Hitchens: the immorality of the Ten Commandments (!!)

[Mari333]

Looks like Christopher might have some explaining to do to his right wing base:

http://slate.msn.com/id/2087621/

[Rabrrrrrr]

1. Wow!

That's gonna get him in trouble with the right side of things...

and on MSNBC, as well!

Great article!

[ewagner]

3. Hitchens wrote that?

boy....now I am confused!

[theboss]

6. Why?

Hitchens is a professed atheist. He's a socialist.

He doesn't even really agree with Bush on foreign policy exactly. He thinks anything that destroys totalitarian states and theocracies is a good thing. I think he views Bush as Churchill viewed Stalin in WWII - someone with qualities that were very useful at very specific times.

[janekat]

19. He's merely trying to take heat off Bush...

They're calling upon Bush to "speak out" or to intercede in their behalf.

[paulsbc]

2. love this

reminds me of George Carlin's 10 commandments "reduction" bit :)

[Cha]

4. I'm Not going to read what he wrote but he is a known athethist

so that might explain what he wrote about the "10 commandments".

[FlashHarry]

5. Dupe?

http://democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=103&topic_id=8195

[sujan]

7. best quote

"Too many editorialists have described the recent flap as a silly confrontation with exhibitionist fundamentalism, when the true problem is our failure to recognize that religion is not just incongruent with morality but in essential ways incompatible with it."

[DemLikr]

8. I generally despise the poor alcoholic Clinton-hater, but

this article rocks.

I am astounded that this man continues to write so eloquently and humorously when he has obviously sacrificed a good portion of his brain cells to the thirsty gods of hooch.

[Rich Hunt]

14. makes me sigh

....I miss the old Hitch, the one who wasn't afraid to take on Mother Theresa. This is reminiscent of those days. What a waste of talent and bile.

[Blue_Chill]

9. I read that

and for the first time in a while I can honestly say a slate article was full of shit.

[K-W]

10. If you arent

an atheist or at least a secularist the tone and some of his points will of course seem shit.

But buried in there is some good points about the ten commandments that should be recognized. Protestents placing alot of emphesis on the 10 commandments doesnt make sense.

[sujan]

12. well

He thinks secularism = 'forced atheism'..... So that must mean he is all for theocracy.

I wonder what Bush is doing trying to preach 'secular western style democracy' in Iraq/Afghanistan when the majority of his electorate and more want a total theocratic rule in the US. 'nuff said.

It's ironic since they just took out a theocratic government in Afghanistan.

[Rabrrrrrr]

15. I am quite in approval of it

I think our faith needs to be critiqued both from the outside, and from the inside, we need seriously consider at times those critiques and take them to heart and ask of ourselves, "Where is our sin in this?"

I especially like this part: There has never yet been any society, Confucian or Buddhist or Islamic, where the legal codes did not frown upon murder and theft. These offenses were certainly crimes in the Pharaonic Egypt from which the children of Israel had, if the story is to be believed, just escaped. So the middle-ranking commandments, of which the chief one has long been confusingly rendered "thou shalt not kill," leave us none the wiser as to whether the almighty considers warfare to be murder, or taxation and confiscation to be theft. Tautology hovers over the whole enterprise.

In much the same way, few if any courts in any recorded society have approved the idea of perjury, so the idea that witnesses should tell the truth can scarcely have required a divine spark in order to take root.

I take issue with his idea of the insecure God and a couple other small items, but overall - especially in terms of the ten commandments and American civil society - he's right on.

[shrike]

11. Hitchens is an idiot

And I don't care WHAT he says. (Read "The Clinton Wars" for further illumination.)

[a_random_joel]

13. Great Article!

Someone ought to post it at FR; bet that would be an interesting thread.

[the_real_38]

16. I like the point ...

... that this is not actually Christian doctrine - I don't know how to tell Roy Moore this, but the old Testament was before Jesus - it's mostly jewish stuff.

And any society that has to advance "Thou shalt not kill" as a moral principle, instead of a common-sense intellectual ground zero for maintaining any sense of order is too far up the creek to get back before dark. The notion that you can't freely kill anyone else in the tribe is the one that brought us down from the trees.

[mitchum]

17. Yes, it's always been my understanding that those were 10 tribal laws...

for the Hebrews (and no one else)

[Jacobin]

18. Great Read

The sonofabitch can write.