Douglas Murray - who is he?

Recently I came across a character called Douglas Murray, who seems to speak in a style similar to that of the late Christopher Hitchins.

Has anyone encountered him before?  What are your opinions of him.  His views seem controversial with his audiences, but he is certainly a powerful and rational speaker in the few videos that I've found so far.

His credentials are enhanced by this Intelligence Squared debate where he works with Ayaan Hirsi Ali to debate "Islam is a religion of peace". 

(Ayaan and Douglas won decisively by the way.)

We might have a new Hitch in the making.

Monopoly provides the answer to the question "What does a retired pope do next?"

In general terms this is a virtually meaningless question because most popes do not abdicate and retire.  No doubt it will be a while before we hear the real reason for the retirement of Pope Benedict, even if we ever find it out.  The Roman Catholic Church could hardly be say to be famous for its openness.

Like his brother, Pope Benedict has been accused of quite a number of misdemeanours during his professional life.  It is asserted that he has personally been responsible for covering up the nefarious child abuse activities of many Catholic priests.  Although it is not implied that he was actually involved in the rape of children, it would be regarded as a very serious crime in any civilised jurisdiction to take actions intended to impede the police in their investigation of crime.  And yet this is exactly what he has been accused of.  Aiding and abetting one criminal would be serious enough, but it if is true that Ratzinger's Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith activities have been systematically confounding law enforcement then someone should take personal responsibility for it.  That someone should clearly be the head of the organisation.

Now that Ratzinger will no longer be acting as 'The Pope', and therefore no longer the head of state of that 'non-country' called 'The Vatican', one might hope that he is getting rather worried.

Please think about that and feel some satisfaction at my optimism.

His immunity to prosecution must surely have been rescinded along with the other responsibilities of the position.

Surely, just like that other notorious European tyrant Mladic, Ratzinger should be arrested and denied bail while his alleged crimes are thoroughly investigated and he is ultimately brought to trial. 

Therefore the answer to the question of his retirement plans should come directly from the Monopoly board!

Ratzinger - 1st March - Go to Jail. Go Directly.

Go to jail.  Go directly to jail. Do not pass go. Do not collect £200 (or whatever currency or culture you prefer).

After all this is a man who should know more about morality than anyone else on Earth if the claims of his church are true.  If God really set the standards of objective morality, then the Vicar of Christ (and his older brother) should have been able to tell that it is immoral to shelter his fellow priests from justice (or whatever his older brother is accused of).

There is little evidence that they have grasped that concept yet.

Go to jail.


Update: 22:30.  This evening I attended an event in Oxford, where Stephen Law and Richard Dawkins were in discussion as part of 'Think Week'.  One of the questions from the audience was on exactly this topic.  RD has been involved in a previous discussion about an attempt to prosecute the pope and together with Christopher Hitchens had paid a top lawyer to look into the idea.  Sitting in the audience this evening and knowing that this post was scheduled I felt quite amused.

Stridency is the least you should muster!

Richard Dawkins sometimes seems to rejoice in the way that his critics refer to him as 'strident'.  Shortly before the death of Christopher Hitchins, Dawkins interviewed his fellow 'horseman of the apocalypse'.

He told Dawkins in the interview:

“You have a discipline in which you are very distinguished. You've educated a lot of people; nobody denies that, not even your worst enemies. You see your discipline being attacked and defamed and attempts made to drive it out.

“Stridency is the least you should muster . . . It's the shame of your colleagues that they don't form ranks and say, ‘Listen, we're going to defend our colleagues from these appalling and obfuscating elements.’”

Well said - of course!

One small thing that I can claim is that I frequently defend Dawkins against the way that he is mis-represented.  Religious family members might not like him, but they can't, in all honesty, use stridency as an excuse.

You can read more at this link.

Could Nick Cohen be the new Hitch?

At the National Secular Society's conference last September, Nick Cohen gave a rousing speech entitled "How modern blasphemy works in practice".

In his introduction he included a quote from the late Christopher Hitchens:

“Its not enough to have free speech.  People must learn to speak freely.”

The contents of his speech and accounts of his work lead me to wonder whether he might pick up the mantle that was so tragically dropped a year ago, and the following notes might help you to understand why I suggest this.

A lady had said to him that morning on his journey, “What's the point of the NSS?  You've won haven't you? We're a secular society.”

She was missing the point.  We have a de facto blasphemy law.  It has not been passed by parliament and is not enforced by courts.  It brings with it no right to be innocent until proven guilty and there is no right of appeal. Instead, it is based on the threat of violence.  There is a huge system of self-censorship which overwhelmingly hurts the country. 

Cohen often sees the fear in editors and broadcasters eyes.  If we provoke the intolerant then we put people at risk.  People have now worked hard to develop this whole theory that to insult Mohamed is to perpetrate Islamophobia when in fact it is nothing of the sort.  Those who threaten retaliation are little better than truculent children and we can't expect them to behave as Westerners.

He suggested going back through the great writers in favour of free speech.

Milton's Areopagitica, 1644, pointed out the absurdity of censorship.  What kind of person would want to be a censor?  It certainly couldn't be anyone of talent or they would want to do their own work.  On that basis, anyone who wants to be a censor is unfit to be one.

More recently, The Jewel of Medina by Sheri Jones strove mightily not to cause offence, and in her version of the story of the life of Mohamed, Jones made him tell his wife to remain with her parents until she had grown up (which probably never happened even if a real Mohamed actually did exist, for which there is absolutely no historical evidence).  The book got a $100K advance.   Then in spite of bending over backwards to avoid telling the truth she was accused of causing offence!  Publication of the book was pulled.  A professor in Texas had said “This book is an insult to Islam” so the publisher believed him.  Eventually it was released by a new publisher, whose home was subsequently fire-bombed.  The very fact that someone said the above led to fire-bombing. 

Also everyone is afraid to admit that self censorship exists.  Journalists all like to pose as dissidents in a dictatorship, challenging establishments, transgressing boundaries – normally this is nonsense.  They simply seem unable to acknowledge that certain topics are just off-limits.

One reason why the banking crash came out of the blue was that journalists knew that challenging a city institution costs a lot of money to defend.  But no journalists want to say that they and their editors are afraid of litigation.  Because we can't admit our fear we make excuses. 

Cohen wants to emphasise the importance of at least being honest about being a coward.  The language of the liberal left has been corrupted and turned on its head to accuse people of racism etc.  Many people who use this language are genuinely afraid.

(John Stuart )Mill realised that there were other ways of confronting extremism than the law.  Online public opinion is one way now.  It is not hard to beat a holocaust denier in open argument and if you can't do it you shouldn't be in the business of trying.  It is important to have your answers ready and to make people feel absurd for using silly arguments.

A few hundred years ago you would know that the finest minds in the world, such as Isaac Newton, also had supernatural beliefs as a broad explanation of the world around them.  Now that is no longer possible.  As soon as you reach some level of knowledge you will know that the greatest minds of today do not hold those unscientific views now.  Religion is no longer able to be involved in high culture.  This makes religious people defensive and wary of learning.  Religion now knows itself to be intellectually on-the-back-foot.  Instead it can become ultra-fundamentalist and aggressive.

People don't understand the point of political extremism is that there always HAS to be something to keep their supporters inflamed. 

I think it is time for me to read more of Cohen's work, but first I need to complete reading Hitchens long book of essays, "Arguably"

Einstein the agnostic

Should we agree with Einstein's reported words?

