I am afraid that the whole affair looked terribly self-congratulatory. Dawkins praised Hitchens as the most learned of all men he has met, (and he has met many learned men, since he lives in Oxford) --Someone who can quote and adduce references, at lightening speed. They called each other brothers and sisters and hugged. Hitchens had trouble speaking and cut himself somewhat short, not wanting to stand between the assembled and their refreshments, the bar and entertainments.
They looked like quite a "flock" to me, birds of a feather all flocked together. The congregation of free-thinkers, in convention, praising themselves. Sort of the same as other flocks, only prouder.
Something else, in this connection: http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Sophisticated_theology
From a Facebook friend: Atheists celebrating their own ignorance.
2 comments:
I like the juxtaposition of the two photos. :-) I saw a cartoon once, long ago (don't know by whom), that showed a large crowd of protesters, fists in the air, shouting "I'm different! I'm different!" In a corner was one lone protester timidly holding up his hand, saying, "I'm not - I'm the same!" I conclude from atheists' own descriptions of their "non-beliefs," that Atheism is actually a religion, with no shortage of its own tenets prescribing how to think and act (beliefs and ethics/morality).
I saw a show with Buckley, the other day, an old Firing Line, where he interviews the people in the Hippie movement. Is was the question there, too, whether they held to any kind of tenets. One said that they did not and another scoffed at that. Obviously, people who hold things in common, hold things in common. The most deluded are probably those with utopian visions for society. With FreeThinkers and Gnostics, too, as well as certain atheists, one finds at least as certain view of mankind "evolving" for the better. My experience with them, however, has bee that they themselves are unyielding, often poorly informed, and ungracious. Of course, everyone likes to cites their opposition for those sorts of things, but sometimes they will tell you that they are these things on purpose. They are justified in them.
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