Thursday, September 13, 2007

Secularism for the Peoples! (Hitchens on the road, sans God)

""""May 3, New York City: To the Lou Dobbs show, on CNN—Mr. Middle America at prime time. Mr. Dobbs displays a satirical paragraph from my book, about the number of virgin births that all religions have always claimed. He tells me off-air that he quit Sunday school as a very small boy, and that he's raised all his children without religion. He lets me bang on a lot. At the end, he refers to my new American citizenship, the oath of which I swore at the Jefferson Memorial on April 13 (Mr. Jefferson's birthday, and mine). I get to try out my latest slogan, echoing what Jefferson said about the "wall of separation" between church and state: "Mr. Jefferson—build up that wall!" Mr. Dobbs leans over and, on-camera, pins an American flag to my lapel. Patriotism and secularism in the same breath, on middle-class TV. It can be done. As I leave, Dobbs says wryly that he'll now have to deal with all the e-mails. I promise him that they will be in his favor and ask to have them forwarded. The mailbag eventually breaks about 70-30 in support, though one woman does say that she'll never tune in to CNN again."""

Hitchens/VanityFair


Dawkins may do the Darwin schtick more effectively, but few journalists can match Hitchens' gusto. Ah how Americun yokels (even putative "liberals") detest Brits---especially witty drunken ones telling them there is no God...............

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Speaking of secularism and Jefferson's "wall", here's some of Harry Truman's thoughts on TJ:

""""As I say, not all of Jefferson's ideas were popular, though most of them were absolutely right.... He was also called an atheist because he didn't believe in a state church, an official church of the government, and in fact made it clear that he didn't much like any church at all, though he did admire many, though not all, of the teachings of religion.... And you'll recall that it was Jefferson, as governor of Virginia, who wrote the Statute of Religious Liberty in 1786, which said that "no man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship" but that all people "shall be free to profess ... their opinion in matters of religion." He summed up very bluntly one time his view that no man harmed anyone else in choosing and practicing his own religion, or no religion. "It does me no injury," he said, "for my neighbor to say that there are twenty gods, or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg." "

(Harry S. Truman, 33rd U.S. President)

That probably offends most xtian DNC-o-crats as much as it would biblethumping conservatives.

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