October 2017 – Page 21 – TrueFreeThinker

Christopher Hitchens and Daniel Dennett The Dynamic Duo of Demonstrably Deleterious Delusion, part 2 of 3

Parsing Statements

With this in mind, let us consider the specific examples offered by Daniel Dennett:
Al Queda and Hamas terrorism is still Islam’s responsibility—this is tricky since the problem that Islam has in dealing with terrorism in its name is the doctrine of abrogation whereby the peaceful proclamations of the early preaching of Muhammad are abrogated by his later militant preaching.

Abortion-clinic bombing is still Christianity’s responsibility—there are no examples of Jesus, His apostles, His disciples, or the early church either teaching the committing of violence or engaging in violence. In fact, the exact opposite was taught and practiced. Thus, any violence done in the name of Jesus, the Bible, Christianity etc. is a repudiation of the teachings of Jesus, His apostles, His disciples, and the early church and cannot be placed at their feet.
It may be of interest to note that both Richard Dawkins and Daniel Dennett uncritically and without providing statistics, correlate Islamic and Hindu terrorism with “Christian” abortion-clinic bombings. I provide some of the statistics in this regard in my essay The Dawkins Correlation.

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The murderous activities of Hindu extremists are still Hinduism’s responsibility—while “Hinduism” is actually a term that encompasses a wide range of theologies. However, generally speaking, and hopefully not as grossly general as is the New Atheist habit, Hinduism has a problem in this area that is perhaps best described in the following statement:

“In the most popular dialogue on karma, read by all devout Hindus in The Bhagavad Gita, Arjuna is given no option on the specific issue of war. Arjuna begs his charioteer, the god Krishna, for a reason why he should go into battle against his teachers, members of his family and friends: ‘Should not we whose eyes are open turn away from so great a crime? If you deem the path of understanding more excellent than the path of action, O Krishna, why do you urge me to do this savage deed?’ The god Krishna gives Arjuna no sops against desolation, not even the easy answers of a martial or proselytizing culture—a just war, a pious war, a war of liberation. Krishna answers Arjuna’s plea with the implacable words: ‘Because you are bound to act. Only action will save you from the bondage of action.’”1

Thus, savage deeds are merely an outworking an inevitable and irresistible wooing by karma.

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But what of the issue of weighing good and wicked on a balance and the suggestion and conclusion, “I think you’ll find that those don’t quite equal as at the margin”?
This is another case of a stunningly obvious but conveniently overlooked retort: regardless of chronology, geography or theology the fact is that the overwhelming majority of religious people, by a long shot, have been perfectly peaceful do-gooders. Let us consider the example the Crusades when while fighting for the cause of stopping conquering Muslims shockingly violent abuses were done in the name of Christianity. Weight in the balance the whole planet’s Christian population vs. those who actually took part in the Crusades and you will readily perceive that the overwhelming majority had nothing to do with it. Even if some did not partake but did support it, such as the Roman Catholic hierarchy, the majority of the world’s Christian population at that time not only did not partake but may have even been absolutely unaware, depending on how far away they lived.

koran

Much is being reported regarding Pamela Geller’s “Draw Muhammad” contest day. Elton Simpson and Nadir Soofi showed up to commit mass murder but only managed to injure one police officer whilst his partner shot the two dead on May 3, 2015 AD, in Garland, Texas.

If you notice, many, many news stories focus, specifically and exclusively on “Elton Simpson” as the name “Nadir Soofi” appears to be uncomfortably Islamic. Uncomfortably, that is, for a media that has been trained to deny that Muslim terrorists are Muslim.

Pray for Christopher Hitchens

Coran

Christopher Hitchens’ Homosexual Flings

I would relegate this to the who cares files except that it may shed light upon the fact that Christopher Hitchens is obsessed with sex, see Too Sexy for My Theology? On the New Atheist Obsession with Sex. He is particularly obsessed with any hint of sexual morality (except when he is yelling at priests that they are pedophiles).

Which two ministers of Margaret Thatcher’s government had gay relations with the writer Christopher Hitchens while at Oxford? Since Hitchens’s extraordinary claim emerged this week, the louche figure, now 60, who has been married twice, has fended off all requests for further information.

After all – even for a clever polemicist who takes his work very seriously – such a tantalising, if frivolous kiss-and-tell is bound to sell extra copies of his memoir Hitch-22 when it is published in the summer…

although he has always enjoyed a reputation as a womaniser, at Oxford Hitchens was known to be bisexual.
According to one contemporary: ‘He had a reputation for being AC/DC and, although a Trot [a Trotskyite], he was fancied by quite a few gay Tories and moved in those circles.’…

Hitchens was very conscious of the fact that he was attractive to both men and women. As one close figure recalls: ‘He flirted with both, but with men he could be rather teasing. It wasn’t very nice.’…
In his book, Hitchens…dismisses the homosexual episodes as a ‘mildly enjoyable relapse’ into something that began when he was at school. Of his time at Oxford, he writes: ‘Every now and then, even though I was by then fixed on the pursuit of young women, a mild and mildly enjoyable relapse would occur…

Milligan’s [Oxford Union president, Stephen Milligan] death…introduced a wider public to the dangers of self-bondage and auto-erotic asphyxiation…

there was always sex – ‘lots of sex’, says a contemporary – facilitated by the young Hitchens’s languorous charms with which he was able to attract desirable women…

Says the friend: ‘After being introduced [to John Sparrow], I heard Christopher ask: “Warden, are you as other men?” John was rather taken aback by this sly dig at his sexuality. It was clear he was just playing a rather cruel and unedifying game.’ Robert Jackson…considers the anecdote about Hitchens and Sparrow ‘to be ‘typical of Christopher’s rather flirtatious, pert style’….

Jackson…says of Hitchens: ‘He was clearly bisexual at that time and was very keen on Martin Amis, but I believe only slept with his sister. He was very charming.
‘I always thought that Hitchens was someone who, like a lot of people when they are handsome in youth, spent a lot of time looking in the mirror and admiring himself. That is the vein through which he drew nourishment through his life.’…’Christopher was an attractive, sexy youth and he made what he could of it in a rather exploitative way…’…

David Heathcoat-Amory…[is said to be] convinced Hitchens made the claims up to attract attention to his book.’…

friends from Oxford days also remember Hitchens’s affection for another man – his flatmate James Fenton, the author and later Professor of Poetry at Oxford. ‘I thought he was in love with Fenton, who was openly gay,’ recalls a close contemporary…

Hitchens, an atheist, married his first wife, Greek Cypriot Eleni Meleagrou, by whom he has two children, in a Greek Orthodox church and his second, American Carol Blue, in a New York synagogue. Which brings us back to why Hitchens would throw into his memoirs the titbit that he had slept with two former ministers.

Yes, it may have been to publicise the book. But one old friend believes there is another explanation. ‘It was more than likely a pre-emptive move. Christopher knew if he didn’t mention it, someone else would.’1

Now, if others also take the who cares approach, particularly atheists, I will remind you to keep that approach in mind when, God forbid, a Christian or “Christian” is exposed as having committed some sexual indiscretion.

Month: October 2017

Matt Philips

Christopher Hitchens