Hitch: ...here is the point, about myself and my co-thinkers. Our belief is not a belief. Our principles are not a faith. We do not rely solely upon science and reason, because these are necessary rather than sufficient factors, but we distrust anything that contradicts science or outrages reason. We may differ on many things, but what we respect is free inquiry, openmindedness, and the pursuit of ideas for their own sake. We do not hold our convictions dogmatically: the disagreement between Professor Stephen Jay Gould and Professor Richard Dawkins, concerning "punctuated evolution" and the unfilled gaps in post-Darwinian theory, is quite wide as well as quite deep, but we shall resolve it by evidence and reasoning and not by mutual excommunication.
One more note: it's impossible to agree with the Hitch statement that Religion Poisons Everything. There are certainly elements within religions (in the strict socio-cultural sense) that bring people together, be it Easter (with egg hunts), or Christmas dinner with the family -- both are rooted in pagan/seasonal history. It's an excuse for all of us to say, "Nope, as a culture we've agreed to step away from work and be with family." Of course, I say this thinking that everyone's family gets along in a similar way as mine. If you don't like your family, then by all means, Religion very well poisons everything.
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...of course, it has been argued that the belief that one has no belief is in itself a belief. Nevermind. Back to work.
Religion also provides a way to offend one's family!
Yeah, get that debate around the Christmas Eve dinner table goin'! Bread rolls and Svenska kortbullar flying across the jultid table with great speed!
Well, the ranch has to get passed somehow.
On a more serious note, my brother and I have enough sense to not use that kind of language around farmor, or any grandmother for that matter.
How's this for a Universal Ethic: it's idiotic to offend grandmas who cook your meals.
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