"From the viewpoint of a Jesuit priest I am, of course, and have always been an atheist.... I have repeatedly said that in my opinion the idea of a personal God is a childlike one. You may call me an agnostic, but I do not share the crusading spirit of the professional atheist whose fervor is mostly due to a painful act of liberation from the fetters of religious indoctrination received in youth. I prefer an attitude of humility corresponding to the weakness of our intellectual understanding of nature and of our being." **

Clearly he had a view about religions but had much more important things on his mind, and I'm glad that he did.

But whether his opinions about the actions of others as outspoken atheists matter at all is another thing.

Personally I recognise his point of view but do not agree with all of it.  I think people should be more outspoken when faced with supernatural claims.  After all, the religious don't keep quite about their opinions, so why should we?

Christopher Hitchens' interjected cries of "Shame on you" in a debate (I think this one) with a rabbi were much more appropriate than Daniel Dennett's natural politeness.

Sometimes you should not tolerate nonsense!

Small note.  **The context of this fragment of a letter was a letter to Guy H. Raner Jr, July 2, 1945, responding to a rumor that a Jesuit priest had caused Einstein to convert from atheism; quoted by Michael R. Gilmore in Skeptic, Vol. 5, No. 2.

Hitchens 'Mortality'

A month or two ago I pre-ordered Christopher Hitchens' last book, Mortality, with a little trepidation.  I didn't really want to read the dying words of a great orator and writer, but nor did I want to miss any of the things that he had to say.

A few days ago, my copy of this giant little book arrived, and today I have finished reading it, leaving me feeling . . . I'm not sure how.  It is only 104 pages long but it is packed with insights into his life in Tumortown, as he called it.

Mortality,
by Christopher Hitchens

It is a little fragmentary, sometimes repetitive and even trivially inconsistent, (e.g. Tumortown being renamed Tumorville).  But considering the huge difficulties he experienced with communication while undergoing treatment for his cancer, I find it amazing that it makes such sense  I can't aspire to be half the writer that he was, even when he was in this weakened state.

The final chapter containing his own words was a collection of fragmentary jottings.  Perhaps my favorite was:

Now so many tributes that it also seems that rumours of my LIFE have also been greatly exaggerated.  Lived to see most of what is going to be written about me: this too is exhilarating but hits diminishing returns when I realize how soon it, too, will be "background".

and I also like this one

If I convert it's because it's better that a believer dies than that an atheist does.

The final chapter is written by his wife, Carol Blue.  I couldn't read that again.  I recognised the first few paragraphs from an article I read recently online.  It is odd that such glowing, affectionate and passionate words made me feel a bit melancholy.

If you admired the man, you should read this book.

Sunday Selection 6

Continuing a new series where there is little additional content from me, but I simply share a few items, new and old, that have pleased me this week.  As almost every week, I see items on the web that I find interesting, amazing or  or amusing.  This disjointed ramble might be on any of my normal topics - or on other topics entirely.  My thanks go to the friends who helped me to find them.

First: Do Atheists Have Deathbed Conversions?
In short - there were two answers from different studies.  But if the sample of those surveyed is a group of young adults, would anyone expect their views to have hardened?

Next: Atheists More Motivated by Compassion than the Faithful
At least we get this right!

Podcast of the week: Pat Condell's Godless Comedy (audio or video of Waiting for Jesus.)
I'm usually a bit unsure about admitting to following Pat as he is much more forthright than most.  A friend once said, she didn't like his frothing-at-the-mouth approach.  But some of his challenges are worth a listen.

Tweets of the week: From @Twisty58.  Whether you accept it or not, the Bible IS my evidence...so it's up to you. ALSO...go read Isaiah 17 regarding Damascus...
She seems to think that the prophecy about the destruction of Damascus is happening at the moment. You have to have sympathy.

Life science of the week:   The Mystery of the Missing Chromosome
How the missing human chromosome is not evidence to support the ideas of creationists.

Atheist blog post of the week:  No Faith In The Bible
Another great post from Rosa Rubicondior, pointing out that all the prophets in the bible had seen evidence of god, but the rest of us are expected to rely on faith.

From the archives: Christopher Hitchens Epic Last Words R.I.P 1949 - 2011
Moving words from the great Hitch as he received the Richard Dawkins Award last year.

And finally . . .

Favourite places: North Yorkshire Moors Railway - one of the best places to see vintage steam in action in UK.

NYMR, at the top of the long, steep climb to Goathland.

Could anyone ever replace Hitch?

With the sad demise of Christopher Hitchens last December, I have been wondering whether anyone else might be 'elected' to the honorary position of '4th Horseman of the Apocalypse', joining Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, Sam Harris.  In fact, I have been wondering whether anyone ever could replace him and who might be qualified to decide anyway.  Is it a democratic vote?  Is it another opportunity for the diverse rational community to be split again? (Or are we lucky enough to find that Rebecca Watson is too busy in her other campaigns of self-publicity to bother herself about this one)?

Three remaining 'horseman',
with worthy guest, Ayaan Hirsi Ali from here.

On Sunday I gave you this link to an excellent Youtube video of Ayaan Hirsi Ali on stage with the remaining three 'horsemen' at the 2012 Global Atheist Convention, 13-15th April, in the Melbourne Convention Exhibition Centre.

Although I know I'm not in a position to have any credible effect on this topic, I am going to indulge myself in a little speculation about the possible candidates.  I can only work from my own limited experience, but I will give a 'shout out' to some of the people who have most influenced my thinking over the last couple of years.

That the original horsemen are firmly on my list goes without saying.  If that were not the case I would not be writing this.

What criteria are important in this selection though?

• Do the existing three have to approve the selection, or indeed make the selection themselves?  (I'm sure they would want to influence the choice).
  
• Is it necessary for the 4th horseman to be a man?  (A tricky, potentially divisive question!  I vote for equality, and against positive discrimination.)
• Do they have to be white?  (Let's hope that is neither a requirement, nor a reason for positive discrimination.)
• Must they be an English-speaker?  (I think the answer is yes, in this case, but accept that English need not be their first language.)
• Should the selection be based on their profession or their performance?  (It would be hard to find another well-read polemicist and commentator like Hitch, but all to easy to select another philosopher to join two of the remaining three.  The trouble is that that might tip the balance too far from the real world.)
• Indeed should we ban scientists and philosophers from consideration, in favour of an unbiased and well-practised communicator? (I hope not.)
• Do they necessarily have to be an atheist?  (I think the answer is yes, but . . . what do you think?  e.g. the deist, Thomas Paine, could easily have been a candidate if he was still alive.)
• Or does nobody care?  (Its quite possible!) 

In the next post, Elect the fourth horseman - some candidates, I will venture to suggest the names of some candidates and invite you to suggest others who I ought to find out about.  If nothing else, we might all learn about the work of some of the stars of freethought who we didn't already know.


Related Posts: 
Next post: Elect the fourth horseman - some candidates!  (Huge number of comments with a clear consensus.)
Initial results of the responses:  Boghossian leads by a mile!
Some of Boghossian's work summarised: Pretending to know things that you don't know!

Its all in the bible!

Listening to a debate about the bible the other day, I was reminded that some people regard the words of that book to be the inerrant word of god.  For some of them the bible contains everything that we need to know.

A thought struck me though.  The bible simply isn't big enough to do that is it.

We can't neglect the fact that the bible spends a lot of time on rules that people don't follow any more - about not mixing cotton with other materials, about what we can eat and as Christopher Hitchens said, who we can have sex with and in what positions.  More pages are wasted with impossible myths, whether they be about talking snakes or floods.  Still more describe how the peoples of the surrounding areas were massacred.

This leaves remarkably little space for all of human knowledge. 

