Christopher Hitchens

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Christopher Hitchens speaking in 2007

Christopher Hitchens (April 13, 1949-December 15 2011) was an English-American writer, journalist, commentator, political activist and self described anti-theist. Hitchens contends that organised religion is "[v]iolent, irrational, intolerant, allied to racism, tribalism, and bigotry, invested in ignorance and hostile to free inquiry, contemptuous of women and coercive toward children", and that accordingly it "ought to have a great deal on its conscience."

Hitchens's razor

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"What can be asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence[1]"

Biography

He was educated at the independent Leys School, in Cambridge, and at Balliol College, Oxford, and read philosophy, politics, and economics.

Hitchens authored God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything. He comes to 4 main conclusions in his critique of religion:

  • Religion distorts the origins of humanity and the universe;
  • Religion commands unreasonable suppression of human nature;
  • Religion impels people to violence and blind submission to authority; and
  • Religion is hostile to free inquiry.

His brother is Peter Hitchens who is an occasional Christian apologist.

Militarism and intolerance

"I think the enemies of civilization should be beaten and killed and defeated, and I don't make any apology for it. And I think it's sickly and stupid and suicidal to say that we should love those who hate us and try to kill us and our children and burn our libraries and destroy our society. I have no patience with this nonsense."

[2]

Works

Bibliography

References


v · d Atheism
Terminology   Etymology of the word atheist · Weak atheism · Strong atheism · Agnosticism · Atheist vs. agnostic · Tenets and dogma
Contemporary literature   The End of Faith · The God Delusion · God: The Failed Hypothesis · Letter to a Christian Nation · God Is Not Great · Irreligion · 50 Reasons People Give for Believing in a God
Classic literature   Why I Am Not a Christian
Atheist and secular groups   Atheist groups · Secular charities · How American Non-Atheists view Atheists
Contemporary authors   Richard Dawkins · Daniel Dennett · A. C. Grayling · Sam Harris · Guy P. Harrison · John Allen Paulos · James Randi · Victor Stenger
Internet non-believers   Reginald Vaughn Finley · PZ Myers
Writers and philosophers   David Hume · Robert Ingersoll · Friedrich Nietzsche · Bertrand Russell · Carl Sagan · Voltaire · Jean-Paul Sartre · John Stuart Mill · Karl Marx · Heraclitus