Page 2 of 2 [ 29 posts ]  Go to page Previous  1, 2

PM
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 14 Oct 2010
Age: 34
Gender: Male
Posts: 1,466
Location: Southeastern United States

17 Dec 2011, 11:51 pm

Moog wrote:
PM wrote:
Farewell to one of the Four Horsemen.


Who are the other riders in this quartet?


Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, and Sam Harris

Otherwise known as the Four Horsemen of New Atheism.

Image


_________________
Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men?


ruveyn
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 21 Sep 2008
Age: 87
Gender: Male
Posts: 31,502
Location: New Jersey

18 Dec 2011, 8:05 am

Dox47 wrote:
Actually, Hitchens was infamous for speaking ill of the dead, so I'm pretty sure he's having a good laugh about all the nasty things being said of him.


Actually he is not having a laugh, good, bad, or otherwise. He is dead, and in an ontological sense gone.

ruveyn



Last edited by ruveyn on 18 Dec 2011, 8:25 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Dennis
Deinonychus
Deinonychus

User avatar

Joined: 2 Nov 2005
Age: 37
Gender: Male
Posts: 361
Location: Ohio

18 Dec 2011, 10:27 am

Christopher Hitchens was an alcoholic, hypocritical bigot. He supported the worldview of the white European Christians he railed against. f**k him. But f**k all the so-called Christians talking about how he's burning in Hell too.



athacliath72
Butterfly
Butterfly

User avatar

Joined: 12 Dec 2011
Gender: Male
Posts: 15

18 Dec 2011, 4:07 pm

Always sad when someone passes, but have to say not a fan, backed the Iraq War and my take on God is 'can't prove he/she/it does / doesn't exist' so agnosticism is the only rational position.

You've nothing to lose either by believing, so may as well believe.



athacliath72
Butterfly
Butterfly

User avatar

Joined: 12 Dec 2011
Gender: Male
Posts: 15

18 Dec 2011, 4:13 pm

Difference between God and Richard Dawkins.......God doesn't think he's Richard Dawkins :D



dmm1010
Toucan
Toucan

User avatar

Joined: 21 Nov 2007
Age: 43
Gender: Male
Posts: 253
Location: Salem, WI, US

18 Dec 2011, 4:26 pm

athacliath72 wrote:
Always sad when someone passes, but have to say not a fan, backed the Iraq War and my take on God is 'can't prove he/she/it does / doesn't exist' so agnosticism is the only rational position.

You've nothing to lose either by believing, so may as well believe.

You've nothing to lose, besides time.



ruveyn
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 21 Sep 2008
Age: 87
Gender: Male
Posts: 31,502
Location: New Jersey

18 Dec 2011, 4:50 pm

Dennis wrote:
Christopher Hitchens was an alcoholic, hypocritical bigot. He supported the worldview of the white European Christians he railed against. f**k him. But f**k all the so-called Christians talking about how he's burning in Hell too.


And one of the wittiest, most stylish sophisticated writers that ever put a word on a page. His prose was Golden.

Here is the progression:

Mark Twain -> H.L. Mencken -> Christopher Hitchens. .....

Who is next and when?

ruveyn



jojobean
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 12 Aug 2009
Age: 47
Gender: Female
Posts: 3,341
Location: In Georgia sipping a virgin pina' colada while the rest of the world is drunk

18 Dec 2011, 8:08 pm

omg ...Some AFA spokesperson said that "Hitchens in is hell because God loves him" :huh: :huh: :wall:

I believe in reincarnation, so instead of farewell...I will just say, see you later, alligator.

Jojo


_________________
All art is a kind of confession, more or less oblique. All artists, if they are to survive, are forced, at last, to tell the whole story; to vomit the anguish up.
-James Baldwin


meems
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 1 Dec 2010
Age: 37
Gender: Female
Posts: 1,869

18 Dec 2011, 9:25 pm

He welcomed criticism of his drinking, because it's a sign of victory when your opposition resorts to ad hominem attacks. In his own words he explained that he drank to make other people less boring, as he had a great terror of being bored. And all of the comments that are ad hominem attacks are amusing to me. People actively displaying their defeat even after he's dead and gone... in the exact way many of his opponents showed him he was victorious when he was living.

I fear there will be an intellectual void that may be impossible to fill as a result of his death but I will be forever grateful for what his lifestyle produced. I can't deny that I've felt slightly depressed since hearing of his death, I wasn't surprised but I was stricken with grief that was much stronger than I had anticipated.

