“God did not create man in his own image. Evidently, it was quite the other way about, which is the painless explanation for the profusion of gods and religions, and the fratricide both between and among faiths, that we see all about us and that has so retarded the development of civilization.”
“Alcohol makes other people less tedious, and food less bland, and can help provide what the Greeks called entheos, or the slight buzz of inspiration when reading or writing. The only worthwhile miracle in the New Testament - -the transmutation of water into wine during the wedding at Cana - is a tribute to the persistence of Hellenism in an otherwise austere Judaea. The same applies to the Seder at Passover, which is obviously modelled on the Platonic symposium: questions are asked (especially of the young) while wine is circulated. No better form of sodality has ever been devised: at Oxford one was positively expected to take wine during tutorials. The tongue must be untied. It's not a coincidence that Omar Khayyam, rebuking and ridiculing the stone-faced Iranian mullahs of his time, pointed to the value of the grape as a mockery of their joyless and sterile regime. Visiting today's Iran, I was delighted to find that citizens made a point of defying the clerical ban on booze, keeping it in their homes for visitors even if they didn't particularly take to it themselves, and bootlegging it with great brio and ingenuity. These small revolutions affirm the human.”
“I am not even an atheist so much as an antitheist; I not only maintain that all religions are versions of the same untruth, but I hold that the influence of churches and the effect of religious belief is positively harmful. Reviewing the false claims of religion I do not wish, as some sentimental materialists affect to wish, that they were true. I do not envy believers their faith. I am relieved to think that the whole story is a sinister fairy tale; life would be miserable if what the faithful affirmed was actually true... There may be people who wish to live their lives under cradle-to-grave divine supervision, a permanent surveillance and monitoring. But I cannot imagine anything more horrible or grotesque.”
“My own opinion is enough for me, and I claim the right to have it defended against any consensus, any majority, anywhere, any place, any time. And anyone who disagrees with this can pick a number, get in line, and kiss my ass.”
The late, great Christopher Hitchens would have been 70 years old yesterday. His wisdom will outlive us all.
Here's an appropriate song:
Read my previous tribute to this most influential of men.
Thank goodness Easter eggs are pagan. They are, aren't they?
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All traditions that the church considers its own are actually pagan - apparently the gift of eggs, symbolic of rebirth, can be traced to the ancient Sumerians and Egyptians as early as 5,000 years ago. Easter itself is derived from the name of an Old English goddess named Ēostre or the equivalent German deity called Ostara; and the association with hares and rabbits derives from myths of either the Norse goddess Freyja or the Greek Aphrodite.
DeleteChocolate, however, needs no arcane belief system. Jx
Ooh...Cab Calloway.Usually, one hears Sammy Davis jnr. (I used to have both on vinyl...
ReplyDeleteUm...that sounded a bit kinky, didn't it Oh, what the hell!
Mr Calloway was such a magnificently talented man... Jx
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