I recommended some excerpts from Christopher Hitchens a short while ago. Here are a couple more that you might like.
First, an interview in New York magazine, in which he reveals (surprise, surprise) that Karl Rove is an atheist. I don't agree with him about Iraq, but don't miss his explanation for the sole reason for prayer.
Second, his Slate commentary on the VPI shootings.
Good stuff.
Hat tip for the first link: The Scientific Activist.
2 comments:
My favorite line was the one disdaining...
...the tendency of crowds to show up for funerals of people they didn't know, often throwing teddy bears over the railings and in other ways showing that (as well as needing to get a life) they in some bizarre way seemed to need to get a death.
Could it be, given the sheer number of people doing this, that Hitchens is in some bizarre way willfully refusing to acknowledge some deeply held psychological need, in what appears to be an anti-empirical outburst of self-righteous fundamentalist belief in how people should react, instead of attempting to understand why they do.
Having myself been devastated by the loss of Princess Diana, I must confess myself unwilling to take away someone's teddy bear in such callous fashion. Such unsolicited proxy salvation is worthy of religious fundamentalists, not an atheist as Christopher Hitchens claims to be.
It is clearly in our DNA (and presumably some Darwinian advantage) to seek transcendence. Given the choice of a Holy War or a teddy bear at a funeral, I think I'll stick with the teddy bear. But in deference to Mr. Hitchens, should he have the misfortune of dying before me, I promise not to show up to his funeral with a teddy bear. It's the least I can do.
>> But in deference to Mr. Hitchens …
LOL! You should send this line, nay, your entire comment, to CH.
I buy your reaction, and I think it has merit. Truly, though, I think Hitchens in this article is doing what I do: indulging in wishful thinking that we were a more grown-up species.
I still remember, quite clearly, how overwrought I was when Lynyrd Skynyrd's plane crashed, and that tendency has lasted through at least Vonnegut's death. Maybe it's my Irish that keeps me from throwing teddy bears, or maybe it's just that the arrival of blogging makes it easier to grieve about this sort of loss in a different way.
Post a Comment