As for the Pascal's wager crap, you have a lot to lose if you think the options are believe and avoid hell or disbelieve and go to hell. Which god is it that you are supposed to believe in? What if you pick the wrong one? You've got a LOT of options in that regard. Even if there IS a god and you pick the right one, I sure hope, for your sake, that it's one who will reward you for believing for personal gain rather than having any real devotion to said God.



jojobean
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 12 Aug 2009
Age: 47
Gender: Female
Posts: 3,341
Location: In Georgia sipping a virgin pina' colada while the rest of the world is drunk

18 Dec 2011, 10:53 pm

meems wrote:
He welcomed criticism of his drinking, because it's a sign of victory when your opposition resorts to ad hominem attacks. In his own words he explained that he drank to make other people less boring, as he had a great terror of being bored. And all of the comments that are ad hominem attacks are amusing to me. People actively displaying their defeat even after he's dead and gone... in the exact way many of his opponents showed him he was victorious when he was living.

I fear there will be an intellectual void that may be impossible to fill as a result of his death but I will be forever grateful for what his lifestyle produced. I can't deny that I've felt slightly depressed since hearing of his death, I wasn't surprised but I was stricken with grief that was much stronger than I had anticipated.

As for the Pascal's wager crap, you have a lot to lose if you think the options are believe and avoid hell or disbelieve and go to hell. Which god is it that you are supposed to believe in? What if you pick the wrong one? You've got a LOT of options in that regard. Even if there IS a god and you pick the right one, I sure hope, for your sake, that it's one who will reward you for believing for personal gain rather than having any real devotion to said God.


ya I never understood the whole worshiping God to get into heaven...not devotion to God for devotion itself regardless where you end up.
that whole set up is just a reminant from the dark ages where popes had total control over ppl's mind. It is easy psychology...believe and go to heaven...dont believe and go to hell. It is very powerful mind control. When I broke from Christianity and went on my own path of spirituality...it took a huge leap of faith to discard all that mind control and follow my inner truth.,
The church still has consiterable control over ppl and society in the US. I mean look how much religion plays into politics and visa versa.
The religious right still think Bush jr was a devout Christian because he could quote scripture and makes homophobia part of the constitution. If they believe that I have some great ocean front property in Oklahoma that I like to sell them. It is several miles south of Enid.

Jojo


_________________
All art is a kind of confession, more or less oblique. All artists, if they are to survive, are forced, at last, to tell the whole story; to vomit the anguish up.
-James Baldwin


Aimless
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 1 Apr 2009
Age: 66
Gender: Female
Posts: 8,187

19 Dec 2011, 6:28 am

Quote:
omg ...Some AFA spokesperson said that "Hitchens in is hell because God loves him"


I can almost see the smug look he must have had on his face.
After becoming a parent, I asked myself if there was anything my child could do that would make me want him to suffer an eternal torment. The answer was no, of course.
I'm comfortable with the idea of reincarnation and I think heaven and hell are just ideas used to control people.


_________________
Detach ed


Icyclan
Sea Gull
Sea Gull

User avatar

Joined: 19 Jun 2011
Age: 39
Gender: Male
Posts: 231

01 Jan 2012, 1:23 pm

A very eloquent and witty man. I thoroughly enjoyed God is not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything.

Even though I don't agree with everything he stood for, at least in regard to his socio-economic and other political viewpoints, I like how he chose his own path regardless of what other people thought of his decisions. He could very well have been the most knowledgeable man alive regarding religion as a whole.



catlady2323
Blue Jay
Blue Jay

User avatar

Joined: 15 Mar 2010
Gender: Female
Posts: 98
Location: USA

01 Jan 2012, 6:32 pm

I owe a debt of gratitude to Christopher Hitchens. I was enmeshed in the Protestant evangelical fundamentalist mindset and needed badly to sort through what had happened to me when after 3 decades of being a devout Christian, I had a religious mental breakdown. Christopher Hitchens was one of many, who through his writings helped me to find my way out of the deeply flawed thinking I had developed.
I was surprised at how deeply I felt the loss when he passed away. I followed the course of his illness through his writings at Vanity Fair and suspected he would not survive esophageal cancer, but thought if anyone might, it would be him.

He will be deeply missed by his fans, of which I count myself as one.


_________________
"Dogs have owners, Cats have staff"

Aspie Score: 137 out of 200
Neurotypical Score: 67 out of 200
Diagnosed "genuis, borderline autism" at the age of 24 months
Level 1 Autism DSM-V