Can we all take a minute and appreciate just how lucky we are to be able to listen and watch Hitchens anywhere, anytime , with a few taps of the screen….. every time I give a listen I learn and store something incredibly profound.

" ...but I decline to be spoken to in that tone of voice... by the admirers of the illiterate Middle Eastern peasantry." 😂 - Christopher Hitchens

"Religion began when the first scoundrel met the first fool." Voltaire

*''The whole thing [religion] is so patently infantile, so foreign to reality, that to anyone with a friendly attitude to humanity it is painful to think that the great majority of mortals will never be able to rise above this view of life . . .''* - Sigmund Freud

Ah, what the hell, just opened my bottle of Johnnie Walker Black awaiting 2024 Year, this tradition was started 4 years ago up to now and until I die, elated to have his god is Not Great signed by the man himself 1st edition hardcover # 9 book. Edit: “Tradition” of listening to Hitch while waiting for the new year, I got lucky to discover him on c-span in the mid 80s truly miss the gorgeous bastard.

I miss that man. What an incredible human being.

"The worst is yet to come." Christopher Hitchens. Fast forward to October 7, 2023 and what is happening since.

One of the greatest thinkers of all time.

One of Hitch's most stellar performances.

such a beautiful rational empathetic human being

He will be sorely missed. His eloquence has not been matched in my lifetime.

Christopher Hitchens could write and talk about anything from architecture to philosophy, politics or religion and hold you utterly captivated, thinking and laughing, until he decided to let you go. I wish I could speak or write like him, but I’m afraid I will almost always fall short.

Hitch was my first cult deprogrammer.

Would love to hear his voice tearing a new one against the Arizona senator who invited a prayer group and spoke in tongues on the floor of the state chamber the other day.

7:42 Yeah that’s exactly the way my family is as fundamental Christian’s and born agains. so I relate to that. A lot of them think they need to save me

The audience is kind of “ uninspiring “. I mean Christopher Is making great points one after another that deserve thunderous applause but here the crowd seems muted. Nevertheless a great conversation.

The key thing about faith, is the necessity to excerpt some aspect of reality in order to believe it. If some aspect of reality can be excepted then ALL aspects can be evaded. Epistemologically that can be extremely dangerous.

I can’t put into words how much this great man has inspired me fight a similar corner in just about every ‘debate’ I have had. My favourite human being.

How relevant this is today! We so need his voice now.

The US now has a theocrat as speaker of the House.

Even this long after it is inspiring for everyone with an intellect to go forward with hope into the future

Hitchens was ahead of his time, fast forward to 2024 and many of his warnings have materialised before our eyes. We live in troubled times

brilliant way a discussion should ALWAYS be conducted

I wonder what Christopher Hitchens, if he were still alive today, would think of the religious right in America and its complete permutation of American society, akin to that of the Taliban.

I found this brilliant mind posthumously , just 3 years ago , but it was just enough for me As a man of 36 , raised under the round the clock bombardment of nonsense Islamic propaganda under the regime of mullahs here in Iran , just the first hour of listening to pure logic and reason from my Christopher was enough to turn all the previous 33 years upside down You made me an addict Christopher , I don't know wether I should be proud or wether ashamed of being addicted to your voice In fact most of the nights I can't go to sleep without listening to you , your voice somehow became like sleeping pills for me which I can't live without While driving the car , driving my motorcycle , doing my daily job which is building wirings , eating my food , going to sleep , even to the extent of playing your voice while having my girl on the bed !!! I don't know about wether it's something usual and common or I'm just in the minority , but to be honest I feel pain in my bones without your voice just like all the other drug addicts Wished that you been wrong that we are mortal beings , just to be able to talk to you while roasting in the hellfire for the rest of eternity , under the snow bearded infallible heavenly dictator , I'm ready to suffer all the torture of living in heaven for eternity just in return to be able to talk to you!!!! But the good thing is that we still have people like Richard Dawkins , Sam Harris , Douglass Murray etc , we should to promote them more , to introduce them to the youth Is any other Christopher Addict out there ? Or I'm just a one off job?

What a great constructive discourse. Most enjoyable.

I remember posting that prayer without work is useless. So, of course, people trying to tell me about prayer opens doors, and God is for the faithful and other things. I am a nurse, and I said when we the medical team of different faiths confronted by medical emergencies act on science base actions . I think if your family member goes into cardiac arrest, we will look at the medical team if we bust out the book of hymns or fight over different faiths as crazy. You wouldn't want all patients who need emergency care. We are too busy trying to bring out the best patients' survival. We have to pray that it works as a family. I watched my uncle going through this scenario. Sure, I prayed a simple conversation with God. While I expect his medical team to treat him. My uncle died. I don't blame God because despite science and faith, my uncle required a heart and lung transplant. I view God as our Creator. However, prayer or belief in God will not solve man's problems.

