P.S.

Gus, I just want to say that it wasn’t my intention to come take over your thread and make it all about me. I feel bad that Hitchens is suffering this terrible illness that is slowly but relentlessly taking his life from him. I wouldn’t wish it on anyone.

I know you and many others admire him. He’s an intelligent, articulate, thoughtful man. So are many of the other atheists I’ve read since coming here. While I may not agree with them on many things, I think they have some valid insights & points to make that come from their unique perspective as unbelievers.

And therein lies the rub: When they go on the attack and begin ridiculing people, they defeat their oft stated goal of wanting to enlighten others in some way. The verbal assaults make people angry, and when people are angry they’re not in the mood to listen or to reason, they just want to punch back. We see this in play here at LGF every day when discussions get heated.

I find it puzzling & annoying that atheists like Hitchens, who clearly pride themselves on being rational & objective and consider themselves torch-bearers of the Enlightenment, are so prone to involving themselves in the verbal equivalent of a drunken bar fight in which everyone gets the satisfaction of kicking the shit out of one another, but no one wins. That’s not rational behavior, IMO.