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Christopher Hitchens Quotes about Atheist - Page 2

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There are, after all, atheists who say they wish the fable were true but are unable to suspend the requisite disbelief, or who have relinquished belief only with regret. To this I reply: who wishes that there was a

There are, after all, atheists who say they wish the fable were true but are unable to suspend the requisite disbelief, or who have relinquished belief only with regret. To this I reply: who wishes that there was a permanent, unalterable celestial despotism that subjected us to continual surveillance and could convict us of thought-crime, and who regarded us as its private property even after we died? How happy we ought to be, at the reflection that there exists not a shred of respectable evidence to support such a horrible hypothesis.

Christopher Hitchens
Atheist, Regret, Reflection
Christopher Hitchens (2007). “The Portable Atheist: Essential Readings for the Nonbeliever”, p.17, Hachette UK

The prince's official job description as king will be 'defender of the faith,' which currently means the state-financed absurdity of the Anglican Church, but he has more than once said publicly that he wants to be anointed as defender of all faiths—another indication of the amazing conceit he has developed in six decades of performing the only job allowed him by the hereditary principle: that of waiting for his mother to expire.

Christopher Hitchens
Mother, Atheist, Kings
Christopher Hitchens (2011). “Arguably”, p.392, Atlantic Books Ltd

The only position that leaves me with no cognitive dissonance is atheism. It is not a creed. Death is certain, replacing both the siren-song of Paradise and the dread of Hell. Life on this earth, with all its mystery and beauty and pain, is then to be lived far more intensely: we stumble and get up, we are sad, confident, insecure, feel loneliness and joy and love. There is nothing more; but I want nothing more.

Christopher Hitchens
Motivational, Song, Atheist
Christopher Hitchens (2007). “The Portable Atheist: Essential Readings for the Nonbeliever”, p.480, Da Capo Press

The atheist proposition is the following - most of the time - it may not be said that there is no god; it may be said that there is no reason to think that there is one.

Christopher Hitchens
Atheist, Thinking, May

Our belief is not a belief. Our principles are not a faith. We do not rely soley upon science and reason, because these are necessary rather than sufficient factors, but we distrust anything that contradicts science or outrages reason. We may differ on many things, but what we respect is free inquiry, openmindedness, and the pursuit of ideas for their own sake.

Christopher Hitchens
Atheist, Science, Ideas
Christopher Hitchens (2012). “Long Live Hitch: Three Classic Books in One Volume”, p.13, Atlantic Books Ltd

Atheists have always argued that this world is all that we have, and that our duty is to one another to make the very most and best of it.

Christopher Hitchens
Atheist, World, This World
Christopher Hitchens (2007). “The Portable Atheist: Essential Readings for the Nonbeliever”, p.11, Da Capo Press

All this could be part of a plan. There is no way an atheist can prove it’s not. But it’s some plan, isn't it? With mass destruction, pitiless extermination, annihilation going on all the time. And all of this set in motion on a scale that’s absolutely beyond our imagination, in order that the pope can tell people not to jerk off.

Christopher Hitchens
Atheist, Mass Destruction, Order

Thus, though I dislike to differ with such a great man, Voltaire was simply ludicrous when he said that if god did not exist it would be necessary to invent him. The human invention of god is the problem to begin with.

Christopher Hitchens
Atheist, Men, Atheism
Christopher Hitchens (2012). “Long Live Hitch: Three Classic Books in One Volume”, p.96, Atlantic Books Ltd

A wide and vague impression exists that so-called Eastern religion is more contemplative, innocuous, and humane than the proselytizing monotheisms of the West. Don't believe a word of this: try asking the children of Indochina who were dumped by their parents for inherited deformities that were attributed to sins in a previous 'life.

Christopher Hitchens
Atheist, Children, Believe

Indeed, it's futile to try and use Holy Scripture to support any political position. I deeply distrust anyone who does. Just look at what an Islamic Republic is like.

Christopher Hitchens
Atheist, Islamic, Support

It's a curious thing in American life that the most abject nonsense will be excused if the utterer can claim the sanction of religion. A country which forbids an established church by law is prey to any denomination. The best that can be said is that this is pluralism of a kind.

Christopher Hitchens
Country, Atheist, Law

Our weapons are the ironic mind against the literal: the open mind against the credulous; the courageous pursuit of truth against the fearful and abject forces who would set limits to investigation (and who stupidly claim that we already have all the truth we need). Perhaps above all, we affirm life over the cults of death and human sacrifice and are afraid, not of inevitable death, but rather of a human life that is cramped and distorted by the pathetic need to offer mindless adulation, or the dismal belief that the laws of nature respond to wailings and incantations.