Fortunately this reveals the truth, that the bronze age writings of the bible tell us almost nothing about the universe, however you spin the contents. Whatever you do, you can't get all the learning about the universe into a book so small.  Imagine everything we know about astronomy fitting into such a slim volume.  Then fit all we know about physics into another, and Chemistry, Medicine, and each of the thousands of other specialist subjects into individual volumes.  Not only would you not be able to fit any subject into one book, but these thousands of volumes self-evidently contain more knowledge than the bible.

So let's face it.  Its not 'all in the bible'. 

Presuppositionalists - how do you answer? 

Amazing Hitchslap Index: part 9

Here is the next instalment of 'The Amazing Hitchslap Index', summarising the content of the next 7 of the 66 'Hitchslaps' uploaded to Youtube by Loy Machedo as explained here.  For each Hitchslap, I summarise the content in the form of direct quotations and summaries, list co-stars and 'authorities' called upon.  This series should help you to find that one perfect Hitchslap to send to someone who you are debating.

Hitchslap 66. Man made gods, and not the other way round.

Hitchslap 59 There is no such thing.  5:13
Phobia means fear and does imply dislike.  I dislike Islam as I dislike all religion.
All the time we have to hear propaganda across the muslim world, telling children to kill Jews, Christians and Hindus.
Have to read and claim not to be offended by the stoning of 10 people in the Islamic republic of Iran in the last week alone for crimes that would not be crimes except under the mad religious laws that Islam proposes.
All we ask in return that he upholds the first amendment.
[Koran says clearly “Terrorise them”  Its a command from Allah.  Making them fearful so that they think twice.]
Moral blackmail of Denmark – physical threat to destroy its economy . . . by Ambassadors of countries claiming to represent Islam. (Much as Hitchslap 18)
Claiming Muslims have a special right to be offended . . . at gun point and by force.
‘Co-stars’: Hooper,, Younes Abdullah Mohammed
Cited: OIC, Mr Rasmussen, Ambassadors of Egypt, Turkey and Algeria
Link: http://youtu.be/B_UlGo2zr_Y

Hitchslap 60 Henry Kissinger is a thug, a liar and a murderer.  5:04
Strongest case on which Kissinger could be indicted.
Illegal money and weapons through US diplomatic bag
Found beyond doubt that nobody in congress ever new that Kissinger had evolved a plan to murder the head of the general staff in a neighbouring democracy.
Bombing of Cambodia also concealed from Congress

This is a vandal, barbarian and crook, thug and pseudo-intellectual and a murderer.
‘Co-stars’: Unknown
Cited: Chilean general, Schneider, Henry Kissinger, President Ayend, East Timor, Cyprus, Bangladesh
Link: http://youtu.be/zqhGA3Tub_c

Hitchslap 61 Hitchens and a 911 conspiracy theorist.  2:15
Hold it right there.  You're wasting your time.  I'm not going to answer. You can speak - I'm not bothering with you.  That was a big wow from a small mind.
‘Co-stars’: 
Cited: 
Link: http://youtu.be/zhK-UZyyNqg

Hitchslap 62 Europeans and Bush.  4:09
Mr Chirac is a de Gaulle wannabe claiming the mantle of Gaullism
Anglo Saxon racketeers
French speakers crossed the Atlantic to escape the horrors of European nationalism.
EU utterly failed to deal with Yugoslavia and had to beg USA to rescue them.
American Revolution is the only one that has a model still standing.
Bush couldn't give you much of an account of the 1776 revolution.
Bush knows one small thing and one big thing.
Cooperation with totalitarians isn't desirable.
This is a man who gave up drink for Jesus.  Neither halves of that world I will ever understand. ‘Co-stars’: 
Cited: Jacques Chirac , Charles De Gaulle, Quebecois, Jefferson, George Bush
Link: http://youtu.be/NxmqtuoxZQo

Hitchslap 63 If god does not exist, what is our purpose.  4:07
Socrates answered that he had an inner daemon – not demon.  An inner critic.  A conscience.
Any person of average moral equipment has the same knowledge.  If you don't I feel sorry for you.
Adam Smith called it “the internal witness”.
Why do you behave well when nobody is looking?
There are people who do not think that way and there are some who only get pleasure from being unpleasant.
Sociopathic and psychopathic appear in nature.
That we are all made in the image of god is the one explanation that absolutely doesn't work at all.  It gets you nowhere, explains nothing at all.
What cheers me up?  Mainly gloating over the misfortunes of other people.  Doesn't always work but it never completely fails.  And irony – that's the gin in the Campari.  Sex can have diminishing returns but its amazing . . . That's pretty much it, and then it is a clear run to the grave.
‘Co-stars’: Unknown
Cited: Socrates, Adam Smith, C S Lewis
Link: http://youtu.be/MF8vh__LLns

Hitchslap 64 The decline of believers in America.  3:11
Smuggled-through-customs name of 'intelligent design'.
Number of people like myself who think that religion is false, that it is a delusion in other words, and that it is bad for you, is pretty small.
Science will beat pseudo-science every time.
[Christopher wears his unbelief like a fur coat.  If Jesus didn't come back from the dead then Christianity is an appalling fraud and delusion and people ought to attack it.]
Often when you argue with religious people they are completely mushy.  Charity.  Metaphors.
If it is based on a fraud then those preachings are immoral.
‘Co-stars’: Douglas Wilson
Cited: 
Link: http://youtu.be/wQlXwRxJ6Wc

Hitchslap 65 George Galloway gets the taste slapped out of his mouth.  2:44
So these Al Qaeda chaps, killers sadists, nihilists and producers of indiscriminate explosions, wouldn't be this way if we weren't so mean to them?
Kurdish leadership is a strange target for a holy war.
This is masochism being offered to you by sadists.
100% consistent in your support for unmentionable thugs and criminals
Thank him for . . . full declaration of support for the campaign of sabotage, murder and beheading, demolishing offices of UN and Red Cross in Bagdad.
Continues as a campaign of mayhem to this day.
‘Co-stars’: George Galloway
Cited: Mr Zarqawi
Link: http://youtu.be/jWfIVKx2MKY

Hitchslap 66 Man made god in his own image.  3:19
Anyone can look at any religious text and take any prompting or authority from it that they like from any number of sides for any proposition.
Religion is man made and it shows.
Our species making made many hundreds and thousands of gods in vain hope of certainty
In hope of establishing a secular tyranny of rule by men over men but to say that these men have divine warrant for what they do.
Essential core of religion is that there is a creator and that his wishes can be conveyed by a priesthood to the rest of us.
Did not call me an extremist – I wouldn't particularly have bristled if you had - but you are saying that the examples of religiosity that I adduce are extremist beliefs
The gods that we have made are exactly the gods that you would expect to be made by a species that is about half a chromosome away from being a chimpanzee.
‘Co-stars’: Professor Barry Brummett
Cited: 
Link: http://youtu.be/dEcwp7zd5AE


Previous Hitchslap Index posts: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8
This is the last in the series of The Amazing Hitchslap Index.  I hope you have enjoyed it.

Please add your comments, suggestions and corrections so that they can be included (with credit) in the final summary index that will be made up of these posts.

Venomous Hitchslaps?

A friend has gently taken me to task for my Amazing Hitchslap Index series (see links below), for reasons that I can understand but can't possibly agree with.  The reason that I took the time to index them all was that I have a great deal of respect for the direct and rational challenges that he made against all religious institutions.

Now obviously that is not the same as saying that all Christians (or indeed all Muslims) think in the same way as the formal religions of which they are members.  Of course most ordinary Christians think of themselves as decent and well-meaning people, and although I know fewer Muslims I would assume that they would claim the same.  (I must admit that I'm naturally more suspicious of a religion which has a concept of taqiyyah though!  Yes, people lie for Jesus, but its not quite as highly formalised in christian doctrine.)

