Is Christianity Good for the World?Christopher Hitchens (CH) says 'No'
1) Christianity is often credited (or credits itself) with spreading moral precepts such as "Love thy neighbor", but do these derive from Christianity?
e.g. 'I cannot believe that the followers of Moses had been indifferent to murder and theft and perjury until they arrived at Sinai' and 'the "Golden Rule" is much older than any monotheism, and that no human society would have been possible or even thinkable without elementary solidarity (which also allows for self-interest) between its members.'
2) Many of the teachings of Christianity are, as well as being incredible and mythical, immoral.
What in particular?:
vicarious redemption
'vicarious redemption: whereby one's own responsibilities can be flung onto a scapegoat and thereby taken away. In my book, I argue that I can pay your debt or even take your place in prison but I cannot absolve you of whatyou actually did.'
eternal damnation:
Not even the Old Testament, which speaks hotly in recommending genocide, slavery, genital mutilation, and other horrors, stoops to mention the torture of the dead. Those who tell this evil story to small children are not damned by me, but have been damned by history and should also be condemned by those who shrink
from cruelty to children (a moral essential that underlies all cultures).
3) Christianity must in all honesty accept responsibility for the bad as for the good.
Every Christian church has had to make some apology for its role in the Crusades, slavery, anti-Semitism, and much else. I do not think that such humility discredits faith as such, because I tend to think that faith is a problem to begin with, but I do think that humility will lead to the necessary conclusion that religion is man-made.
CH addresses the creation / Evolution issue:
the fantastic idea that the cosmos was made with man in mind strikes me as the highest form of arrogant self-centeredness. .... We are not without knowledge on these points, and the boundaries are being expanded at a rate which astonishes even those who do not look for a single cause of such vast and diverse phenomena. There is more awe and more reverence to be derived from a study of the heavens or of our DNA than can be found in any book written by a fearful committee in the age of myth
CH admits (with polemic flourish!) 'I cannot, of course, prove that there is no supervising deity who invigilates my every moment and who will pursue me even after I am dead.' going on to compare such an idea as 'a celestial North Korea in which liberty was not just impossible but inconceivable'. But give that no 'theologian ever demonstrated the contrary' he objects to the believer's claim to know a) that God exists and b) that his most detailed wishes are known too.
CH maintains his desire to be left alone by these God botherers!:
Since religion drew its first breath when the species lived in utter ignorance and considerable fear, I hope I may be forgiven for declining to believe that another human being can tell me what to do, in the most intimate details of my life and mind, and to further dictate these terms as if acting as proxy for a supernatural entity.
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2007/mayweb-only/119-12.0.html?start=2
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