H discovers here his thesis beneath the thesis, that our gullibility and passivity faced with faith and the faithful is more poisonous than religion.

Hitch receives a particularly courteous, knowledgable introduction, from a man who, despite his often contrary perspectives, acknowledges sound attributes when he sees them.

Hitch was as captivating as always. I was surprised at the intelligence and reasonableness of his protagonist in this case, makes a nice change from the others.

Probably the 5th time I've heard this. And it doesn't get old

Watching him cough throughout this interview is really harrowing... :(

What an awesome human being…

That duality of respect indeed needs to be reciprocated, I respect others beliefs, on the basis that mine too are equally treated. I would not impose my Catholic belief on others, I invite others to our church as part of history, they may leave with something that is important to them or not.

Hitchens buddy there, knows if he doesn't interrupt hitchens, he will never get to speak. His friend stands his ground with as much dignity as Christopher does. Def in my top three debates.

i wasn't familiar with the other gentleman, but I'm glad that I watched this debate. I can tell that Mr. Hitchens had enormous respect for him. Excellent conversation.

2:45 there is some heavy chair moving action here.

We are benefited by bowing down and thankfulness irrespective of whose /to what. So even we don't like we can always assume provider of air, water, beautiful planet to live with all required resources for free. We don't pay anything for that. At lest we can show some thankfulness .. Is thankfulness is religious beliefs.

Even when with a friend, and supposed equal, H bears the burden of tutelage.

In case anyone is wondering, Hitchens’ interlocutor, Tim Rutten, is no longer with us either. He died in September 2022.

I miss him and the best way to honour him is continue where he left. I’m pretty good at writing and as a physicist I have my arguments in order. If people need celestial dictators it is okay! But keep it for yourself. I don’t tell people I’m atheist only In arguments.

Fun fact: globally, there are 3,000+ gods.

I can only be compassionate to anyone who has a receipt 😂. I don’t get it. Is he saying only to people who bought his books?

Never trust anyone who says they know right from wrong, because then they are trying to sell you something, and/or are somehow trying to gain your allegiance to a system of thought that is against other systems of thought, and are 100% likely to be hypocrites, often despite their best efforts. This is what it is to be human.

“Jesus did not think a person’s soul would live on after death, either to experience bliss in the presence of God above or to be tormented in the fires of hell below. As an orthodox Jew of the 1st century, Jesus did not think the soul went anywhere after death. It simply ceased to exist with the body.” Prof. Bart D Ehrman. (Prof. Ehrman is an American New Testament scholar focusing on textual criticism of the New Testament, the historical Jesus, and the origins and development of early Christianity. He has written and edited 30 books, including three college textbooks.)

You can keep saying and doing what you want.

If anyone but the leaders of the Jewish temple had arrested and crucified Jesus his standing as the Passover lamb would be removed, which would negate his sacrifice for the redemption of anyone who chose to believe.

Terrible loss...all hail the king of sarcasm!!!!! Hated by some remember by most.. greatly missed!!!

Steady work …

Its so odd how the threat to open debate and speech came from a group that didnt even exist at that time. He was able to read the tea leaves not because he was psychic but because he rightly recognized the abject weakness of ordinary secukar society.

Well, it's about. If it's not real.. why believe the religion? Whether it's good or not...

I have a question. If 12 religious people in some far off country claimed their guru had risen from the dead because his body had gone missing, and was therefore the son of a god, no one would care. So why are Christians willing to sacrifice their whole lives to such a story?

Zen was adopted by samurai as zen monks didnt fear death and the tricked samurai into practice but zen is not for training for warriors lol

