lederereddy talking to thin air and thinking like it's all gone. When we're all "sinners", then our wrongness is justified and it simply takes some guy being beaten and executed a long time ago to absolve it. There's no guilt. It's very dehumanizing.

In my opinion, the "Lord God" doesn't exist. And as ideas come, he's one of the most rotten.

[MagikarpPower]

@lederereddy I dunno, when you can replace "God" with things such as "invisible fiery rabbit" or "flying spaghetti monster" it sounds very delusional to me. All of them exist equally i.e. not at all.

I understand your belief in sin. But sin is just a name you've given to things that aren't very nice. Yeah, I'm guilty of one or two of those things but that doesn't mean that there's an invisible sky daddy watching. I think it's better that I apologize to those whom I've wronged instead of...

[lederereddy]

@MagikarpPower Sin is compartmentalized as in- pride, lust, envy, sloth, greed, anger, gluttony, etc. If you're guilty of any of these then you're no different than a Christian. Except we recognized them and made amends and realized what a relief it is to be free from the grip they had on us. You're welcome to your opinion about what being one with The Lord God personally is, but I'm far from delusional. Any idiot with Christ's better off than a genius without Christ.

[MagikarpPower]

@lederereddy Yeah, I would. But that doesn't mean that I believe in an invisible being that can make my fear of death magically go away if I just swear allegiance to his magicness. That's irrational.

I don't assume the godly are weak. I'm convinced they're delusional and have to rely on a very screwed up book to give them some skewed sense of morals. I don't have to assume.

It's fairly easy to believe in something when we're defective, eh? When that religion has something to "offer".

Think.

[lederereddy]

@MagikarpPower But I agree that some religions prey on superstitious people. But facing the truth about ourself and wanting and getting Gods help with our defective behavior, subsequently improving the quality of our lives and the lives of others because we go to church instead of bars or read scripture and apply it to our lives. These things take discipline, character, integrity. But atheist's are so insecure about their position they have to assume the Godly are weak. But God is strength, magi

[lederereddy]

@MagikarpPower "Irrational fear of death"

Have you thought that one through much?If you were about to be shot through the head by some thug because your car broke down in the wrong neighborhood, would you be afraid? Would your fear be rational? No sir. I challenge your complacency about the reality of death. If you've trained yourself to ignore sin, God, judgement, etc. You have done so irrationally. Honesty requires repentance and repentance requires God's supernatural intervention But! cnt...

[MagikarpPower]

@lederereddy I know a few atheists that have been in foxholes. I suppose they weren't cowardly enough to succumb to the "cure" for the irrational fear of death. Religion's weak like that. It preys on the emotion of fear to get converts.

[lederereddy]

What fox holes do is give us perspective. That's where the rubber meets the road. It's the purest, truest test of our beliefs. It's a surgical removal of BS, lies and denial. No one has time for BS when their life is inches away from impending death. People are real at that threshold but the moment the threat's eased the BS like atheism begins to return. It's just an observed reality of human nature. Sin rules us by telling us everything's fine without God... Fox holes prove otherwise.

[sixtiksix]

How did you get through that tough time?

I didn't, I quit before it even got started....

and didn't even need godd or nuthin.....