Amusing Christopher Hitchens essay on Slate re: 10C

[trientalis]

I rather enjoyed this essay. I hope it will be amusing to others.

Moore's Law--The Immorality of the Ten Commandments (http://slate.msn.com/id/2087621/)

[brighid]

OH what a great article!! Thanks for posting it.

Brighid

[Mageth]

Too many editorialists have described the recent flap as a silly confrontation with exhibitionist fundamentalism, when the true problem is our failure to recognize that religion is not just incongruent with morality but in essential ways incompatible with it.

Amen to that!

[Postcard73]

Did y'all see the response from locdog at the bottom of the page below the article? I suppose it's just typical fundy BS, but it's still amazing...

[Grumpy]

Hitchens has been a bit off stride lately. But this one's a keeper. In fact, edit out the specific Roy Moore references, and it's as good as any FFRF non-tract (http://www.ffrf.org/nontracts/).

[Jewel]

I love this part:

One is presuming (is one not?) that this is the same god who actually created the audience he was addressing. This leaves us with the insoluble mystery of why he would have molded ("in his own image," yet) a covetous, murderous, disrespectful, lying, and adulterous species. Create them sick, and then command them to be well? What a mad despot this is, and how fortunate we are that he exists only in the minds of his worshippers.

A great article! Thanks for posting it!

[Philosoft]

Originally posted by Postcard73
Did y'all see the response from locdog at the bottom of the page below the article? I suppose it's just typical fundy BS, but it's still amazing...
Yeah, good stuff. Had Stalin, Hitler, Pol Pot and Saddam just been Christians, they probably wouldn't have killed anyone. Because Christians don't kill people. Or something. And rape is theft. Or something.

[scombrid]

Locdog hasn't got anything on the nonsense in the message board on that site.

But if he really believes that God doesn't exist, then why does he spend so much time blasting the Ten Commandments? If they mean nothing to him, then he shouldn't waste his time talking about them.

Here's why he talks about them and tries to discredit them. It is because he's convicted by them. Deep in his mind, he knows God exists. Deep in his mind, he knows that those Commandments are good.

Why are the Ten Commandments so offensive if there is no God? Why not keep the commandments around? Who does the Ten Commandments hurt really? If God does not exist or you do not believe in Him, then the Ten Commandments are a work of fiction or at least a list of good rules to live by. No one is offended by Mark Twain's words or Yogi Berra's. So what's wrong with some words written 4000 years ago? If you don't believe there is no God, then just ignore the first four commandments. No harm, no foul, right?

[scombrid]

Wow, reading through the second page of replies to Hitchens' article and I'm dumbfounded. I'd swear I was in Christian Forums or Baptist Boards. Pascal's Wager has even popped up in several threads.

[themistocles]

I don't usually agree with Hitchens, but he's a pretty damn funny guy. The guy's great to watch in a live debate.

[Abacus]

Here's why he talks about them and tries to discredit them. It is because he's convicted by them. Deep in his mind, he knows God exists. Deep in his mind, he knows that those Commandments are good.
I think this person is on to something. I know I sure feel convicted whenever I find myself coveting my neighbor's slaves.

[trunks2k]

Here's why he talks about them and tries to discredit them. It is because he's convicted by them. Deep in his mind, he knows God exists. Deep in his mind, he knows that those Commandments are good.

Yep that's exactly it. It's just like how I rail against war, sickness, and hunger. I may fight with all my strength to stop those, but that's only becase deep down I feel they are right and gifts from god.

[ScumDog]

Seems to be down a bit?