One of the fundamental issues within religious discussion is that of metaphoric truth and factual truth. Fundamentalist believe (wrongfully) that what the bible contains actually (factually) happened. Truth is that that is obviously not true, the stories in the bible are rather stories, metaphors and symbols from our past that has lived through our cultures. The bible is to be studied and looked at with interest, rather than discarded like some people think. Now a question aries whether or not it actually matters if you understand that the bible is metaphoricly written or factually written. Yes and no, it mattered in the 1600s when it made scientific developments go against the teachings of the church, which is obviously nonsense but happened. Now, in todays world, if a person believes tha tthe stories actually happened and act in a good way as a consequense, does it really matter if he understands they are metaphoric or not? Not really. It only becoems a problem when the society at large believes it and legislates based on it. It is in a way a useful lie to be a fundamentalist religious person. Many parts of the atheist crowd argue against fundamentalism, something rather dull in my opinion bc it misses the interesting part of religion. Is the metaphoric truth laid out in the bible true? The problem that arises now is one of "We can't prove that" You have to run the simulation and have faith in that it works. How can you prove something like "truth will set you free" You have to live it and have faith that it works. There are many things we live by, assumptions about the world, that are non-provable, here faith steps in. Believing without evidence is a way of defining faith. Depending on your definition of "evidence". We have faith bc we need to in order to live (argueable). The bible lays out a bunch of principles that can be believed predicated on faith. The way to analyze if a religion coinicdes with the good is to look at its effect. Christianity has clearly produced the most free and productive, and also moral societies the world has ever seen, in stark contrast to islam. "By their fruits you'll know them" is a good way of looking at religion, and also a good way of answering the question of "Do you believe in God?". Another big problem of religion is the question of interpretation, the same book can be percieved very differently, depending on the reader, mostly the time and place of the reader. Therefor I repeat "By their fruits you'll know them". The bible and other religious texts are really a collection of books containing stories from our ancient past, stories that have survived thousands of years of human life and many of them survived an oral tradition that goes far further back. The stories that have survived have been the most important and influential ones, the fact of their "importance" and influence can be regarded as a form of proof of truth. The fact that the society who acted in accordance with, and lived after these stories turned out better than other societies who predicated their behaviour and life on another story is a form of proof that one story is better than the other. In the end the winner emerges and we have todays stories. There is a reason that millions of people have dedicated their lifes to the bible, built huge temples and done amazing things, simply because of a book. The stories speak to a deeper part of reality and of humans. Perhaps there is a God, I wouldn't know, but the question is interesting and should be debated, not discarded. The effect of non-religion have certainly been worse than religion. As nietszhe pointed out in the late 1800s "God is dead", he predicted that afterwards it's effect would be nihilism and radical ideologies, exactly what we see today, and especially in the 1900s, the first century of a substaintial atheistic crowd. The first thing that happened was Communism, then fascism along with nazism. In a religious society none of these ideologies can grow, they inherintly go against the teachings of christianity, "love thy neighbor" is merely one example. Judeo-christian values + captialism has created all the wealth and prosperity we see today.

What an incredile man. R.I.P Chris

This is where the highest echelon of intelligence is being challenged in a do or die collision. And this is exactly what I do to pass my spare time. Human-kind greatly underestimates Human-beings when it comes to outwitting one another. In this case, it targets the ones intelligent enough to understand "God" is eternally dangerous. And have enough courage to take control despite what the doctrine of Christ threatens them with. I greatly commend these individuals for taking control of their lives both here and thereafter. This is where "Truth" is being used to set a trap door for you. And it's simple. The idea here is to keep you in the box of religion, because the word Atheist is religious jargon and it belongs to Jesus, God. To completely remove yourself from the box of religion, you must come as you are. By separating yourself from God to be a soul set free to fly, you shant use any words that already belong to the church. Those words are demi-god words and are just as dangerous as God. Atheist is of Greek philosophy and is still a form of "worship". ✈️Fly your own airplane. 🖕Say no to religion. 🎶Sing your song. ♥️Love life. 🗝️You hold the key to destiny. 💪Strongbin the membrane. 🐶♥️They matter. 😭Your sorrows. If so, I'll see you there🤪.

I'm curious if anyone would be willing to enlighten me as to why Hitch cut that man off. It sounded like he was about to put forth some kind of conspiracy?

Did i see Twitter X here? Inward: Yes, here we have laws to protect y/our ligaments. If someone cuts or hurts your ligaments on purpose, they can be jailed. I had to clear that one slipper up. 😊 I don't like standing in lines & rows with timed tickets. Does anybody else? I have religious pulling keeping my 24 hour schedule. Id be late for every earlier one! I was born late November of 71. New in your audience are once Catholics who were baptised and left the church at a very young age. It disjointed the mass between beloved families who then lost touch. The frays were permanently wounded and live it on hard edges. The undivided rope were of is strong with heartfelt deep passion for community ties to 1 old union. Lots ofbus feel the tug of time calling us to our childhood roots as our elders pass from life. The tear still hurts the town and needs some kind of mending at the seems. So there is 25 years ahead to work it over if we step to it, now. Its the bright idea. We miss old smells if we don't. Funny but true.

Not sure anyone should be on MSNBC. The hippie who tried to disrupt the conversation may be one of MSNBC’s few fans.

