Collision: Hitchens vs Wilson docu

[nkb]

just questions wrote

He got cancer. Fuck.

A condescending Catholic tells people they should pray for Hitchens.

[PhilOchsLives]

mushroomcloud wrote

The question is, are people capable of change? If we create a religion which has a belief set built in part to make people think a bit more and not blindly accept things, it seems like there, at the very least, will be no backflow from this religion into less beneficial ones once people become relatively committed to it. The next question, of course, is what is the best way of attracting people to your religion? Prostelityzing generally seems ineffective. Both Buddhism and Scientology are religions in which there is (to my knowlage) no god. How do they attract followers?

Having a state apparatus behind you helps. This is how Constantine and his heirs solidified Christianity in the Roman Empire. They just made the Christian cult the state religion and it only took about two generations to nullify the traditional religion of the entire Empire.

A book of bullshit helps, too. If you write down your bullshit in black and white, people tend to believe in it more readily and to turn to it as an article of faith. This is why Mormonism has done so well, and also why Scientology continues to spread like a disease.

Write it down as a holy text and you're a long distance on your road to acceptance.

[Kate]

This was rather gracious.

Hitchens and I are scheduled to square off for the first time for a panel on the Ten Commandments with David Hazony in New York City on November 4, and I am fairly certain that if that event comes to pass he will have me for lunch, dinner, or whatever else is being served that day.

I am rooting for him nonetheless. We need people like Hitchens in our debates over God and war and torture and adultery and literature and other things that actually matter. We also need his writing, to remind us what passion sounds like.

[Smellyoldgit]

Hitch is still firing on all cylinders, but watching this, I suspect he may not be around for too much longer.
I hope I'm as wrong as I usually am.
At least we know that any reports of a death-bed conversion will be a load of bollocks.

[Single Serving Jack]

Yes it's getting more worrying each time more news about is condition comes in.

[Smellyoldgit]

Now it looks as if PZ is joining the ranks of The Great Unwell.

[ILOVEJESUS]

Wow 2 atheists suffering, this is proof of a God. If they were Christians God would have chosen 2 other people.

[Single Serving Jack]

ILOVEJESUS wrote

Wow 2 atheists suffering, this is proof of a God. If they were Christians God would have chosen 2 other people.

You must be joking. Srsly.

[ILOVEJESUS]

Single Serving Jack wrote

You must be joking. Srsly.