Just heard episode #253 and your comment on my comment. Yay! for anonymous fame…

I actually _did_ read your complete post, and agree with much of it. My comment was intended to be read humorously, based on its circular reasoning-like structure.

But I will content myself with being described as “pithy,” if “witty” is off the table.

“I understand that Hitchens doesn’t really deal with whether or not God actually exists”

Sure he takes the view that religion is man-made and poisons everything, but what exactly does that say about god?

“how can he?”

Because of the overwhelming evidence.
I know it’s politically incorrect to attest that god does not exist but the evidence is almost overwhelming, barring only a god in whom nobody believes anyway. Truth is worth more than political correctness.

“Perry DeAngelis called hardline Athiests some of the most despicable people he ever met…worse than the most obnoxious Evangelists”

But Perry DeAngelis is probably not the final and certainly not the only word on that question. And, even if they wer, that does not mean that they are wrong

In my opinion, giving over our critical thinking skills to the religious is often more dangerous than surrendering them to, say, the leader at a sales seminar.

I dunno; have you seen some of these multi-level marketing groups? Some of them are pretty scary, and behave very much as a cult. Visit http://www.mlmwatch.org/index.html

I personally see nothing else involved, I think the moment we start to tack on additional characteristics all it does is confuse the word.

I am personally 100% certain that tomorrow will come and pass. Is it really possible for me to really know this . . . . well no, is it a religious conviction . . . no, what does that tell us about belief, certainty, and faith in regards to religion?

Well it tells me that these things are not married together in such a way that faith must be religious, or that conviction must be religious, or that certainty must be religious.

Religions rely on these things, but these things are not exclusive to religions.

I am 100% certain that gravity is what is holding me down, not say invisible strings attached to me at every interval . . . do I really “know” this for a fact??? No, am I certain I am right, yes, does that make this a religious conviction? NO.

The human ability to equivocate is amazing . . . do not underestimate this ability especially as it is presented by your own mind when trying to categorize thing that may share common characteristics.

To me this makes even hardline atheist very much NOT religious, its just a pop shot by the religious, or a person equivocating religions with other common human behavioral characteristics.

I don’t care if that person who is hardliner atheist says things like, “there can be no god”. Unless he is saying that a supernatural entity told him so privately through revelation, I will not consider that a religious conviction.

I saw a book presentation by Christopher Hitchens where an audience member asked him, “so you say that Jesus didn’t exist?” and his answer was simply, “no, I’m only saying that we don’t have enough reason to believe that he did exist”. I understand that Hitchens doesn’t really deal with whether or not God actually exists (how can he?), his concern and focus is on how people’s belief in God gets them into trouble, just as I am sure that he would have similar concerns with people making blanket statements about God not existing (Perry DeAngelis called hardline Athiests some of the most despicable people he ever met…worse than the most obnoxious Evangelists).

If I had the opportunity I would ask Hitchens if he sincerely hopes that God does exist, so that one day he (Hitchens) can tear him (God) a new hole for being so elusive.