Love him.

So he admits when a religious person pushed their dogma on others they know don’t agree/believe then it’s disrespectful? 😮

Every time he coughs, it makes me sad.

Take A Moment 1:12:58 Me too. I am a Jewish atheist. I like this lady 🎉 1:14:11 1:14:20 😂 1:14:42 😮 Sod off 1:14:59 🎉🎉 Stay Safe and Stay Free May your god go with you. 1:15:48

27:59

Christopher iis missed immensely.

So, when God created the world, he was personally chanting "USA, USA, USA"???

32:11

they do notr want to hear this..does a young child want to hear Santa is their father or mother ?

🤔

Even wasted he’s awesome!

What was that guy at the end getting upset about? I didn't know where he was going with what he was saying. Even if it's BS, can someone fill me in?

The essence of the Roman Catholic Church; "The Catholic Church holds it better for the sun and moon to drop from heaven, for the earth to fail, and for all the many millions on it to die of starvation in extremest agony, as far as temporal affliction goes, than that one soul, I will not say, should be lost, but should commit one single venial sin, should tell one wilful untruth, or should steal one poor farthing without excuse." APOLOGIA PRO VITA SUA BEING (A written justification for one's beliefs or course of conduct.) A History of his Religious Opinions. BY JOHN HENRY CARDINAL NEWMAN.

Poignant to hear him coughing so much. A precursor of what killed him.

Gods suck. Dogs are great though.

Isaiah 40:22 It is he that sitteth H3427 upon the circle H2329 of the earth, H776 and the inhabitants H3427 thereof are as grasshoppers; H2284 that stretcheth out H5186 the heavens H8064 as a curtain, H1852 and spreadeth them out H4969 as a tent H168 to dwell in: H3427

My one fear as an athiest is that if reincarnation exists I might be reborn as one of Sigmund Freud's 'mortals'.

Hitch May your God go with you

I do admire Hitch. BUT if U turn it around Dog is great. Plus Dogs are great.😅

Is such a dick interrupting. I agree with most of his arguments and you can be charming.But sometimes his interruptions were so off.Putting

Having never seen this, thanking you.

Not for you, I think. What do you think about beer? Can you agree that people are crazy? Wait... Are you sure? Can you prove it, that's what everyone asks. I tell you what... Show the valid evidence and we will call it a done deal, otherwise... Loser.😊

Hitchens is so pissed

Hitchins caricutures are not great - true

Idolitry is hard

I disagree that what science teaches is self-centered. H says it is, which contradicts his thesis.

Get behind me satan!

thats one big mis understood idea from God, that Christians should harass others until others turn to Jesus. He wants all to be his friend but if people reject him he is ok with that, if he wanted to force folks to believe he would just come down like lightning and do the “ god thing “ and move mountains. He wants us to make an individual choice to get to know him. People just refuse to accept he is not a narcissistic attention hungry being.

Psalms 90:2 [2]Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.

.

Keep talking,the last messenger of god has come and gone

ytu

Romans 9:22-26 [22]What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction: [23]And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory, [24]Even us, whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles? [25]As he saith also in Osee, I will call them my people, which were not my people; and her beloved, which was not beloved. [26]And it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people; there shall they be called the children of the living God.

i would not mind god powers..amen

Hitch is the Grand Master ❤ love and miss him! He never said God does not exist, he merely said there was no evidence to think that He does. Incidentally, I have no doubt that God exists, just not the way religion thinks ...

Galatians 5:19-23 [19]Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, [20]Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, [21]Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. [22]But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, [23]Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.

Humptydumptyism

God is great, tf is wrong with the title?

Isaiah 43:9-13 [9]Let all the nations be gathered together, and let the people be assembled: who among them can declare this, and shew us former things? let them bring forth their witnesses, that they may be justified: or let them hear, and say, It is truth. [10]Ye are my witnesses, saith the LORD, and my servant whom I have chosen: that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I am he: before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me. [11]I, even I, am the LORD; and beside me there is no saviour. [12]I have declared, and have saved, and I have shewed, when there was no strange god among you: therefore ye are my witnesses, saith the LORD, that I am God. [13]Yea, before the day was I am he; and there is none that can deliver out of my hand: I will work, and who shall let it?

Job 26:7 He stretcheth out H5186 the north H6828 over the empty place, H8414 and hangeth H8518 the earth H776 upon nothing. H1099

I really don't go in for the cult of Hitchens. Given he didn't believe in God he spent vast amounts of time speaking about him, convincing no one who was religious and merely affirming what those who don't believe already (think they) knew.