A Tribute To Christopher Hitchens - The Anti-Theist

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Personally was not too fond of hitchens for a bit (too confrontational), but after seeing this speech I have a lot more respect for him. He was quite scientifically literate even though not a scientist.

Christopher Hitchens died this year of cancer. He was a well known provocateur, known for his strong zelous take on atheism. Curiously, later in his life when he was near the end he got the most comfort from one of his few religious friends, who acted as his 'spiritual' doctor for the last few months of his life.

A noted critic of religion and a self described "anti-theist", he said that a person "could be an atheist and wish that belief in external gods were correct", but that "an antitheist, a term I'm trying to get into circulation, is someone who is relieved that there's no evidence for such an assertion." According to Hitchens, the concept of an external god or a supreme being is a totalitarian belief that destroys individual freedom, and that free expression and scientific discovery should replace religion as a means of teaching ethics and defining human civilization. His 2007 book, God Is Not Great, sold over 500,000 copies.

He was not a scientist but a science journalist, and had some very controversial views. Implied in this speech playing now from his best friend (full version: is that sometimes he sensed an irony in his actions, a lot of the time he was playing devils advocate. For educational stimulation and to see how well the persons religious argument holds up to scrutiny.

The person speaking here is Lawrence Maxwell Krauss, a Canadian-American theoretical physicist who is a professor of physics, Foundation Professor of the School of Earth and Space Exploration, and director of the Origins Project at Arizona State University. He is the author of several bestselling books, including The Physics of Star Trek and A Universe from Nothing. He is an advocate of scientific skepticism, science education, and the science of morality.

It's not so often a person comes along who was utterly brilliant and capable of turning negative views into such beautiful prose. I say there hasn't been anyone like Christopher Hitchens since Voltaire, and we probably won't see another for a very long time.

I admit I have never heard of him but after that great speach Iam going to get his books, also in the second part of the video something stuck a cord in me about Religion treating us like children in the fact they want us to believe in a fable instead of reality.
Cheers and RIP CH.

^ Well you will likely find him a bit provocative at times, but overall he had a good cause. He was anti religion and pro science. That can't be a bad thing, in the grand scheme of things. Especially if viewed in the context of this video.

I'm very anti religion but not anti god.

In my opinion, there is ZERO doubt a higher power exists.

After all, no human wrote the laws of physics. When it comes to mechanics, there seems to be something always a step ahead of us.

I do not think any religion has the faintest clue about "god" but clearly there is something well above us.

What a loss.

RIP Hitch, noone argued against religion quite like you. Brilliant. Hes right up there with Attenborough for me, such a clever guy.

He was a great man.

Once i heard him say that if given the chance to completely remove religion that he would refuse. It was on his movie "collision" something worth watching.

I was going to post this in the religion section ... but didn't know if I dared

Probs would be more appreciated here, but could suit both forums in a weird way.

Should I repost in the religion section for giggles? Took me ages to make the video so might as well share as much as possible.

To be fair, I think a lot of religious people could do with watching this.

In fact.
I'm going to.

[before I do, is that against the rules?]

Loved Hitchens and read all his books. He was a great man and tried to portray how religion is holding us back and how the fable of god does nothing but hurt us.

People may dislike his opinions, but that is them being afraid of change. Soon there will be a transition in humanity where religion as we know it ceases to exist, when people figure out how much religion divides us and makes us pass judgment on one another.

God is not great, not even your god.

Pred...