The Universe is All About MeChristopher Hitchens states:
“I think it’s a deformity or a shortcoming in the human personality, frankly, because religion keeps stressing how humble it is, and how meek it is, and how accepting, almost to the point of self-abnegationist. But actually it makes extraordinarily arrogant claims for these moments, it says that I suddenly realize that the universe is all about me. And I felt terrifically humble about it. Come on! You know, we can laugh people out of that.”
This comment was peppered with the other saying, “Yeah, yeah,” “Yes,” “Right,” “Yeah,” and Prof. Daniel Dennett stating, “I am so tired of the ‘if only Professor Dennett had the humility to blah, blah, blah’ and humility, humility _ and this from people of breathtaking arrogance.”Again, it is difficult to know to whom they are generically referring. I will succinctly respond from a Judeo-Christian perspective. Even if the argument is made that the Bible implies that the universe is all about me, or we human beings, it cannot be inferred that the Bible is implying justification for arrogant human lack of humility.
atheism, Christopher Hitchens, Daniel Dennett, Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris
Job suffers great calamities and determines to confront God in order to demand an answer as to why this is happening to him. God’s initial comment sets the tone to be the likes of “There is an entire universe going on out there, this is bigger than just you.”
“Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell Me, if you have understanding” (Job 38:4).
I have written an essay about some of the flaccid criticism’s of the book of Job which is entitled, The Book of Job – Dismissed but Essential.
atheism, Christopher Hitchens, Daniel Dennett, Richard Dawkins, Sam HarrisMoreover, in the poetic Psalms the following question is asked by David,
“When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, The moon and the stars, which You have ordained, What is man that You are mindful of him, And the son of man that You visit him?” (Psalm 8:3-4).
David expressed deep humility when considering the vastness of God’s creation. This places his following statement into the context of humility and not self-exaltation,
“For You have made him a little lower than the angels, And You have crowned him with glory and honor. You have made him to have dominion over the works of Your hands; you have put all things under his feet” (Psalm 8:5-6).
If the second statement was made without the first then the Christopher Hitchens might have a point. Yet, the Bible is careful to balance humanity’s, quite obvious, important role in the affairs of the world with humanity’s lowly state.
atheism, Christopher Hitchens, Daniel Dennett, Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A plea: I have to pay for server usage and have made all content on this website free and always will. I support my family on one income and do research, writing, videos, etc. as a hobby. If you can even spare $1.00 as a donation, please do so: it may not seem like much but if each person reading this would do so, even every now and then, it would add up and really, really help. Here is my donate/paypal page.
Due to robo-spaming, I had to close the comment sections. However, you can comment on my Facebook page and/or on my Google+ page. You can also use the “Share / Save” button below this post.