Christopher Hitchens
Atheist, Sacrifice, Law
"Facing Death, Christopher Hitchens Affirms Atheism" by Ethan Cole, www.christianpost.com. April 25, 2011.

I have been called arrogant myself in my time, and hope to earn the title again, but to claim that I am privy to the secrets of the universe and its creator - that's beyond my conceit.

Christopher Hitchens
Atheist, Pride, Secret
Christopher Hitchens (2009). “Letters to a Young Contrarian”, p.57, Basic Books

There are also people who say it's God's curse on me that I should have it near my throat because that was the organ of blasphemy which I used for so many years. I've used many other organs to blaspheme as well if it comes to that.

Christopher Hitchens
Atheist, Should Have, Years
"Christopher Hitchens discusses life, death, cancer and God in interview with Newsnight". "Newsnight" with Jeremy Paxman, www.bbc.co.uk. November 26, 2010.

We owe a huge debt to Galileo for emancipating us all from the stupid belief in an Earth-centered or man-centered (let alone God-centered) system. He quite literally taught us our place and allowed us to go on to make extraordinary advances in knowledge.

Christopher Hitchens
Atheist, Stupid, Men
Christopher Hitchens (2011). “Arguably”, p.392, Atlantic Books Ltd

Gullibility and credulity are considered undesireable qualities in every department of human life - except religion ... Why are we praised by godly men for surrendering our 'godly gift' of reason when we cross their mental thresholds?

Christopher Hitchens
Atheist, Godly, Men

I try to deny myself any illusions or delusions, and I think that this perhaps entitles me to try and deny the same to others, at least as long as they refuse to keep their fantasies to themselves.

Christopher Hitchens
Atheist, Thinking, Long
Christopher Hitchens (2010). “Hitch 22: A Memoir”, p.307, Atlantic Books Ltd

Urging humans to be superhumans, on pain of death and torture, is the urging of terrible self-abasement at their repeated and inevitable failure to keep the rules.

Christopher Hitchens
Atheist, Pain, Self
Christopher Hitchens (2011). “God is Not Great”, p.152, Atlantic Books Ltd

I think being an atheist is something you are, not something you do.

Christopher Hitchens
Atheist, Thinking

There are days when I miss my old convictions as if they were an amputated limb. But in general I feel better, and no less radical, and you will feel better too, I guarantee, once you leave hold of the doctrinaire and allow your chainless mind to do its own thinking.

Christopher Hitchens
Atheist, Feel Better, Thinking
Christopher Hitchens (2012). “Long Live Hitch: Three Classic Books in One Volume”, p.150, Atlantic Books Ltd

In the early days of the December that my father was to die, my younger brother brought me the news that I was a Jew. I was then a transplanted Englishman in America, married, with one son and, though unconsoled by any religion, a nonbelieving member of two Christian churches. On hearing the tidings, I was pleased to find that I was pleased.

Christopher Hitchens
Christian, Brother, Atheist
Christopher Hitchens (2010). “Hitch 22: A Memoir”, p.317, Atlantic Books Ltd

It's surprising to me how many of my friends send Christmas cards, or holiday cards, including my atheist and secular friends.

Christopher Hitchens
Christmas, Atheist, Holiday
"Christmas with Christopher Hitchens". Interview with Gregg LaGambina, www.avclub.com. December 20, 2007.

In a public dialogue with Salman in London he [Edward Said] had once described the Palestinian plight as one where his people, expelled and dispossessed by Jewish victors, were in the unique historical position of being 'the victims of the victims': there was something quasi-Christian, I thought, in the apparent humility of that statement.

Christopher Hitchens
Christian, Atheist, Humility

In the aftermath of the recent wave action in the Indian Ocean, even the archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williamson [sic], proved himself a latter-day Voltairean by whimpering that he could see how this might shake belief in a friendly creator. Williamson is of course a notorious fool, who does an almost perfect imitation of a bleating and frightened sheep, but even so, one is forced to rub one's eyes in astonishment. Is it possible that a grown man could live so long and still have his personal composure, not to mention his lifetime job description, upset by a large ripple of seawater?

Christopher Hitchens
Atheist, Jobs, Ocean

I can't find the compulsory mutilation of the genitals of children a subject for humor... It's designed to repress sexual pleasure... The full excision, not just the snip but the full mandatory covenant is fantastically painful, leads to trauma, leads to the dulling of the sexual relationship. And can be, in itself life-threatening at that moment. We have records, I can show them to you, of hundreds and hundreds and hundreds in the United States of boy babies who died or had life-threatening infections as a result of this disgusting practice.

Christopher Hitchens
Baby, Atheist, Children

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