But they are all members of organisations that have a lot to be ashamed of!  They must take some responsibility for the way that their donations are squandered.

In a nicely christian way, my friend has very refrained from making comments on the posts out of a sense of respect for the recently deceased Mr Hitchens.  However, I think he would not be upset at all if she said what she disagreed with, in a calm and rational way.  He might very well have answered, as he did in Hitchslap 56:

"You give the awful impression of someone who has not read any of the arguments against your position ever. "

After all, Christopher Hitchens was much less respectful of the dead and terminally ill, both while they were alive and after their deaths. He expected (and to some extent got) the same treatment during his own illness. 

You may say that he slandered Christians but to be honest I think you would have trouble supporting that claim.  Slander requires his words to be untrue.  Besides that, he generally argued against Christianity rather than against specific Christians, with the exception of people like Falwell and Robertson who have shown themselves to be 'notorious' characters anyway, and Mother Teresa who was (at best) not beyond suspicion.

My main argument would be that you should ask yourself whether his words would be considered acceptable in a political debate though.  I think they would not seem unusually harsh in such a context.

Hitch - equally outspoken on politics (as you can read here)

It is just that Christianity has become accustomed to being immune to questioning and at long last it has to face up to those hard questions being asked. In my view it has no right to expect that immunity. Do YOU think it does?

Far from being an outpouring of venom, I prefer to think of the work of Hitchens as brave, reasonable and rational opinion on a topic that should be important to all of us.

Sometimes I'm more outspoken than other times.  I generally I try to maintain a reasonable degree of politeness but I decline to be unnecessarily reverent.  That doesn't mean that I can't respect someone who was less reticent with his views.


Hitchslap Index posts: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9

Small note: He famously changed his mind about the Iraq war.  That demonstrates open-mindedness and represents a virtue rather than a weakness in my opinion.

Amazing Hitchslap Index: part 8

Here is the next instalment of 'The Amazing Hitchslap Index', summarising the content of the next 7 of the 66 'Hitchslaps' uploaded to Youtube by Loy Machedo as explained here.  For each Hitchslap, I summarise the content in the form of direct quotations and summaries, list co-stars and 'authorities' called upon.  This series should help you to find that one perfect Hitchslap to send to someone who you are debating.

Hitchslap 52 Religious nastiness and menace!

Hitchslap 52 Religious cowards. 2:54
Change in the zeitgeist.  Large audience now for resistance to clerical bullying and religious lecturing and self-righteousness and nastiness and menace.
We've had about enough of all this
Pope – having just repudiated limbo after a long struggle – says we need to teach the children more about hell.
Limbo was a real place for those parents who thought that was where their poor kids had gone.
Oh by the way – we were wrong about this, but we are now ready to be infallible all over again . . . teach the children more about hell.
Maladjusted elderly virgins.
“No child's behind left.”
AIDS in Africa may be bad but nothing like as bad as a condom.
Will not have people who want to bring on Armageddon and destruction - should recognise them as enemies.
‘Co-stars’: None
Cited: To celebrate my birthday, Dawkins , Dennett, Harris
Link: http://youtu.be/QuCyjqUZhzA

Hitchslap 53 National day of wishful thinking. 6:36
First amendment written with admirable clarity.
Would it unite the nation if it was a day of Hindu prayer or Muslim prayer?  You know what day of prayer it is – it is a day of prayer for Christians
It would be a tyranny of the majority.
Whatever judge said that this would be unconstitutional would be incorrect.
Can you tell me what date this national day of prayer originated? (1988)
Obama administration is afraid of being accused of being socialist and secular.
‘Co-stars’: Tony Perkins
Cited: George Washington, James Madison, Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Paine, Benjamin Franklin
Link: http://youtu.be/79S3D8D-Fvc

Hitchslap 54 A clash of civilizations. 3:13
[Clash of civilisation between Islam and the west is inevitable?]  Yes.
A great number of Muslims are violently annoyed by our policy and thus we are 'less safe' however that is estimated.
Does going to war make one more safe? One asks a question that is flat-out incoherent.
e.g. Denmark – small European multicultural democracy with no history of imperialism in the middle east – has its embassies burned and its diplomatic immunity violated.  Well organised attempt by several leading Arab governments to destroy the quite vulnerable Danish economy because the Danish prime minister will not break the law to ban the publication of cartoons.
Those who say 'don't make enemies' in those conditions are being flat-out masochistic.  We can avoid their ire just as long as we destroy everything that makes our society different from theirs. 
Well I'm not ready to do that
I would rather fight it out – if it takes all my life.
‘Co-stars’: None 
Cited: 
Link: http://youtu.be/4tPtaAq2lto

Hitchslap 55 If religious leaders are as uneducated as this guy. 8:48
Christian nation is a meaningless statement.
Declaration of independence mentions a creator but does not say that this creator intervenes.
Many christians are full of doubt and skepticism.
Those having no faith are the fastest growing group.
Wall of separation between church and state.
Jefferson Bible cuts out all references to the divinity of Jesus.
George Washington would not take communion.
I don't have a constitutional right to be theologically wrong.  I don't require your permission.
USA's founding documents are secular.  If you don't know that you don't know anything.
Our worst enemy in the world is very obviously a faith based one.
Our enemy is no longer godless communism but the most godly imaginable group.
‘Co-stars’: Ken Blackwell
Cited: Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, John Meacham
Link: http://youtu.be/aX7iHGAK8fA

Hitchslap 56 Sean Hannity is a cock smith.  4:54
An atheist says that there is no evidence to believe that there is a god but they may wish it were true.
I'm anti-theist because I think it would be rather awful if it was true.
Permanent total around the clock divine supervision.
Watched controlled and supervised by some celestial entity
Its only after death that the real fun begins isn't it.
You give the awful impression of someone who has not read any of the arguments against your position ever. 
One planet in this petty solar system that can support life some of the time on some of its surface.
99% of species extinct already.  This is some design isn't it?
Our minds demand – we look for patterns.
Not angry with god - obviously – that would be absurd!
Contempt and hostility to constant religious intimidation and clerical bullying to which we are being subjected.
Pope says "Limbo may have been a mistake but let's talk about hell".
I am very hostile to this
It is innately irrational.
If you reduce religion to social work then so does USAID do all that, actually rather more convincingly.
‘Co-stars’: Sean Hannity
Cited: The Pope
Link: http://youtu.be/O-QxOJsPxk0

Hitchslap 57 Zionism. 2:07
Idea of building a state of Jewish farmers on Arab land in the middle east was a silly messianic, superstitious, nationalist idea.
Many states are founded on injustices or foolishness but it doesn't mean that people can just come and evict or destroy them
It was a waste of Judaism and guaranteed a quarrel with the Arabs
Trying to make Jews into peasants – already a silly idea.
Guaranteed injustice to the Arabs.
4th generation of Palestinians being brought up in exile or dispossession or under occupation and in humiliation
Something has to be done to redress . . .
Have been writing in favour of a Palestinian homeland all my life.
If Jews born in Brooklyn have a right to a state in Palestine then Palestinians born in Jerusalem have a right to one?
‘Co-stars’: Unknown interviewer, (Carter von Riedel)
Cited: George Bush
Link: http://youtu.be/U17ifgo3RCk

Hitchslap 58 A threat to everyone! 3:03
Can't tell whether the Koran is the work of god or not.
Can hope that this was a bad day for god and I can hope to live in a country where I can say that and get applause.
I don't like the idea of a paradise reward for martyrs.
Are the Jews ever going to be forgiven for rejecting two messiahs in a row?
Couldn't say this everywhere in Europe. 
All of this has been done to us by the wrong Muslims  Let's get rid of them and have an honest discussion about the texts and the reader.
Is this the culture that Islam wants us to have in relation to it?  One of pre-emptive submission and pre-emptive cowering backed by the fear of force.  That is not multi-culturalism.  Nothing like the gorgeous mosaic.
Have to look rather askance on a religion whose preachers openly make threats against people like us.
Where is the authoritative statement of moral outrage saying that this is not acceptable behaviour for followers of the prophet?  I missed it.
‘Co-stars’: None
Cited: 
Link: http://youtu.be/BriMRjOSqbA

Hitchslap Index posts: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9

The next and final part of this series is coming in one week.  Check back for more!

