Tuesday, January 10, 2012

A Great Christopher Hitchens Moment

If I were to ask you what is more evil (or dangerous) between an atheist and a "liberal christian" how would you answer? I know how I would answer - I would rather deal with a wolf that dresses like a wolf!

I recently posted an obituary to express my reflections and sadness over the recent death of fervent atheist Christopher Hitchens. I thought it worthwhile today to add one closing postscript on the life of Hitchens. There is some sort of delicious irony when an atheist schools a professing Christian on Christian doctrine. I have featured posts on this before, most particularly when Penn Jillette (a very publicly recognized and vocal atheist) rebuked professing Christians who don't evangelize and/or warn about hell. There was also the stunning moment when Kirk Cameron schooled Stephen Hawking on the scientific method!

Today, I will share a great Christopher Hitchens moment when he does a better job of exposing "liberal theologians" for the frauds they are than many others who fill pulpits that are silent on the issue. I was unable to find the video of this so we will have to settle for the transcript of this beautiful exchange between Christopher Hitchens and a liberal priest.

Liberal Priest: The religion you cite in your book is a generally fundamentalist faith of various kinds. I’m a liberal Christian, and I don’t take the stories from the scripture literally. I don’t believe in the doctrine of atonement (that Jesus died for our sins, for example). Do you make any distinction between fundamentalist faith and liberal religion?

Hitchens: I would say that if you don’t believe that Jesus of Nazareth was the Christ and Messiah, and that he rose again from the dead and by his sacrifice our sins are forgiven, you’re really not in any meaningful sense a Christian.

Sewell: Let me go someplace else. When I was in seminary, I was particularly drawn to the work of theologian Paul Tillich. He shocked people by describing the traditional God—as you might, as a matter of fact—as “an invincible tyrant.” For Tillich, God is “the ground of being.” It’s his response to, say, Freud’s belief that religion is mere wish fulfillment and comes from humans’ fear of death. What do you think of Tillich’s concept of God?

Hitchens: I would classify that under the heading of Statements That Have No Meaning—At All. Christianity, remember, was really founded by Saint Paul, not by Jesus. Paul says, very clearly, that if it is not true that Jesus Christ rose from the dead, then we the Christians are of all people the most unhappy. If none of that’s true, and you seem to say it isn’t, I have no quarrel with you. You’re not going to come to my door trying to convince me. Nor are you trying to get a tax break from the government. Nor are you trying to have it taught to my children in school. If all Christians were like you, I wouldn’t have to write the book.


I'll take a Hitchens any day over a cowardly and passive "minister". He will be missed and I sincerely hope that Hitchens repented of his wicked rebellion and trusted in Jesus Christ before his heart stopped beating.

11 comments:

Kristoffer Haldrup said...

Could you possibly detail how "Kirk Cameron schooled Stephen Hawking on the scientific method"? -I couldn't really find anything like that following the link?

Cameron Buettel said...

I'm thrilled that you are still investing time in reading my blog Kristoffer. You need a lot of schooling too!

Kristoffer Haldrup said...

http://xkcd.com/386/ ;)

-But you did not answer...when and where did Kirk Cameron "school" Hawking?

Cameron Buettel said...

Kristoffer, please send me the phone number of your boss because I am getting very worried that he is paying you too much.

Here is how a hyperlink works. You move the mouse pointer on your computer screen (the little arrow) over the text that says " Kirk Cameron schooled Stephen Hawking on the scientific method" and then click on the left button which appears to the left of the right button. You can then read how Kirk Cameron schooled Stephen Hawking in his unscientific reasoning.

Timothy J. Hammons said...

Cameron, you really are harsh on Kristoffer. LOL. :)

But the Hitchens comments are priceless. It must have shocked those liberals because, in their minds, they were actually trying to schmooze up to the famous atheist and he completely rebuffs them. Those type of Christians love to find favor in the atheists eyes.
Blessings

Kristoffer Haldrup said...

What I find when following your link is a copy of some comment Kirk Cameron posted on Facebook...and this comment, where KC disagrees with Hawking, rather just illustrates Kirk Cameron's somewhat lacking grasp of modern science than anything else.

To "school" somebody is, according to my thesaurus, to instruct or to reprimand someone. Just putting up a comment on Facebook where you state your disagreement with someone is not to school him or her. Nor is it "schooling" someone to disagree with that person in an interview, in which the other part is not present. In the concrete case of Kirk Cameron, he is just flaunting his scientific ignorance...

There you go, according to your usage I just "schooled" Kirk Cameron I guess;)

RKBentley said...

I came across your blog while looking for sites on Biblical creationism. You're doing a great job here. I think it's curious that Hitchens seems to understand Christianity better than Sewell.

Keep up the good work. God bless!!

RKBentley

Anonymous said...

Wow I've learned a lot from this blog - how week willed I've been as a life long United Methodist... How fortunate we are to have such tough and strong willed Christians with intellectual backbone such as yourselves to show us the error of our ways. Our willingness to have a non condemning conversation with atheists will never work and after all you all are doing such an amazing job converting them by the thousands... aren't you?

Anonymous said...

And it is with great pride that I am pleased that Hitchens did not repent, nor did he need to.

Frankly it disgusts me that you would frame his entire life's work as "wicked rebellion"; a final jab at the man after his death just after your praise which is surely either feigned or misunderstood by you yourself.

With this action you are most certainly akin to the passive and cowardly minister that you have also judged, which is something Jesus taught never to do.

You cherry pick your religion, you are a hypocrite and you have been Hitchslapped.

Good day.

Michael said...

And it is with great pride that I am pleased that Hitchens did not repent, nor did he need to.

Frankly it disgusts me that you would frame his entire life's work as "wicked rebellion"; a final jab at the man after his death just after your praise which is surely either feigned or misunderstood by you yourself.

With this action you are most certainly akin to the passive and cowardly minister that you have also judged, which is something Jesus taught never to do.

You cherry pick your religion, you are a hypocrite and you have been Hitchslapped.

Good day.

Cameron Buettel said...

Michael, would you consider yourself to be a good person?