First a little housekeeping: I want to thank all of those who took time out of their lives to engage in the debate on circumcision. I encourage readers to look at the comments on both Circumcision Pt. 1, Pt. 2, and the Encore, as Josh Amos and Tony both wrote very thoughtfully on the issue, and I am honored to host their comments.
As a result of this response, I am thinking of proposing a moderated debate with another intelligent, thoughtful writer in the near future, as it has been recommended I do so for a while by friends and readers, if anyone has such a proposal for me, I welcome it.
I plan on addressing certain rituals (and non-rituals), in the coming weeks. But as for now, I am away from New York and without my books, and fear I may be for another month corresponding remotely with WordPress and my small readership. The response to my words on Scientology have been encouraging, and I have more to say on this specific institution: on auditing, on Hubbard, and perhaps a bit more on Tom Cruise. In regards to marriage, I have some notes, but without two fabulous books I left in New York, I fear I may have to wait for some enlightening references. As a result my posts may be a bit few and far between for the remainder of the summer, but I do hope this won’t discourage readers from checking in. But for their convenience I have added two simple ways to follow my posts without checking the site: In the upper left-hand corner of the blog are links to subscribe to my work in a feed or to have my entries e-mailed.
In the meantime, I have some short articles planned, mostly opinion- and memoir-based, and links toward other fine articles, in the near future. I should call them notes instead of articles, as I consider them a collection of addenda rather than full pieces. However, I think I have ample bullets to compose a more fledged piece on the supposed “secularization of religious tradition,” paradoxical as it may sound…we suffer a current malaise regarding these moderates who would claim that they are composed mainly from a humanist ilk, rabbis claiming that they hold but a strand of Jew in the ambivalent quilts of their lives, and Christians who apparently don’t believe in god, but I am getting ahead of myself.
*
I thought it worth our while to take a look at this 90% figure (I urge you to look over this document as it boggles the mind) that we hear so much about. 90% of Americans believe in god, so an overblown study shows, and both Atheists and Christians have loaded their weapons with this same ammunition, then fired it at each other, another attrition added to the rummy scores. Sam Harris, one of my favorite Buddhist Atheists, has used this number to alarming propagandic success, and I must speculate that politicians abound are hedging their bet on a wish-thinking, death-fearing, creationist and superstitious voting gallery. Nonetheless, these numbers, like so many others seem so easily eschewed that one must, as I’ve said before, raise an eyebrow. I thusly point you to this embedded video, an interview of Chris Hitchens carried out by a rather prominent CNN anchorman. Through the many promotional interviews for his book, God is Not GREAT, Hitchens has proven expert in deflecting, defeating, proselytizing, and debating- this is mainly due, I think, to his tenure as a talking head on some of these news programs.
But here we have someone clearly in support of the book, someone who may very well be an atheist himself, a member of the titular “Hidden Contingent” of Americans who don’t believe in god, or at least find it a little far-fetched. One of the points of Hitchens’ book, (and parts of Harris’ for that matter), is something that I will call the “Shitty Car” argument in a later article, in which a semi-level-headed cost-benefit analysis of religion shows through and through that the costs outweigh the benefits. Bertrand Russell makes a chilling joke to this effect in his collected writing on religion “Has Religion Made Useful Contributions to Civilization?”:
My own view on religion is that of Lucretius. I regard it as a disease born of fear and as a source of untold misery to the human race. I cannot, however, deny that it has made some contributions to civilization. It helped in early days to fix the calendar, and it caused Egyptian priests to chronicle eclipses with such care that in time they became able to predict them. These two services I am prepared to acknowledge, but I do not know of any others.
[This essay, and several other great essays on religion, can be found in this collection: Why I Am Not a Christian: And Other Essays on Religion and Related Subjects. The titular essay, “Why I Am Not A Christian” in its entirety, can be read here for free.]
And I think this is the nature of some of our problems with religion, and as we seek answers to these questions we begin to turn more and more to the belief in god as part of the problem, and then we realize that god is manmade, and then we begin a new section of our lives. We can also happily label ourselves under the broad title of progressive, because we are progressive-minded. Without further ado, our progressive minded interviewer and Chris Hitchens (I beg you wait for the smirk on Hitchens’ face as he asks that Dobbs pin an American flag on his tie- it’s cute):
After the Sharpton/Hitchens/Romney/NYPL* (this links to the debate in its entirety) controversy (this links to an article explaining the controversy in brief), Dobbs had another like-minded conversation with Hitchens:
I have seen Hitchens misbehave during debates and interviews, as I have heard him on the radio as well. But with another rational man, he tends to calm down. I don’t know if Dobbs is an atheist. I have not watched much of his programming. But I applaud him for egging Hitchens on into a rational discussion, and I must wonder if he is not an agnostic, atheist, or atheist sympathizer. On CNN. It soothes the mind.
* I will speak more on the debate later, as Hitchen has a rather elegant response to the topic of this blog, when asked whether ritual is innate, and what people may do with regarding ritual without the imaginary deity. Let me also say that it was a surprise to see Ayaan Hirsi Ali make an appearance, though it seems that she, too, is picking up the rational baton and running with it, as she is currently working on a new book, and may be in residence at the NYPL.
Get RR In An Email
1 Comment
June 25, 2007 at 1:34 pm
[...] I wrote at some length two weeks previous regarding the debate, and link to several sources in this post. Posted by Alex Smith Filed in Al Sharpton, Chris Hitchens, Bertrand Russell, Ritual, Debate, [...]