Please add your comments, suggestions and corrections so that they can be included (with credit) in the final summary index that will be made up of these posts.

Amazing Hitchslap Index: part 7

Here is the next instalment of 'The Amazing Hitchslap Index', summarising the content of the next 7 of the 66 'Hitchslaps' uploaded to Youtube by Loy Machedo as explained here.  For each Hitchslap, I summarise the content in the form of direct quotations and summaries, list co-stars and 'authorities' called upon.  This series should help you to find that one perfect Hitchslap to send to someone who you are debating.

Hitchslap 48 - Visibly shaken!

Hitchslap 45 Hitting religion's claims out of the park!  6:31
[How you doing?] Too soon to tell!
Why is America so far behind Europe.
Not enough room in the churches.  People lie to opinion pollsters.
In hospital they act as though Darwin is more likely to be right
The Queen is head of the church in England as well as the state.  When she dies, her slobbering, weak chinned dauphin of a son . . . who wants to convert to Islam . . . 
Don't you always love it to see how the Christians love one another
Until 1965 the Mormon Church was officially a racist organisation
Romney a senior member of a racket like that
Some Republicans quite careful not to appear too pious
“Its Jack Daniels or me . . . scum bag”.  (wife to George Bush)
‘Co-stars’: Bill Maher
Cited: God is not Great, Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Paine, Prince Charles, Henry VIII, Al Sharpton, Mitt Romney, Northern Ireland, Iraq, Karl Rowe, George Bush
Link: http://youtu.be/c9jj_YvgG3w

Hitchslap 46 Hitchens asks for security to remove a conspiracy nut.    2:19
Battle to defend the constitution.
Slobbering chinless sympathiser of Islam, a witless dauphin who goes to the mosque these days will become the head of the church.
That's what you get when you build a church on the family values of Henry 8th
For all that, I think England was worth saving.
Security called to throw someone out.
‘Co-stars’: LA Times Festival, 2007
Cited: The Queen, Prince Charles, Henry VIII, A fascist crackpot
Link: http://youtu.be/gc3evsywecE

Hitchslap 47 Michael Moore. 4:55
Natural gas pipeline across Afghanistan
Saudis decide everything in Washington.  
Pointless war, kept going for profit.
‘Co-stars’: 
Cited: Bill Clinton, George Bush, Prince Bandar (bin Khalid bin Faisal Al-Saud), George Orwell, Winston Smith, John McCain, The Weekly Standard
Link: http://youtu.be/aZL5MBaQCiE

Hitchslap 48 Interviewer visibly shaken by Hitchens comments.  5:20
Idea that I needed supernatural prompting to think this way is a barbaric idea.
Communism and fascism a very serious question.
Fascism and National Socialism effectively nothing more than the right wing of the RC church. 
National Socialism is pagan and anti-clerical but never breaks its concordat with the church.  Church reciprocates by having prayers for Hitler's birthday.
Third leader of the axis, the Japanese Emperor is actually a god.
Stalinism – millions of Russians had been told that the Tsar is the head of the church.  Not quite divine.  Stalin shouldn't be in the dictatorship business if he doesn't know how to exploit an inheritance like that - millions of credulous servile people.  Replication of the preceding theocracy.
Russian Orthodox church was always on the side of Stalin.  Kept the church in his corner throughout the collectivisation.  The church had to split because the hierarchy stayed with the regime.
‘Co-stars’: 
Cited: George Washington, Stalin, Trofim Lysenko, Lucretius, Spinoza, Thomas Paine, Thomas Jefferson, Einstein, Hirohito
Link: http://youtu.be/uyIf2F_NPXM

Hitchslap 49 There is [sic] not enough churches for 25% of Americans to be Christians  5:00
It wouldn't bother me to be the only atheist in the country.
80% of Americans lie that they go to church regularly on Sunday.
Not enough churches to take that many Americans
Easy to lie to an opinion pollster about a matter of faith.
Its one of the ways that people who are religious get their own way.
Such a man as Sharpton would not get away that with this in our culture if he was not called Reverend.
Feeling of annoyance at the prevalence of religious bullying and intimidation.
Everyone in this room subject to a Fatwah by Mr Bin Laden and his associates.
I'm not a person of faith but I seek to kill the enemies of civilisation.  
It is immoral to tell me to love these people.
One definition that you can't meet – a person of faith who will leave you alone.  
They have to interfere in my life.  
Can't watch me go to hell.  Will love me to death if they have to.  
They start fighting among themselves – terrible wars of faith.
They have gravely retarded civilisation for hundreds of years and they are still doing it.  
There is no possibility of living a life that is untouched by this barbaric belief.
‘Co-stars’: 
Cited: Al Sharpton, Robertson, Falwell, Mountabank, Osama Bin Laden, Iraq, India, 
Link: http://youtu.be/9WApUfdAGRo

Hitchslap 50 The warrant for slavery was biblical.  2:19
The warrant for slavery was biblical to begin with.  Found in the bible and preached by the churches.
For every Christian who was an anti-slavery activist that were millions and millions who did not just passively but actively supported the institution.
Main founders of the American anti-slavery society, Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Paine, had no god.
Chaotic and disordered and undesigned nature of the cosmos and the universe.  If you claim that it is ordered and designed you will have a serious problem.
That there is so much injustice and random misery and unfairness is not my problem.
Look at a God who had made a penis that needs to be snipped, it is so badly thought out.
Poet Fulke Greville “Created sick and then ordered to be well.”
That can only be done by a heartless cruel incompetent designer.
‘Co-stars’: 
Cited: Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Paine, Fulke Greville
Link: http://youtu.be/N9qBMjXVZh0

Hitchslap 51 Communist ideology is fundamentally religious in nature. 1:55
Russian Christian Tsars started the First World war, pogroms, Tsarist secret police brought the 'Protocols of the Elders of Zion' imported to Europe by national socialist Christian gangsters.
How much do you think the export of Russian Orthodox anti-Semitism cost us in point of lives.
Have you ever counted up what happened in the wars that were started by tsarism, persecutions and famines and tortures and starvation and the people who have just died of neglect.
If you want to do this accounting I am here for you.
Or what the Serbian and Russian Orthodox have just done in the Balkans – the most recent genocide we have seen in Europe entirely done by orthodox and catholic . . .  Grinding a whole part of civilised Europe into nothingness and bloodshed for their filthy stupid medieval quarrels.
How dare you say that any secularist, we who have opposed this kind of barbaric stuff are on all fours with these creeps? You should take it back you owe me an apology.
Civility is over-rated.
‘Co-stars’: 
Cited: Tsar
Link: http://youtu.be/Lh74ant2U0s




Hitchslap Index posts: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9


The next parts coming regularly.  Check back for more!

Please add your comments, suggestions and corrections so that they can be included (with credit) in the final summary index that will be made up of these posts.

