February 2011
“I’ve been very worried that all of you have given up a perfectly serviceable...”
– Sam Harris, Christopher Hitchens & Sam Harris debate Rabbi David Wolpe & Rabbi Bradley Shavit Artson on the afterlife, http://www.jewishtvnetwork.com/?bcpid=533363107&bctid=802338105001 (via cocknbull)
Moderator: If a belief in the afterlife helps one deal with the inevitability of death, maybe this is a good thing.
Christopher Hitchens: Then anything that made you feel better would be okay, which, I'm sorry to say, is a contemptible viewpoint.
“It will happen to all of us at some point, you’ll get tapped on your shoulder...”
– Christopher Hitchens, Christopher Hitchens & Sam Harris debate Rabbi David Wolpe & Rabbi Bradley Shavit Artson on the afterlife, http://www.jewishtvnetwork.com/?bcpid=533363107&bctid=802338105001 (via cocknbull)
“I see two problems with what you just did. Perhaps you’re aware of them… You...”
– Sam Harris, dusting off an oldie, http://www.jewishtvnetwork.com/?bcpid=533363107&bctid=802338105001 (via cocknbull)
“No, absolutely I don’t [ever get tired of debating the religious], because you...”
– Christopher Hitchens, in response to Rabbi Artson’s claim that the God of Judaism is not omniscient or all-powerful, http://www.jewishtvnetwork.com/?bcpid=533363107&bctid=802338105001 (via cocknbull)
Rob Eshman, Moderator: One of the most common tropes is the near-death experience. Over the last three decades, there have been 40 studies of some-3400 near-death experiences and they've been published in American psychological journals, and Barbera Haggerty did a book on this called "The Fingerprints of God", where she interviewed a lot of the people who did these studies that were published in peer-reviewed journals, and a lot of the people she interviewed said they cannot help but think, after investigating these in a scientific way, that they point to something beyond this life.
Christopher Hitchens: I would say that's wrong by definition, because it's a near death experience. It means you didn't die.
Rob Eshman, Moderator: Before we wrap up, I just had one small question, which is, Christopher, how are you feeling?
Christopher Hitchens: Oh! Thank you for asking. Um, well, I'm dying. But so are you.
“There is no such thing as closure and it wouldn’t be worth it if it were...”
– Christopher Hitchens, on closure. (via chelseamargaret)
Words by which to live your life.
(via cocknbull)
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“Christianity has fought, still fights, and will fight science to the desperate...”
– G. Richard Bozarth (via divineirony)
1 tag
“The irony for me has always been that if the Jihadists ever took power in this...”
– Tucker Carlson (via cocknbull)
I hate to agree with a dumbass.
Bill O'Reilly: You're not gonna persuade [Islamic extremist terrorists], because, by their very nature, they're nuts. They're crazy.
Sam Harris: They're actually not crazy.
Bill O'Reilly: Anybody who would kill themselves and think they're gonna get seventy-two virgins, um, you know, I gotta say, is insane.
Sam Harris: But it's actually no crazier than believing that a cracker literally turns into the body of Jesus. It has terrible behavioural outcomes, but it is equally unsupported by evidence.
Bill O'Reilly: No, no, no, no, I have to challenge you there. A cracker that people believe is the embodiment of Jesus hurts no one. It's a matter of faith. It's a positive thing for those who believe it, in the sense they try to love their neighbour as themselves. These people are going out killing--
Sam Harris: Right, different behavioural consequences.
Bill O'Reilly: There's a very big difference in that kind of faith.
Sam Harris: There's a very big difference in the outcome. There's no difference at the level of rationality.
Anonymous asked: ☾☾☾☾☾☾
“It’s considered perfectly normal in this society to approach dying people who...”
– Christopher Hitchens, http://www.jewishtvnetwork.com/?bcpid=533363107&bctid=802338105001 (via cocknbull)
Until we can put GIFs on shirts, I'm not convinced...
“Science is the only news. When you scan through a newspaper or magazine, all the...”
– Stewart Brand, “Whole Earth Discipline: an Ecopragmatist Manifesto”, 2009 (via amiquote)
1 tag
Pope Faces International Charges For “Crimes... →
Pope Benedict XVI is facing charges of crimes against humanity in the International Criminal Court for “the preservation and leadership of a worldwide totalitarian regime of coercion which subjugates its members with terrifying and health-endangering threats,” and for his part in the Vatican’s pedophile priests molestation and rape scandals, and the Vatican’s “adherence to a fatal forbiddance of...
4 tags
“That religion may have served some necessary function for us in the past does...”
– Sam Harris, Letter to a Christian Nation
5 tags
“It is time we recognize the boundless narcissism and self-deceit of the saved....”
– Sam Harris, Letter to a Christian Nation
“However, you may purchase male or female slaves from among the foreigners who...”
– Leviticus 25:44-46 NLT
“If your brother, the son of your father or of your mother, or your son or...”
– Deuteronomy 13:7-11
What metaphor should we take from these words? What place do ideas such as these have in a contemporary, secular society? How does one justify believing that the bible is the perfect word of God while choosing to ignore this command and many others? How does one decide which...
6 tags
“Which is more probable: that the laws of physics or nature have been suspended -...”
– Christopher Hitchens
5 tags
“Words like God and Allah must go the way of Apollo and Baʿal, or they will...”
– Sam Harris, The End Of Faith
Tony Cox: Jamila, let me put another personal question to you. Because the numbers that Norm is giving us, he said three percent [of African-Americans identify as atheists], which is really small, and because of the, what you have written in your own blog about going to this place and being so happy to be around others who feel and believe and think as you do, do you ever find yourself in a circumstance, because there are so few African-Americans who share your belief in the nonexistence of God, do you ever have doubts [about atheism] because there are so few other people who think like you think?
Jamila Bey: Absolutely not. I don't base my intellectual ability on a democratic process.
“To enslave a man, then dope him to make him content! Do you call THAT a solace?...”
– Joel Augustus Rogers (via cocknbull)
“You are a bag of particles governed by the laws of physics.”
– Brian Greene on the Colbert Report (Colbert’s response: “That is a great pickup line.”)
People always say it would be depressing if this were so, that they wouldn’t want to live in a world consisting only of particles in motion. Personally, I think this simple statement is one of the most...
6 tags
“If you believe that the world is going to come to an end - and perhaps any day...”
– Bill Maher, from the film Religulous (via wordsthatmatter)
Imply that because there is no hell, humans must...
Lose a follower. GLADLY.
Libya
cocknbull:
proustianrecall:
You know, if God does exist, then Gaddafi is going straight to the deepest circle of Hell. Right next to Brutus.
If [an all-moral, all-powerful, evil-punishing] God does exist, then (s)he/it would have prevented Gaddafi’s actions. Since (s)he/it did not and still has not, despite literally thousands of people praying for aid, (s)he/it is either not able or not...
“The problem is not religious extremism, because extremism is not a problem if...”
– Sam Harris
