"I felt fury and disgust and rage and nausea, but I didn't feel fear. I found I felt a sort of exhilaration. I thought: if this war has been declared as it looks as it has been, by theocratic fascism then it's a war I would never get bored with fighting, because it involves defending all the things I do like, against all the things I don't. Culturally as well as politically, and intellectually. And I still feel that way, I think it's absolutely worth fighting..." -Christopher Hitchens, commenting on where he was during the 9/11 attacks and boiling down why I really don't like war or religion, especially when they're combined.
Monday, March 22, 2010
Something Patriotic Someone Else Said
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
6 comments:
These kinds of statements blow my head away. I too don't like the combination of religion and religion either. Dangerous.
No, I don't like the combination of "religion and religion" but I also don't like the combination of "religion and war."
Religion and religion are the worst Leslie, especially when they're mixed. ;-)
Don't like war. Don't like religious fanatics of any faith. Don't like Christopher Hitchens much either. Just a misanthrope, I guess.
I posted about this recently: militant opposition to all religion....
Sure it looks just and reasonable when you have the horror of 9/11 as a backdrop but even as a non-believer myself I still don't think it's a good idea. Where it leads is: the religion of no religion. A church of atheism. Telling people their private beliefs about spirituality are evil.
That's not rationality.
That's just an arbitrary denial of an infinite possibility.
It's wholly undemocratic and just plain wrong.
Faith-based organizations all over the world are among the major providers of relief for people in crisis, often with no agenda whatsoever of gathering new followers.
It's us against the extremists already - we don't need another front.
(Nice to see you on the comments again ex DLB. I wondered where you'd gone...)
Have to say that I really like Hitch, ex DLB. He's an arrogant, hard drinking intellectual. What's not to like?
The reason I quoted Hitchens magpie is because I agree with his desire to fight this particular brand of religion: deadly and unbending fundamentalism. Yes, I say that I don't like religion but that is merely dislike, there are only certain types that I outright condemn. I consider blanket opposition to any group of ideas to be wrong, hence my objection to fundamentalism.
Post a Comment