Amazing Hitchslap Index: part 6

Here is the next instalment of 'The Amazing Hitchslap Index', summarising the content of the next 7 of the 66 'Hitchslaps' uploaded to Youtube by Loy Machedo as explained here.  For each Hitchslap, I summarise the content in the form of direct quotations and summaries, list co-stars and 'authorities' called upon.  This series should help you to find that one perfect Hitchslap to send to someone who you are debating.

Hitchslap 37 - The great debate with Tony Blair

Hitchslap 37 Religion is insanity.  6:54
A text from Cardinal Newman.  
"The Catholic Church holds it better for the sun and moon to drop from heaven, for the earth to fail, and for all the many millions on it to die of starvation in extremest agony, as far as temporal affliction goes, than that one soul, I will not say 'should be lost', but should commit one single venial sin, should tell one wilful untruth, or should steal one farthing without excuse."
What we have here is a distillation of precisely what is twisted and immoral in the faith mentality.
Its consideration of human being as a raw material in a cruel experiment where we are created sick and then ordered to be well
Installed about this is a celestial dictatorship, a kind of divine North Korea
Greedy for uncritical praise 
Swift to punish the original sin with which it so tenderly gifted us in the first place.
Redemption is promised at the low price of the surrender of your critical faculties.
Is it good for the world to appeal to our credulity and not our skepticism? (and a list of other things)
Birth place of mono-theism . . . should be enough room for two states in the same land . . .  but the parties of god have a veto on it.
People kill each other's children for ancient books and caves and relics.
What will happen when messianic fanatics get hold of an apocalyptic weapon?
‘Co-stars’: Tony Blair debate
Cited: Cardinal John Henry Newman's Apologia, Steven Weinberg, Iran, Tsarism in Putin's Russia
Link: http://youtu.be/SBqdaDXQW2A

Hitchslap 38 Waging war on the world.  5:42
Clinton administration intervened to prevent Iranians from invading Afghanistan.
Al Qaeda is a highly sectarian organisation which regards Shia as heretics who can be slaughtered at any time in the name of God.  Doesn't have a chance of winning hearts and minds.  Its defeat is certain
Named plaintiff on the wire tapping case.
Water-boarding self-evidently crossing the line that constitutes torture.
We have no right to throw away our ancient liberties.  All we need is to be very patient and very intelligent and of course very ruthless.
You advocate withdrawal and surrender.
...reduced Afghanistan to complete peonage and slavery.  50% of the Muslim population – the female part – is regarded as sub-human.
‘Co-stars’: Justin Ramondo
Cited: Al Qaeda, Hazara, Shia, East Timor
Link: http://youtu.be/PovQ2TCHVeM

Hitchslap 39 The cure for poverty.  4:34
In fairness no-one was arguing that religion should or will die out in the world.
It would be better if there was a great deal more by way of an outbreak of secularism.
We know that the cure for poverty is the empowerment of women to control the rate at which they reproduce.
Name me one religion that stands for that or ever has.
If I was a member of a church that preached that AIDS was not as bad as condoms I would be putting some conscience money into Africa too.
You may think its a bit cracked to think that Joseph Smith found another bible in up-state New York, but you should see our missionaries in action.
Great deal of charitable work is nothing compared to the harm that they do, but it is a great deal all the same
Don't require divine permission to know right from wrong. Don't need commandments administered to us ten at a time and in tablet form.
I have done my best – believe me, I have more.
‘Co-stars’: Tony Blair debate
Cited: Roman Catholics, Mormons, Rabbi Hillel, Confucius, Socrates, Wahhabi , Shia, Joseph Smith, Mamas Hesbullah
Link: http://youtu.be/r8YLfhtac9k

Hitchslap 40 The after life.  4:41
We know our chemical composition.  We are made out of stardust.
Will my dog or cat be there in heaven too? (Never ask about that hellish tabby being reassembled in the infernal regions.)
Wishful thinking for heaven is hedonistic, but why would people who are wish-thinking want hell?
Farrakhan in 1985 said “Remember Jews – when god puts you in the ovens it is for ever”– great moan and groan of pleasure that came from that audience.
Stupidity and nastiness and criminality of this religious nut bag
Call someone an imam or a priest or reverend and there is nothing that they can't get away with in our cultrure.
When someone gets up and says I'm a person of faith . . . means “I'm a person who will believe practically anything on no evidence at all”
You would think that the Lord himself would have had enough of the songs of praise after the first 5 billion years.
Tertullian on hell and heaven . . . From heaven you can go to the edge and look down on the torments and endless tortures of the damned.  That is a founding statement of Christianity  You can't disown it now. 
Ratzinger – an over-dressed little ponce who was himself a member of the Hitler youth
‘Co-stars’: Rabbi Schmuley Boteach, 
Cited: Dinesh's clever case for the afterlife, Louis Farrakhan, Tertullian, Ratzinger, Hitler Youth
Link: http://youtu.be/jQG3y_C_J_c

Hitchslap 41 Jesus's teachings are not moral.  5:56
Birth of Jesus in the bible – virgin 
List of virgin births.  No end to the way in which this kind of thing can be fabricated.
Potency and pungency of the story . . . inviting you not to rely on your thinking faculties but on straight out credulity.
Appear to be part of the hard and soft wiring of legend in our mammalian primate history 
If you want to have a prophet it is better if his mother is a virgin.
Joseph Smith never made that claim but Mrs Smith was well enough known to make it rather unlikely that that thing could be sold.
Revolting idea of human sacrifice, scape-goating and vicarious redemption.  Repulsive immoral idea.
C S Lewis on forgiveness. Asinine fatuity being the description of his conduct.
Either a lunatic or the devil of hell, a madman or something worse.
Lewis can't complete a syllogism, and never could.  Paltry logic.
‘Co-stars’: Dinesh D'Sousa
Cited: Demigod Perseus, Jupiter, Buddha, Aztec god, Attis, Genghis Kahn, Krishna, Horus, Mercury, Romulus, Virgin Mary, Joseph Smith, C S Lewis, Thomas Jefferson
Link: http://youtu.be/6qPxh0JJwhk

Hitchslap 42 The insult of religion.  3:57
Relieves you of the idea that plagues are punishments as the church used to preach.
Free yourself from appalling burden of superstition from our primate past.
Study plate tectonics – you won't do what the Archbishop of Haiti did.
Earthquake in Haiti – quarter of million victims.  God had something to say to Haiti and this is the way he chose to say it.
Responsibility to take on learning to free ourselves of superstition.
Crucial events happened 3000 to 2000 years ago in illiterate desert Arabia and Palestine and at that moment only, the heavens decided that it was time to intervene.
If I don't believe it I wouldn't have any source for ethics or  morality.
Please don't pile the insulting onto the irrational.
If I don't accept these sacrifices in the desert I have no reason to tell right from wrong.
God must have wanted the exile to be ended and we know that it was ended by Christian Europe throwing Jewish babies into furnaces
Some rabbis used to claim that the holocaust was a punishment for exile.
Dinesh asked his father Everyone else seems to be Hindu, why are we Christians  Because Portuguese inquisition got to this part of India first.
To leave the C of E behind, believe me, is no sweat.
George Herbert referred to “The sweet mediocrity of our native church.”
What do you get if you cross an Anglican with a Jehovah's Witness?  Somebody who comes to your door and bothers you for no particular reason.
‘Co-stars’: Dinesh D'Sousa
Cited: George Herbert, Archbishop of Haiti, Cardinal Archbishop of New York
Link: http://youtu.be/dfbWpaT78ZY

