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Christianity Today, May (Web-only), 2007 |

"Is Christianity Good for the World?"

Christopher Hitchens and Douglas Wilson debate.

posted 5/08/2007 09:17AM

5 of 5

One last question: In your concluding paragraph you make a great deal out of your individualism and your right to be left alone with the "most intimate details of [your] life and mind." Given your atheism, what account are you able to give that would require us to respect the individual? How does this individualism of yours flow from the premises of atheism? Why should anyone in the outside world respect the details of your thought life any more than they respect the internal churnings of any other given chemical reaction? That's all our thoughts are, isn't that right? Or, if there is a distinction, could you show how the premises of your atheism might produce such a distinction?

Cordially,

Douglas Wilson

Back to Hitchens' letter

Back to Wilson's reply

Related Elsewhere:

Hitchens' God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything, Thomas Jefferson: Author of America, Thomas Paine's "Rights of Man," Letters To a Young Contrarian, and Why Orwell Matters; and Wilson's Letter from a Christian Citizen, Reforming Marriage, and A Serrated Edge: A Brief Defense of Biblical Satire and Trinitarian Skylarking are available from Amazon.com and other retailers.

Wilson's Blog and Mablog has posts in response to God is Not Great, as well as other topics.

Hitchensweb.com has links to Hitchens' online articles.

Stan Guthrie commented in CT Liveblog about Christian-athiest debates.

Hitchens debated Al Sharpton on May 7.

Books & Culture articles about Hitchens and Wilson include:

Can You Reason with Christians? | A response to Sam Harris' Letter to a Christian Nation. (May 7, 2007)

Christopher Hitchens Explains It All for You | Move over, Sam Harris; another atheist wants the pulpit. (Books & Culture, April 30, 2007)

Book of the Week: Strange Bedfellows | Christopher Hitchens and Christopher Caldwell collaborate on a collection of political writing. Has the millennium arrived unnoticed? (Books & Culture, January 27, 2003)

Uncompromising Positions | Hitchens and Orwell (Books & Culture, November 1, 2002)

Mr. Wilson's Bookshelf | "Wayfaring Stranger" (Books & Culture, November 17, 2006)

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May (Web-only) 2007, Vol. 51

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Konstantin

Posted: May 22, 2007 1:10 AM

Lee, you have failed to answer Jessie's question. Christian consensus on the creeds has nothing to do with moral. What is moral about believing that Jesus is both human and divine, or that he was born of a virgin? Creeds are matters of dogma, not morality. Having said that, I would like you to consider the human cost of achieving the doctrinal conformity which seems so remarkable to you. Throughout the centuries, thousands upon thousands of "heretics" were executed by the Church (Catholic, Protestant, and Orthodox) to achieve this conformity. Just read the history books about the murderous actions of the revered Protestant reformers toward those who disagreed with them on inconsequential matters of theology. You will be amazed at their cruelty. So my point is that theological conformity that you claim as your proof of a "moral standard" within Christianity is itself the result of extremely immoral acts on the part of Christian leaders. End of sermon.

Request to Hitchens

Posted: May 21, 2007 9:18 PM

Hitchens, please tell us, since you won't tell Wilson, why your evolved innate conscience carries any objective weight. And then tell us why it is has any ethical jurisdiction over anyone else's innate conscience. And then address this irony: As a naturalist, the best you can say is that supernaturalist religion is not natural, not the proper result of matter in motion, not what evolution was supposed to produce. And yet supernaturalist religion has happened. Chemicals in motion have given birth to an almost universal belief in deity and afterlife among humans. So how would you go about arguing against the innateness of belief in deity when it is, well, so seemingly innate? Why do you get to pick and choose which innatenesses are the correct innatenesses? To make it more specific, why is my own innate conviction to believe in God not authoritative for you, while your convictions are for me? We know why *you* don't like Xianity, but you're supposed to convince others (see debate title).

Ken Barber

Posted: May 20, 2007 3:37 PM

I do not concur that Christopher has taken on "heavyweights", although I love his fearless denunciation of the 'straw man' of religious humanism which champions an eternally offended God Who tortures the work of His Own creation - especially those He made in His image! I look forward to the day when Christopher, along with all of mankind, including me, will fully discover that we so easily 'strain at gnats and swallow camels" - and that God, and His Christ, is great. The wine will flow (and maybe grace will allow for us to enjoy a glass or two of Johnnie Walker, I speak as a man). What a good laugh shall be enjoyed by all as we cheerfully lose our own sense of self-importance and bathe in the Light of He Who holds us all so dearly. I was not permitted to submit this without choosing 'a star rating' so I selected 5 stars in the knowledge that He shall make all things beautiful in His time.

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