It’s my blog and I’ll blaspheme if I want to.
“This is the brilliant opening statement that Christopher Hitchens gave in a religion vs. atheism debate with Alister McGrath on October 11, 2007.
Instead of simply watching Hitchens at the podium, here the speech’s audio is overlayed with illustations to try to do justice to the logic of this very compelling argument.”
One Comment
The main problem with his argument as I see it is that he is mistaken as to what the Christian Bible *actually* teaches.
The Biblical account starts with the creation of all things, the last being man. Not as an amusement or toy for God but as a being designed to enjoy life. To be fully satisfied with living in perfect conditions. The one thing that makes man and the other beings of creation (spirit creatures - angels) different from the animals is that they have free will. Free will being the freedom to make decisions and choices. The simple rules were laid out from the start as to what was acceptable behavior. It was their choice to obey or disobey as they saw fit.
The Biblical account continues with a free will decision of one angel who saw the power that God possessed and craved it for himself. He reasoned that if he could amass enough followers he could prove that God was a tyrant and that people would only follow his rules because of the perfect conditions and favor he gave them.
He enticed the first pair of humans and succeeded in getting them to disobey the clear and simple rules that God had established.
From that point on God instituted a plan to bring mankind back to a perfect condition and to prove once and for all time that rulership apart from his does not work. The Biblical account ends with a sifting of sorts. Those who are his true followers and are willing to obey his clear and simple rules will be granted perfect life on a perfect earth - as was initially intended. All others, including the initial rebellious angel will be destroyed for eternity.
The entire theme of the Bible is simple, the vindication of Gods sovereignty.
But Mr. Hitchens is absolutely correct in that scientific reason and belief in the accurate Biblical account (which I don’t equate with 99.9% of religions) are not compatible.
That then forces you to investigate scientific reason and what leads to it. The scientific community has not had a stellar track record when it comes to true scientific discovery. What is the basis of the scientific method? To follow the evidence no matter where it leads. That is hard to do when one is after prestige.