Hitchslap 43 Morals without God. 1:31
Invite the audience to join a thought experiment.
If it was conclusively demonstrated that [list of people] and all the other imposters are nothing more than legendary or mythical or fraudulent figures are you going to [list of 'sins'].  I submit that this is not so.
If there was no god, no prophets and no revelation, our moral dilemmas would be exactly as they are now.  Who doubts it?
‘Co-stars’: A panel
Cited: Jesus, Abraham, Moses, Mohammed, Joseph Smith and all the other imposters
Link: http://youtu.be/-D-cCNbMWxk

Hitchslap 44 Hitchslappin the 10 commandments.  8:07
Moses himself was a revisionist.  At least 4 versions of the Decalogue.
Commandment against the making of graven images upsetting to Catholics.
How do you take the Lord's name in vain?  Nobody has worked exactly how to obey this.  It is usually wise when promulgating eternal laws to be clear about what you mean.
Honour thy father and mother comes with an inducement.  Then you will have longer tenure of the land that has been promised to you.
Thou shalt not kill – but almost immediately afterwards Moses ordered murder of his supporters' friends and brothers.
Turkish government tried recently to make adultery a crime, but failed.
Don't know of any society that says it is ok to steal.
Idea of bearing false witness is and should be shocking to the entire human conscience – it may be the finest of the commandments.  Shows a rare and careful sense of the balance and scruple that is required for judgement and justice.
Last commandment forbids coveting.  Considers women equivalent to chattels.  Forbidden even to think.  Attempt to suppress a desire that must have been put into us by god.
Did god make men or did men make many gods?
Looking at a god who improvises, is jealous, short tempered, inconsistent.
A new ten commandments is read.
Denounce all jihadists and crusaders for what they are.
Don't swallow your moral code in tablet form.
‘Co-stars’: 
Cited: Moses, 
Link: http://youtu.be/tiJqQE5WChk


Hitchslap Index posts: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9

The next parts coming regularly.  Check back for more!

Please add your comments, suggestions and corrections so that they can be included (with credit) in the final summary index that will be made up of these posts.

Amazing Hitchslap Index: part 5

Here is the next instalment of 'The Amazing Hitchslap Index', summarising the content of the next 7 of the 66 'Hitchslaps' uploaded to Youtube by Loy Machedo as explained here.  For each Hitchslap, I summarise the content in the form of direct quotations and summaries, list co-stars and 'authorities' called upon.  This series should help you to find that one perfect Hitchslap to send to someone who you are debating.

Hitchslap 29 - The world is full of 'pope types'

Hitchslap 29 Religion has no moral authority.  5:34
Certainly not going to criticise Islam for not having a pope
Christianity never had only one pope and still doesn't – Pope of the Coptic Christians, Eastern Orthodox Patriarch – christian world is full of pope-types
Impossible to have moral authority with religion.  The two things are so sharply divorced.
In case of the moral blackmail of Denmark . . . 
Then as Hitchslap 18  Link: http://youtu.be/XR41ACn9R8c
‘Co-stars’: 
Cited: Yusef Al Karadawi, Prof Ramadan, Eastern Orthodox Patriarch, Coptic Pope
Link: http://youtu.be/is12JYel-Rg

Hitchslap 30 Mother Teresa did not believe in god.  6:35
Moving and honest that she tried her best to believe.
Her atheism was not like mine.  I'm glad to think that it is not true that there is a dictator in the heavens and so the fact that there is no evidence for it pleases me.
Encouraged by cynical old men to carry on because she was a great marketing tool for her church.
That sounds like white noise . . . nonsense to me
If I had told you in 2001 that Mother Teresa didn't believe that Jesus was present in the eucharist . . . you would have accused me of slander.
You're not likely to be anybody's professor Mr Donahue.
[An Englishman has to be quiet when an Irishman talks]
Took money from the Duvalier family and Charles Keating
The great strength of the Catholic church used to be that it knew how to discipline fanatics, enthusiasts and zealots. 
Had to give her an exorcism in 1997
I turned out to be right though didn't I?
As Mr Donahue was trying and failing to say – his church has an answer for everything.
‘Co-stars’: Hardball debate, Bill Donahue
Cited: Mother Teresa, Lord Macauly, Duvalier family, Charles Keating, Archbishop of Calcutta
Link: http://youtu.be/5YBWoIwTq5c

Hitchslap 31 Hitchens invited on fox to be spoken over.  4:39
Refugees from Iraqi terror gangs flooding back into Afghanistan to try their luck there.
Obama praised . . . more teachable, evolving towards my position
I'm sorry darling . . . 
McCain losing capacity – e.g. choice of running mate
Sarah Palin not even curious about foreign policy
‘Co-stars’: Fox News
Cited: Slate, Barrack Obama, Biden, Milosovitch, John McCain, Sarah Palin
Link: http://youtu.be/9UpSecroiC4

Hitchslap 32 I hate religion.  4:22
I can't hate anyone in who's existence I don't really believe.
Ghastly ageing intolerant virgin
Eschewed the birth canal – or used it as a one way street.
All religions have one thing in common, hatred of the genitalia, especially the female, and I don't share this view.
Texts themselves say what they say.
Take no thought for the morrow because the world is coming to an end really soon and nothing else matters.
Islam (Hadith) says that apostates are to be killed.
Fundamentalists have the original texts on their side.
As long as these texts are respected we are always in danger of a revival of the most poisonous toxic horrible stuff.
Millions of grieving parents thought their children were in limbo for ever because they had not been baptised.
Aids in Africa is of course very bad but not as bad as condoms in Africa.
Pascal's Wager
‘Co-stars’: Red Eye, Fox News
Cited: Pope, Pascal
Link: http://youtu.be/mXTIl2cGmGs

Hitchslap 33 Shirley Williams is a disgrace.  3:20
[Is Salman Rushdie's knighthood an insult to muslims worldwide.]
I think that's a contemptible statement and that everyone who applauded it should be thoroughly ashamed of themselves.
What do we have that is better than our language?
An author who had sparked a renaissance of writing, produced a whole new branch of English literature.
Tariq Ramadan said that the protests in Pakistan are purely a matter of violent vicious internal politics.
It shouldn't have been our high commissioner who was called in by the Pakistani government – we should have hauled in the envoy of Pakistan and told him “Stop that right now or do without all the aid we give you”.
We won't have talk of murder for the writing of novels
Sullen resentful boring atmosphere in this room!
‘Co-stars’: BBC 'Question Time'?
Cited: Tariq Ramadan, Shirley Williams
Link: http://youtu.be/7iEKbIwTfbE

Hitchslap 34 Randel Terry.  1:45
Have been sitting here in this chair listening to you being a megaphone for fraud
Are you asking me or telling me?
Encouraging extremists and religious fanatics like Randel Terry
‘Co-stars’: 
Cited: Michael Schiver, Randel Terry
Link: http://youtu.be/EbheZsHP32Q
 
Hitchslap 35 Jerry Falwell was scum.  4:25
. . . giving me the opportunity to be rude about a man on the day he is buried.
Do you want to spend all your time whimpering about what I have said?
That has been true of every fraud in history
Believed in the rapture, creationism, that the Antichrist was a Jewish male who is already amongst us.
May have been both a hypocrite and a bigot.
It shows how much vulgarity fraud and bigotry you can get away with on mainstream airwaves as long as you have the word reverend in front of your name.
‘Co-stars’: Paula Zahn, Eric Metaxis
Cited: Jim and Tanny Bakers
Link: http://youtu.be/RLDUk8pIgLA
 
Hitchslap 36 Scientology and Mormonism are obvious rackets.  3:24
Know a lot of people who do not try to profit from religion.
Racketeering is and always has been an important part of religion.
Some religions simply ARE rackets , e.g. Scientology and Mormonism.
Nothing more than the record of a successful con job.
They don't know any more than you do whether there was a virgin birth.
Asking us to believe their propensity to faith.
Then on to Billy Graham as in Hitchslap 09.
‘Co-stars’: In Depth
Cited: Billy Graham
Link: http://youtu.be/Q9O-sR_quCI




Hitchslap Index posts: 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9


The next parts coming regularly.  Check back for more!

