Hitchens Interview in Walrus Magazine

Outside of the Iranian crisis, the news has been pretty slow. Here's a great interview with Christopher Hitchens, who is never boring. (read here.)

Excerpt:

Walrus: But let’s presume that most people who claim to be moderate Muslims, or in fact, moderate believers of any stripe, would be open to hearing alternative views such as yours.

Hitchens: But they don’t ask me. I told you I get Catholics and Rabbis wanting to debate me on a regular basis. [But there are] people who don’t take up the challenge. Mormons don’t and Muslims don’t. They just don’t. They don’t think there’s anything to discuss. They don’t want someone to come and say, “You know what? The Koran is not a holy book, and Muhammed was not spoken to by god, there is no god, there is no messenger.” They’re not going to have that — that’s how moderate they are!...

Some Hitchens for Good Friday

It's always fun watching Hitchens debate a religious person. On that note, blogging will be light on this Christian holiday weekend. I still hope to get a few posts up though.

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Ironic Quote of the Day

"Kids believe anything that's thrown at them."

- Fox News correspondent Gretchen Carlson (On the O'Reilly Factor)

The context of the discussion was about the so-called anti-religious media in America that were teaching young people that religion wasn't cool. (This was a bad thing apparantly.)

They didn't mention anything about trying to pitch kids to believe in the book of Genesis.

UN Backs Appalling Blasphemy Proposal

I nearly put my fist through my monitor when I read this AP release:

The resolution urges states to provide "protection against acts of hatred, discrimination, intimidation and coercion resulting from defamation of religions and incitement to religious hatred in general."

"Defamation of religions is the cause that leads to incitement to hatred, discrimination and violence toward their followers," Pakistan's ambassador Zamir Akram said.

"It is important to deal with the cause, rather than with the effects alone," he said.
Muslim nations have argued that religions, in particular Islam, must be shielded from criticism in the media and other areas of public life. They cited cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad as an example of unacceptable free speech.

I wonder what they are going to designate a crime? Is it defamation, if I don't believe Mohammed was delivered the word of Allah, from the Angel Gabriel, and dictated the Koran according to these words? Sorry, it didn't happen. The guy made it up. Just like Jesus, probably was a real person, but he wasn't the Son of God. Moses' parting of the Red Sea was probably a result of prehistoric Global Warming. I don't think Noah made it to the South Pole to round up two penguins. Is that "defamation?"

Why should I respect what I don't believe in and think causes huge problems? Easy for me to say as well. But what about people in Islamic countries that aren't believers? This legitimizes their oppression.

Another reason why the UN should be closed down. Some people in countries a world away want me to respect their invisible sky ghosts.

Modern Religious Conversion Techniques

A bus ad in San Francisco. More at Zomblog

UPDATE: Here's the old fashion way

UPDATE II: If you're the Almighty Omnipotent God, do you really have to stoop to advertising? A few lightning bolts and you'd get 100% conversion.

A Courageous Woman

Irshad Manji is an admirable free speecher and reformer. As a Muslim, she has the courage to stand up to dogma and orthodoxy in her religion. (A place that does not put out the welcome mat to a shit-disturber woman. There are death threat and security issues that she has to live with everyday.) This is definitely somebody to root for and I hope she succeeds. The Globe & Mail has an update of what's she's doing:

It would be far more helpful - to Palestinians, if nobody else - for Muslims to ask questions out loud. We have relied far too long on self-appointed "higher-ups" to do the interpreting for us. We have given them the ability to abuse passages and power. We Muslims have forgotten Islam's own tradition of independent thinking: ijtihad.
...

Of course, most people - not just Muslims - could use more independent thinking. This point grabbed me at the Gaza office of Mohammed al-Hindi. As we left, I asked his translator why Dr. al-Hindi would give me an on-camera interview, knowing that he could not find a single verse to prove his claim that the Koran justifies suicide operations.

The translator replied: "He assumed you were just another dumb Western journalist." Reporters from the West had never asked this veteran terrorist the most basic of questions: Where is the evidence for what you do in God's name?

Maybe it's time that the media joined Muslims in embracing ijtihad. I would be happy to supply both groups with security tips.

That last line has a wallop to it. Who has real courage to stand up for principles? Easy targets like criticizing American evangelicals is not courage.

Toothless Atheist Bus Advertisments

In Britain, they've done a fund-raiser and will have signs on the side of buses saying: "There's probably no God. So stop worrying and enjoy your life" (Story here)

Dr Dawkins, speaking at the launch in Central London, said he would have rather not had the word "probably" in the advertisement. He said the existence of God was about as likely as that of the tooth fairy.

Nobody cares. He's quibbling over the word "probably." If he really wanted to be controversial, he'd think about other words. If they substituted "God" for "Allah", we would have a true fury on hand. They won't of course, so who gives a damn about this? Even practicing Christians are used to this sort of open disbelief/ridicule.