«
»

28th August 2009

“If someone was to tell me that last week he died, and I'd read about it in the papers and actually seen him dead, and I was surprised to see him again in the street, I wouldn't be that impressed. It wouldn't prove anything about the truth of his doctrines. It would not prove he was the son of God or entitle him to forgive me my sins.”

Christopher Hitchens

This entry was posted on Friday, August 28th, 2009 at 1:00 and is filed under QOTD. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

11 Responses to “28th August 2009”

  1. Oxymoronic Christhinker Says:
    August 28th, 2009 at 1:37

    Uh, . . . never mind! : )

  2. Chris Says:
    August 28th, 2009 at 2:33

    I gather Hitch is making several points here. First is the slipperiness of knowledge. We can be deceived. We can be wrong. We can misinterpret. Second is that we have a higher standard of proof than a single observation. Third is guarding against unfounded inferences. OK, we all thought he was dead and here he is very much alive and we’re sure it’s him. This alone isn’t enough to proclaim “divinity” without further investigation. Might there not be other (testable) explanations that don’t require one to jettison everything one knows?

  3. Oxymoronic Christhinker Says:
    August 28th, 2009 at 5:19

    LOL!!! And . . . never mind . . .

  4. Hypatia Says:
    August 28th, 2009 at 14:32

    Oxymoronic Christhinker: “LOL!!! And . . . never mind . . .”

    And your point is?

  5. The Heretic Says:
    August 28th, 2009 at 15:20

    What was the quote I just saw the other day…..”One man’s magic is another man’s engineering.”

    ‘Magic’ someone saw 2000 years ago (rising from the dead certainly qualifies – of course no one who wrote about it was actually there, but I digress) is supposed to be believed as divinity today? What hogwash!!! Only religion could actually force someone to chew and swallow that whopper. And they think that atheists are in a sad state….

  6. Hypatia Says:
    August 28th, 2009 at 15:27

    But all this is irrelevant because Jesus had to rise from the dead, as well as be born of a virgin, because that’s what the prophesy said 😉

  7. John Says:
    August 28th, 2009 at 16:16

    If christens of today can believe word for word the spouting’s of the likes of limbaugh and beck… then they can swallow anything!

  8. Chris Says:
    August 28th, 2009 at 18:53

    Born of virgins:
    Horus
    Attis
    Mithra
    Krishna
    Zoroaster/Zarathustra
    Jesus (claimed “Christ”)
    Dionysus

    Many were also born on December 25th. The world must have been lousy with human asexual reproduction at one time.

  9. Hypatia Says:
    August 28th, 2009 at 21:22

    Religions involving people walking on water:

    Buddhism
    Hinduism
    Hellenistic
    Christianity

    Not embarrassed by a little plagiarism these ancient religions.

  10. Chris Says:
    August 28th, 2009 at 21:45

    But Hypatia, the only *true* one is Christianity. You see, I’ve got this book and it SAYS it’s the true one. I mean, that’s such an important point it couldn’t possibly be wrong!

  11. Hypatia Says:
    August 29th, 2009 at 17:36

    “But Hypatia, the only *true* one is Christianity”

    Yes, Chris, it must be such a comfort for Christians to know that, of all the possible faiths they could have been born into, they’re so lucky that it was the one true faith!

    Surely, proof that God exists?