In his honor, I give you some of his quotes:
"Human decency is not derived from religion. It precedes it."
“What can be asserted without proof can be dismissed without proof.”
"The person who is certain, and who claims divine warrant for his certainty, belongs now to the infancy of our species."
"The Bible may, indeed does, contain a warrant for trafficking in humans, for ethnic cleansing, for slavery, for bride-price, and for indiscriminate massacre, but we are not bound by any of it because it was put together by crude, uncultured human mammals."
"Is it too modern to notice that there is nothing [in the ten commandments] about the protection of children from cruelty, nothing about rape, nothing about slavery, and nothing about genocide? Or is it too exactingly “in context” to notice that some of these very offenses are about to be positively recommended?"
"Religion is man-made. Even the men who made it cannot agree on what their prophets or redeemers or gurus actually said or did."
"If religious instruction were not allowed until the child had attained the age of reason, we would be living in a quite different world."
"I try to deny myself any illusions or delusions, and I think that this perhaps entitles me to try and deny the same to others, at least as long as they refuse to keep their fantasies to themselves."
"Name me an ethical statement made or an action performed by a believer that could not have been made or performed by a non-believer."
"Take the risk of thinking for yourself, much more happiness, truth, beauty, and wisdom will come to you that way."
Oddly enough, the right-wing religious nuts that I've read talking about Hitch's death seem to have respected Hitch far more than you'd expect. Thought he was misguided and going to Hell, mind you, but they did respect the fact that he had strong beliefs and was willing to defend them, and furthermore, that he was willing to change his beliefs if strong enough evidence was presented.
ReplyDeleteTo tell you the truth, I've heard far more condemnation of Hitch from the left-wing side of the Blogosphere than from right-wing religious commentators. So it goes. All I'll say about Hitch is that he was one hell of a writer...
- Badtux the Obituary Penguin