Okay, for these couple chapters I was irritated to say the least. I don't mind hearing another point of view on the sensitive subject of religion, but something about his wording angered me throughout my reading it. I'm going to spend this post quoting and debating some interesting points he has made.
"He or she must also claim to have at least an inkling of what that Supreme Being desires."
In this point in the book, he is basically calling believers arrogant because they feel like they are doing God's work and they are therefore godly; and that very well may be true for some believers, but that does not mean that a person cannot have faith and be humble.
There are believers that can stay humble give all the credit to God, never take credit for the good they do nor do they look at themselves as anything nearing godly. To Christians in particular, we strive to be godly, but we know there is no human alive that can ever come close to God in comparison. We are all sinners and just because God has wiped our slate clean does not mean that we see ourselves as perfect, but we see ourselves as loved.
There is an apparent difference, but obviously not apparent enough for Mr. Hitchens to see. He seems to be someone who has a lot of hate and anger in his heart, therefore it does not surprise me that he finds some of the most humble people on Earth to be the most arrogant. I find it sad that he sees something as beautiful as faith to be so undeniably ignorant.
"So the whole apparatus of absolution and forgiveness strikes me as positively immoral, while the concept of revealed truth degrades the whole concept of free intelligence by purportedly relieving us of the hard task of working out ethical principals for ourselves."
I laughed... out loud. Okay, lets think of this philosophically shall we? There have been ethical leaders throughout the existence of man. People have been creating morals and ethics forever. What makes this any different than finding morals and ethics within the bindings of a Bible? The author of the ten commandments can be compared to philosophers such as Aristotle or Kant in the way that they spell out what they know to be good and bad, right and wrong, ethical and moral.
My point is, there is no difference in "working out ethical principals for ourselves" through the guidance of a Bible, Immanuel Kant, or your very own mother.
As a conclusion to this post and as a little note to Christopher Hitchens, I will quote non other than Immanuel Kant himself;
“I believe that the existence of the Bible is the greatest benefit to the human race. Any attempt to belittle it, I believe, is a crime against humanity.”
Well said Mr. Kant. Well said.
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