Please add your comments, suggestions and corrections so that they can be included (with credit) in the final summary index that will be made up of these posts.

Amazing Hitchslap Index: part 4

Here is the next instalment of 'The Amazing Hitchslap Index', summarising the content of the next 7 of the 66 'Hitchslaps' uploaded to Youtube by Loy Machedo as explained here.  For each Hitchslap, I summarise the content in the form of direct quotations and summaries, list co-stars and 'authorities' called upon.  This series should help you to find that one perfect Hitchslap to send to someone who you are debating.

Hitchslap 22 - Don't take no thought for the morrow

Hitchslap 22: Jesus the fraud  4:44
Got to believe in everything I say or go to hell or heaven
Willing to grant the immaculate conception, the virgin birth, and the resurrection, annunciation and the assumption.  It doesn't prove the truth of the proposition that you should take no thought for the morrow.
Deluded bronze-age inhabitants of Palestine.
On the historicity point there are two reasons to believe in some sort of charismatic deluded rabbi
1/  The amount of fabrication needed to get him born in Bethlehem. None of the story of the nativity is true in any detail.
2/  That the witnesses to the resurrection were women,  illiterate stupid deluded hysterical girls who would never have been believed in a Jewish court of the time.
It is impressive to me that the evidence is so obviously, strenuously cobbled together.
Noble words of Socrates will continue to illuminate.
‘Co-stars’: 
Cited: C S Lewis, Socrates, Jesus
Link: http://youtu.be/578G-wu6z88

Hitchslap 23: Religion is the poison chalice  2:43
Implied question – why don't you accept this wonderful offer, why wouldn't you like to meet Shakespeare
 . . . Corporeally reassembled
When Socrates was sentenced to death for his philosophical investigations and blasphemy he hoped to have discussions with other philosophers.
Whether it goes on or not after I die, I don't know, but I do know I want to do it while I'm alive.
I don't know enough, haven't understood enough . . .
Wouldn't have it any other way
Dead until you believe as they do.  What a terrible thing to be telling children.  
‘Co-stars’: 
Cited: Shakespeare, Socrates
Link: http://youtu.be/k_Vex-TYA9o 

Hitchslap 24: Religious right and wrong.  4:23
Christian scientist – or at least scientist who is Christian.
Mark Twain said of Mary Baker Eddy “chloroform in print”
People have been around for at least 100,000 years.  They were born and they died, living not much more than 25 years. Dying of their teeth, appendix, terrible diseases, misery, malnutrition and fear.  Where do the earthquakes . . .
Awful cults of sacrifice, war and rape.  Struggle to make progress.
To the point where they could brew beer – a breakthrough in my opinion.
You have to believe this if you believe in mono-theism, for the first 97-98 thousand years heaven watches with indifference.  3000 years ago at the most it is decided that heaven must intervene now, but the revelation must be made to the most backward, barbaric, illiterate, superstitious and savage people in the most stony part of the world.
Not in China where they could already read.  Not in the Indus valley.
Force them to cut their way through all the neighbours with slaughter, genocide and racism and settle in the only part of the middle east where there is no oil.
And without this we wouldn't know right from wrong!
‘Co-stars’: 
Cited: Mary Baker Eddy, Mark Twain, Richard Dawkins, Francis Collins
Link: http://youtu.be/K7Pgxg6h1SQ

Hitchslap 25: religion poisons everything.  05:35
[If there is no god why do you spend all your life trying to convince . . .]
Not my whole career but now a major pre-occupation.
Opposition to theocracy.
Resist those who serious want to encompass the destruction of civilisation.
Mono-theistic Messianic religion wants us to die.
Can tell the yearning for things to be over, whenever you read any of its real texts.
Escatological argument that if you don't believe that there is going to be an apocalypse then you are not really a believer.
Extreme Muslims can't wait for the 'final solution'.
Cult of death to be opposed in our daily lives where there are people who only want to ruin good relationships between different people, nations, tribes . . . 
When I said "Religion poisons everything" I meant that it infects us in our most basic integrity and says that we can't be moral . . . and forces us to love someone that we fear.
Though I do, some nights, stay home, I enjoy more the nights when I go out and fight against this ultimate wickedness and ultimate stupidity.
‘Co-stars’: 
Cited: Rapture, Israeli settlers, Messiah
Link: http://youtu.be/k6YzS-TXT08

Hitchslap 26: Christians prey on the dying.  2:47
[Serious illness – has it shaped you view of the afterlife?]
It fractionally increases my contempt for the false consolation element of religion and my dislike for the dictatorial and totalitarian part of it.
Perfectly normal in this society to approach dying people who you don't know and say “Now are you going to change your mind?”  Its considered almost a polite question.
Horrible undertone of blackmail to it.  History of fraud.
People say “I'm writing to you as a friend”.
...haven't had quite the vinegar that I would like to have had
To Catholics:  Would it be polite to say “You may only have a few days left but you don't have to live as a serf you know”?
I think it would be something of a breach of taste but if it is in the name of god it has a sort of licence.
‘Co-stars’: 
Cited: Charles Darwin, Thomas Paine, Sam Harris
Link: http://youtu.be/Mky96adnjso

Hitchslap 27: God is a joke and the believer is the punchline.  1:40
One of the reasons I like debating the religious is that you never know what they are going to say next.
Already had a suggestion that god is only really a guru, a friend when you are in need.
He wouldn't do anything like bugger around with Job to prove a point.
For hundreds and thousands of years this kind of discussion would have been in most places impossible to have, or Sam and I would have been having it at risk of our lives.
Religion now comes to us in this smiley-faced ingratiating way because it has had to give so much ground and because we know so much more.
You have no right to forget how it behaved when it was strong, when it really did believe that it had god on its side.
‘Co-stars’: 
Cited: Sam Harris
Link: http://youtu.be/0grNMmK4S8I

Hitchslap 28: Slavery and genocide with divine permission.  3:41
Whoever asked that has obviously only just come into the room.
McGrath was unusually good on this point – Dostoevsky.  If god exists we have to do what he says, and if he does not exist then we can do what we like.
Is it not said of god's chosen people in the Pentateuch that they can do exactly as they like to other people with divine permission?
Have been to Iran, not allowed to sentence a woman who is a virgin to death, but religious law means she can be raped by the revolutionary guard, then she is not a virgin any more and can be sentenced to death.
Divine permission enables actions that a morally normally unbeliever would not contemplate. Genital mutilation – who would do that.
Morally normal and intelligent people find themselves saying fatuous and wicked things.
Suicide bombing community is entirely faith based
Genital mutilation community is entirely faith based
Slavery is mandated by the bible.  Abolitionist might have been christians but it was about time.
Name an ethical statement made or an action performed by a believer in the name of faith that couldn't have been by an infidel, and name, if you can, and this is easier, a wicked action that could only have been mandated by faith. Then you will see how silly your question was, whoever you were.
‘Co-stars’: Alistair McGrath
Cited: Dostoevsky, Poet Laureate
Link: http://youtu.be/eO-E3tnFOOk


Hitchslap Index posts: 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9

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