Why Christopher Hitchens matters to me

When a bishop threatened a sitting President of excommunication, that can really piss people off. It didn’t take long for me to express my anger, as shown here in my Facebook post last September 30, 2010. The original Inquirer news has long been deleted for reasons I do not know. So incensed I was at the news that I was ready to exit the Catholic  Church as well. What I didn’t realized back then that this was the beginning of my journey toward nonbelief. This moment that set off my curiosity towards freethinking and atheism and eventually my awakening towards a life of humanism and secularism.

And my constant companion was Christopher Hitchens. His numerous Youtube videos of him debating theists on why religions like Islam, Christianity and Judaism are contributing to the persecution of women and stifling of free speech; the many CNN, Fox News, MSNBC and CSPAN interviews of him enlightening us to the evils of fundamentalism and the need to oppose absolutism; his BBC documentary explaining why Mother Teresa is a complete fanatic, fundamentalist and a fraud; his best-selling books including god is not Great explaining why religion poisons everything in our lives.

His arguments convinced me right away. Unlike dogma, his ideas let you think for yourself. For a 38 year old Filipino Catholic and former seminarian of eight years, that was a breath of fresh air, especially if I was told and taught for many years that God can be known through reason, faith seeking understading, which is a false premise since faith is a process of non-thinking, accepting something by abandoning reason. So there I was, soaking my mind in atheistic literature that was completely new to me. And I loved it!

The Hitch stood for free speech, empowerment of women, against dictatorship celestial or otherwise, defended homosexuality, and pleaded for us to use criticial thinking and not surrender our minds against the onslaught of mind-numbing conformity and impositions of religions.
               

“Faith is the surrender of the mind, it's the surrender of reason, it's the surrender of the only thing that makes us different from other animals. It's our need to believe and to surrender our skepticism and our reason, our yearning to discard that and put all our trust or faith in someone or something, that is the sinister thing to me. ... Out of all the virtues, all the supposed virtues, faith must be the most overrated” – Christopher Hitchens

So I learned to be brave, to question everything, and to stand for the same virtues that Hitchens stood for. Hitchens of course hated the idea of emulating him and putting him in the pedestal; but I owe him, his contribution to humanity for unshackling my mind from the prison of religion and faith. Christopher Hitchens ideas are universal and accepted by fair minded individuals around the world. When Hitchens wrote why Orwell matters, he got his analysis right. In many ways, he educated us to always pay attention to society's leanings towards absolute rule and constant surveillance. With Hitchens, a torch has been passed, now we need to be aware, not just of fascist and totalitarian tendencies, but of the uncritical surrender of the mind, against the evils of religion. That is why Christopher Hitchens matters to me.

Cruz’s critics threat to free society

When Kurt Westergaard, the Danish cartoonist, drew in December 2005 a cartoon depicting Muhammad in a “blasphemous” way, the Islamic world called for his death. (Every pious Muslim, who has the duty to protect Islam, is bound to get rid of this heathen for the glory of Allah.) There were riots all over the Muslim world and burning of embassies because someone dared to humiliate all Muslims. Up to this day, the injunction remains. In fact, in 2009, a Somali man broke into Westergaard’s home and nearly murdered him if not for the “safe room” he made. Kurt is still under police protection.

Then came Mideo Cruz. His “blasphemous” “Poleteismo” depicting pictures and images of Jesus Christ with a genital and blood dripping from the eyes drew condemnation from the religious and even politicians. Although no one called for his death, you can sense that somehow common sense has died because of the “concerns” of the Catholic Church, pro-life groups and media-hogging politicians.

The peculiar concerns of religions over a blasphemous art work have created a society, a people that get riled easily in the face of criticism such that they will protest and demonize a minority (artists). Why the wrong priorities? Islam and Catholicism are religions of tolerance, of peace, forgiveness and love. Somehow, some people in these religions make it their priority criticizing people for “offending religious sensitivity” and sue for “acts of vandalism” and even calling for death.

When a free society gives in to this threat from the religious, it hinders free speech. The problem is made worse because too few speak about it. The more people speak out and express ideas, the better. Free expression reduces the threat.

Read more: http://opinion.inquirer.net/11035/cruz%e2%80%99s-work-threat-to-free-society#ixzz3ASGGX7mQ