Reason for the season
So we’ve just had the gates open for the holiday rush. While I think people worry too much about buying presents for Christmas, I have no philosophical objection to them. In fact, I think presents themselves are the bee’s knees, both the getting and the giving. Of course, a hefty swath of our Western population is only making a list and checking it twice in the first place at this time of year because of traditions evolving from the birth of a popular deity.
Perhaps you hail from a non-Christian background, or have no particular religion at all. Maybe you enjoy the shiny (and largely secular) trappings of this slope of the year between Thanksgiving and December 25, or maybe you find both the consumerism and/or countless church marquees oppressive, no matter what you do with your Sabbath day, should you have one. Me, I was raised Catholic. Technically, anyway. While I went to Catholic school, complete with uniform and nuns, until the third grade, and CCD (that’s Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, yo, after-school religious classes) until the sixth grade, I do not remember ever believing in God. I did like things about the church: the singing, and the part where you shook the hand of the stranger beside you and said “peace be with you”, but I didn’t see why God needed to be involved to have that. You may not be surprised to learn that I still don’t.
Therefore, reading Christopher Hitchens’ God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything is a bit of preaching to the choir, really. And still, I found it extremely satisfying (maybe I should say reassuring – it is only belief, after all) to have cogent, rational arguments against religion and its past and current misdeeds, whether or not they were well-intentioned.
I don’t have anything to say about religion that Mr. Hitchins can’t say better: he is thorough, he is knowledgeable, and he shows considerable restraint – you do get the impression that he wants to go back in time to punch all the faces of religious tyranny in its varied forms, but he makes an effort to balance his arguments. He is certainly witty, but I also think he worked reasonably hard to hold off on the easy jokes – until the afterword and the discussion questions at the end of the book, notably: “If god exists, why was this book a #1 bestseller and National Book Award Nominee?” Hee.
It might be the most reasonable thing to put under a tree this year.
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So THAT’S what CCD means. My mom could never answer that question and whenever I asked the teachers questions I was usually told to be quiet. Thanks!
Heh, I had to look it up!
My grandmother insisted that I go to church… but the first thing she’d do when she got there was put her sunglasses on and fall asleep. Often, she would snore.
Comedy. Gold.
The fact that he hasn’t been struck down by a bolt of lightning proves that Zeus doesn’t give a shit about whether people believe in him or not.
Gods of any name have so far failed to comment – however, he does have cancer at the moment, poor old kid. Of course many of his adversaries say it’s only his due.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/09/02/christopher-hitchens-if-g_n_704070.html
What’s with the graphic with this article? Is it meant as some counterpoint to the Sistine Chapel?
We just thought the photo of Christopher Hitchens smoking in the shower was hilarious!
It is funny. I wish I could stop staring into his come-hither eyes…