What they say and what they mean

[Randy Carson]

Proselytizing, in true christian fashion! A wonderful quote from Hitchens:

"I would be quite content to go to children's bar mitzvahs, to marvel at their Gothic cathedrals, to 'respect' their belief that the Koran was dictated, (though exclusively in Arabic to an illiterate merchant), or to invest myself in Wicca and Hindu and Jain consolations. And as it happens, I will continue to do so without insisting on the polite reciprocal condition-which is that they in turn leave me alone. But this, religion is incapable of doing. As I write these words, and as you read them, people of faith are in their different ways planning your and my destruction, and the destruction of all the hard won human attainments. Religion poisons everything."

Hitchens could have been left alone...but he was quick to accept speaking engagements and debates with Christians.

Why? The publicity helped him sell books.

He didn't want to be left alone. He wanted to make money.

[reasonist]

Exactly, Randy comes here to simply poison the watering hole.  As he has shown time and again, he is not the least bit interested in an exchange of ideas.  He does not respond directly to any question put to him.  It is easy to see with him, the total disconnect between skeptics and theists.  He is only wasting his time and our time.  I still have not put him on ignore, nor will I.  I just don't read his posts or respond to him in any way.

But it shows you what the human mind is capable of. One can only feel sorry for a wasted intellect like that. To us enlightened it is inconceivable to buy into a ancient racket full of unicorns and miracles. What ignorance must be displayed to discard a mountain of scientific evidence but instead be awed by a burning bush. What solipsism to believe that we are the center of attention and supervision of a invisible magician in the sky. And what audacity to come here and try to poison people's minds with this superstition.
I have nothing but contempt for people like that. They should not be allowed to procreate and to vote. Funda(mental) sheep like that have nothing to contribute to society, they want to sell 2,000 year old mythologies as historic facts. They want to sell this garbage in our schools and influence policy making. And all three main cults have the same goal in common: change society into a theocratic prison. Which cult will win out in the end? All three claim to be correct at the exclusion of the other two. We are already involved in another world war because of fucking religion, it's only a matter of time until the confrontation becomes nuclear. Of course dolts like Carson can't see further than their crucifix on the wall. So let's bring on Armageddon, the Messiah, Sharia in a caliphate, let's duke it out who has the most real sky daddy of them all!

[Baruch]

Hitchens could have been left alone...but he was quick to accept speaking engagements and debates with Christians.

Why? The publicity helped him sell books.

He didn't want to be left alone. He wanted to make money.

Therefore 2000+ years of Catholicism ... just to get back at one guy who lived at the end of the 20th century?  If I am robbed, am I justified in becoming a robber?

Buddhism is the original politically compromised evangelical religion.  It will be so funny when all the Abrahamic believers get converted to Buddhism ;-)  Or does it not feel right, if the shoe is on a different foot?

Remember super-stition is obviously superior to inferior-stition.