The new Ten commandments

Christopher Hitchens is re-chiseling The Ten Commandments and gives us The New Commandments.

What do you think?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tN61YYrY5BU"]YouTube- Christopher Hitchens on The Ten Commandments - Vanity Fair

More...http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/features/2010/04/hitchens-201004

 

oh boy

 

Waaaay better than the old ones! I especially like # 8.:Angel_anim:

 

News at 11!
Hitchens shares new 10 commandments to the tune of a savvy hip hop beat!
Atheist = Morality confirmed!
Rejoicing and dancing in the street! Everyone is saved!

 

I think Hitchens remains an unfunny jackass only capable regurgitating the same sound-bite talking points every member of the Internet Atheist Militia posts over and over and over and over and over....

 

As much s I hate to say it, this sounds kinda cool.

 

I would have no problem with being saved by way of instruction and enlightenment from the horrid limitation and evident megalomania that inspires much of the theistic proscriptions mentioned bellow.

 

Almost like a religion only with facts.

 

The inability for people to see why science and religion can coexist perfectly well is astounding.
But I agree, in large part atheism has essentially become just another evangelical obnoxious religion.

 

If they are both to be taken literally then no, they cannot both be true until more facts are discovered in favor for a creationist design.

You consider selling more books in favor of atheism and more atheists coming forward as being just as obnoxious as the evangelical movement?

Even the Doctor assassinating biblical literalists, on the same level as a Muslim suicide bomber?

 

I suppose they can coexist if they actually listen to each other, with of course a healthy dose of skeptism and trial and error.
But I definitely do not think atheism is "just another evangelical obnoxious religion.". sure, some may be obnoxious, others might just seem obnoxious to the fundies, but ultimately, atheism has a lot to teach us.

 

agreed. I hardly see atheists as obnoxious... not anymore than people trying to convert others, going to war over their religion and their god, etc.

 

the only TWO commandments really neccessary, have been posted on kindergarten walls for decades, if not centuries: "don't hurt each other" and "clean up your mess".

those two, in their broadest sense, just about covers it. everything else, is the religious equivalent of drilling to prepare for combat situations in the military. they are exercizes in mindfulness.

which certainly doesn't mean they're unimportant, but that they can change from one belief to the next, and still have all of them at their core, be about not hurting each other and cleaning up our messess.

the latter of course includes not shitting in the middle of your living room rug, a parable for not destroying the web of life the air you breathe comes from, or screwing up for everyone else, the same tangible world we all have to live in.

and of course, not intentionally causing avoidable suffering, is the WHOLE POINT of what just about all belief, at its most basic core, is all about.

then there's the thing about god wanting to be hugged back too, and appreciated, which may or may not be only reasonable, or certainly to at least to SOME degree. but that DOESN'T have to mean kissing the ass of some priesthood, or even any ONE system of belief.

any TRUE belief, is not yet another wrong against rational good, but rather, rational good takes no sides and neither has nor needs any.

 

We all have our pets.

 

The so-called Four Horsemen overstate their case, although that's understandable in light of the strident irrationalism they're combating. Hitchens, in particular, combs through the record of Christianity, past and present, for the worst he can find about Christianity and Christians, and presents it in a transparently fallacious argument that all Christianity is that way. When he comes across examples of Christians who were exemplary as the best humanity has to offer, like Martin Luther King or Dietrich Bonhoeffer, he claims they weren't Christian at all but "humanists." There are atheists who present a more nuanced, thoughtful critique of religion, like Mackie and Martin, or William Rowe, but they aren't bestsellers and don't stir people to action. Religious unreason has reached such heights of power and militancy that it was bound to trigger a reaction, and might need overstatement to make its case.

As for science and religion, I'm persuaded by Gould's case for the NOMA (nonoverlapping magisterium), but I think that ultimately one day the two positions may be reconciled as more scientific evidence comes to light, although probably not in our lifetimes.

 

Unfortunately, it will probably always seem edgy and cool to be an outspoken, obnoxious atheist and so the same people making the same old "WE ARE THE REASONABLE AND RATIONAL ONES!!!!11!" claims will never actually accept a chance to reasonably and rationally co-exist because MAGICAL SKY WIZARDS R NOT RATIONAL DUH LOL!!!!!!!1

 

Grim dear,

What standard of conduct is this from "WE ARE THE REASONABLE AND RATIONAL ONES..." Was this from the Nicomachean Ethics. or are you meaning the mainstream wisdom of tolerating ... the good guys,... as opposed to the bad guys? Or are you just meaning that praddle that you resemble so much in the name of sanity and good worship?"

 

I'm...

...honestly not sure what you're telling me/asking me here.