The Cultural Illiteracy of Atheist Christopher Hitchens

Townhall.com ^ | July 1, 2007 | Mary Grabar

[padre35]

Nothing fills up the cemetery or mass grave faster then Atheism.

Interesting that Hitchens points to art in order to show that Atheists appreciate the Mystery and Wonder, did he skip the entire Renaissance with the Church being the focus of great Western European artists.

[AnAmericanMother]

But if you go into a Christian bookstore you will not likely see Dostoyevsky on the shelf. Instead, you'll find pastel-covered saccharine tomes, the pious stories that the devout Catholic Flannery O'Connor disparaged.

I don't know what kind of bookstores this woman is going into, but there is plenty of heavy-duty reading material in BOTH of our local Catholic shops. John Henry Newman's autobiography, the early Church Fathers, etc. Didn't see Dostoevsky, but then again I wasn't looking for him.

[Dudoight]

I agree with this writer absolutely! Fundamentalists and Creationists give fodder to the atheists by their sheer ignorance.

[Tax-chick]

There’s plenty of heavy-duty reading material in our local Protestant bookstores, too ... as well as fluff, of course.

Like so many, this writer seems to think there’s only one way of approaching Christianity, only one set of relevent thoughts and experiences ... HERS! It makes me wonder if she’s really 16 years old, and the photo with the article is “age-progressed” to fool the reader :-).

[AnAmericanMother]

Typical grad student, actually.

Plenty of "book-larnin'" but no common sense and an inflated estimate of her own ideas.

[the invisib1e hand]

I agree with this writer absolutely! Fundamentalists and Creationists give fodder to the atheists by their sheer ignorance.

Well, then. Lest you identify yourself with the ignorant, how might you factually prove or support this passionate assertion?

Please begin by defining "sheer ignorance." For our sakes, if you will.

[AnAmericanMother]

I actually shop our local Episcopalian bookstore (shhhh!) because they have higher quality rosaries and icons than the local Catholic stores. Of course it has the usual complement of tacky (and heretical) fluff . . . but also some very good writing, especially the older stuff before the denomination ran off the rails.

There is a Cokesbury (Methodist) bookstore here, but the only time I went in there I was buying a plain choir cross for my daughter's Alexander Anderson costume for Hallowe'en. The Japanese certainly have ODD ideas about Western religion!

[AnAmericanMother]

Well, as long as we're speaking in hyperbolic generalities . . .

People who condemn honest believers wholesale for supposed "ignorance" give more fodder to the atheists than either fundamentalists OR creationists.

[Tax-chick]

Please begin by defining "sheer ignorance." For our sakes, if you will.

Yes, that would be interesting.

It seems that the poster is suggesting that "Fundamentalists and Creationists" are ignorant of Darwinian evolutionary theory, but that's rather an odd contention to make. Practically everyone is familiar with the basic concepts of Darwinism - taught it in school, bombarded with it in the media. It's just that some ("Creationists") don't accept Darwinism as an accurate description of the past.

I don't know what the person thinks "Fundamentalists" are ignorant of (pardon the preposition.) Liberal religion? The Social Gospel? Integral calculus? Medieval Serbian history?

Maybe if we all identified ourselves by our SAT scores or college GPAs, we could get past this tendentious assumption that everyone who disagrees is stupid. Or we could just use manners ...

[Tax-chick]

We have a Cokesbury United Methodist Church here. The Cub Scouts district roundtable meets there, and they often host Girl Scouting events. Methodists have such good facilities, and they’re the nicest people.

We have several chain and several independent Christian bookstores, which we visit fairly often (when they have good sales :-) because the kids like Christian rock music and novels. I’ve got some great bargains off the clearance tables: big hardback collections of C.S. Lewis and G.K. Chesterton for $2, for instance.

[Tax-chick]

I see know, a Ph.D in English. (Goodness gracious me!) It does explain her literary focus, I suppose.

I haven’t had much involvement with people who have graduate degrees in the liberal arts. Engineering graduate students usually can’t talk about their field of study to the general public at all :-)

[AnAmericanMother]

Cokesbury is a national chain, and a ton of churches are named that -- it's a conflation of the names of Bishop Coke and Bishop Asbury, two leading lights in the early American Methodist movement. IIRC, they were the first Methodist bishops sent over to America.

(I know this stuff bec. my grandfather-in-law was a Methodist minister, and I had the privilege of knowing him for the last 10 years of his life. He died full of years and honors in the mid-80s. If anybody is in Heaven, he's there.)

[AnAmericanMother]

I know a PhD. in Physics and when he talks about his work he might as well be speaking Mandarin!

Found cool pic of Bishop Asbury:

You know what they say . . . when America began to settle the West and the missionaries headed out, the Baptists walked, the Methodists rode horseback, the Presbyterians took the stagecoach . . . .

.. . . but the Episcopalians waited until they invented the Pullman Car. . . . .

[GiovannaNicoletta]

The Cultural Illiteracy of Atheist Christoper Hitchens

7 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, But fools despise wisdom and instruction. (Proverbs 1:7)

10 "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, And the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding. (Proverbs 9:10)

Atheist Christopher Hitchens has no idea just how ignorant he really is. And not just culturally.

[Just mythoughts]

I agree with this writer absolutely! Fundamentalists and Creationists give fodder to the atheists by their sheer ignorance.

You do have the God given right to believe whatever you choose to believe. Amazing Heavenly Father we have.

[Tax-chick]

Well, now I’ve learned something! I’d seen “Asbury” Methodist churches, but I had no idea where the “Coke” came from. I figured they were both names of places back in England, and just happened to have the same ending!

I feel enriched just knowing your grandfather-in-law lived. Good people are a gift to us all.

[Tax-chick]

That is cool. I like they way they posed the horse. Neat cape, too. Men knew how to dress, once upon a time ...

Must go, I’ve misplaced a couple of children. I suspect they crept off and went back to bed, the slugs.

[AnAmericanMother]

He was a wonderful man. Did a great deal of good in his long life -- he was a missionary AND a U.S. Marshal out in Arizona Territory back when it was pretty wild. Ran the Decatur Orphan's Home for years (he was sort of an orphan himself), was big in Goodwill Industries, started a summer camp that's become the conference center for the N.GA Methodists, chaplain at Emory University and Crawford Long Hospital. He was also a beekeeper of renown, he bred his own line of queen bees and pioneered using travelling hives to pollinate the Florida orange crop.

He always had pleasant relations with the ministers of the other churches in town, wherever he was. We inherited a bunch of Bibles, prayerbooks, a Book of Mormon, etc. inscribed with good wishes from them.

Rest in peace, Reverend Fred. Your family remembers you fondly. (And if you'd whisper in St. Peter's ear when the time comes, it would be greatly appreciated.)

[Dudoight]

I am sorry I offended you. I believe there is more to Christianity than a literal interpretation of the Bible. The Creationists are stuck on man appearing on this earth 6000 years ago. Evolution terrifies them. I a fan of ID, but studying evolution at the university never shook my belief in God or Christ.

I was in Austin not long ago when a street preacher was blaring hellfire and damnation. I told him that he would appeal more to the street people by telling of Christ’s love. We left, then passed back by this guy a while later. He turned to us and remembered me and said “Oh, I have already done you”. I laughed.

Try and have a conversation with a creationist or a fundamentalist. They are amazingingly limited intellectually.

Again, I apologize if I offended you.