The stupid is mindblowing.

As for the little documentary, looks promising to get a slightly larger picture of the inside "mechanics" in the machine, which I think boils down to: ...sketches of plans made in the dirt out back of their meeting building, with a dead tree branch with a sharp point while wearing their "Vestments of the Lord": Cowboy boots and thongs. They will decide what wisdom to impart upon the next generation of children.

Seriously, the guy in the documentary trailer, the board member (and I believe the head or chairman) is ridiculously-stereotypical-Christian-"dumb" that it's amazing. It's like he read a series of books that taught him how to become this type of person, he is so stereotypical that he in fact may be the birthplace for that word! When all you are concerned about is the "other" you are in fact a bigot--in so much you are not only bigoted as you must only see things as 1 or 0, us or them, left or right, white or black, etc... I can almost guarantee that you are homophobic and hate gays or highly disagree with them and also racist. It's the mindset. I'd link the studies, but instead get a modern psychology book looking at that issue specifically--they'll say the same thing. It's a type of mindset, much like being sad or happy.

Crazy. This world is crazy.

Well, maybe just the American Christian scene is. So much hate, vitriol, bigotry, misogyny, sexism, fear, hypocrisy, lying, ignorance, group-delusions, "conservative", pro-"business", greedy, pro-"rich", pro-military, and this amounts to what we call mass-insanity!

I'm nauseous...

Well that's just the puritans. There were also a whole bunch of other religious factions (quakers, protestants, etc.) really just looking for "space" to practice their own faith in private and America provided the vast amount of space needed (except for some pesky natives...)

>> ^Quboid:

>> ^residue:
Wasn't part of the reason for initial colonization of America (by Europeans) to escape religious prosecution? The thought that America has to be an entirely Christian nation is in direct opposition to the principles of freedom that the country makes its stance upon...

I think that's not true. The puritans went to America to escape persecution of their particular brand of fundamentalist Christianity. In today's terms, the English got sick of these bible bashing morons, so they shipped off to become the American Christian far right.
They didn't want freedom from religious persecution; they wanted religious persecution - but crucially, their religious. Exactly what the Christian right want to do now.

>> ^residue:

Wasn't part of the reason for initial colonization of America (by Europeans) to escape religious prosecution? The thought that America has to be an entirely Christian nation is in direct opposition to the principles of freedom that the country makes its stance upon...


I think that's not true. The puritans went to America to escape persecution of their particular brand of fundamentalist Christianity. In today's terms, the English got sick of these bible bashing morons, so they shipped off to become the American Christian far right.

They didn't want freedom from religious persecution; they wanted religious persecution - but crucially, their religious. Exactly what the Christian right want to do now.

@SDGundamX

Yogi has his/her own, personal issues with reality, so jumping in with the "Doctor" doesn't gain you a whole lot of juice.

Assuming 2.3% is correct (and it isn't even close*), that makes only 161 million, according to you, that could potentially care about the death of Mr. Hitchens. Not very Christian of the rest of you lot, now is it? I'm not even sure what your point is, yet you dedicated a whole paragraph to it. What do you think is the minimum number of caring human beings required for someone's death to matter? Why does it seem so important for you to believe that so few will care about Hitchen's death? Are you trying to dismiss his importance in this world by claiming only a few TENS OF MILLIONS of people will miss him? How many people will give a shit when YOU die?

Shinyblurry seems to have some delusion that witnessing here in the lion's den of VideoSift will score him bonus points with Allah. His every comment and video is part of a personal crusade to save us lowly heathens, and I find it offensive and TIRESOME. His comments used to get a "fair shake" from me. Now, they don't. And I'm sure I'm not the only one who is tired of his relentless, delusional lunacy. The only thing that can truly save him are an unmarked black van with heavily tinted windows, some nice men in white coats, and about 6 months of heavy deprogramming.

Christopher Hitchens is my mf'ing jesus! He hath shown me the way! Religion is TRULY the root of all evil in this world. Hitchens is one of those "crazy ones" who "move the human race forward". Religion will die a slow death, but, unlike Hitchen's legacy, it WILL die. We may even get to Mars after all.

All I have is some Momokawa saké, but I'm sure you'll understand, Mr. Hitchens. Bottoms up!




*It's around 14%. Yep, about 1 Billion atheists/agnostics (and rising).

As a former agnostic materialist secular type who has seen both sides of the fence, I would characterize the way the world is set up presently as a type of matrix. I marvel at the grand deception being perpetrated..Satan is truly an unparalled genius amongst all the created beings. On the surface it appears one way, and people who are totally committed to it can't tell there is anything wrong..but people who aren't living for it can see there is something fundementally wrong with the world, and can perceive in some manner that it is a deliberate illusion created by the powers that be. These people are seeking to be liberated from it, and want to know the truth. They are seeking the one who made it all, and controls it all..and that is Jesus Christ our Lord.


>> ^Duckman33:
>> ^shinyblurry:
Yes, the Kingdom of Heaven will be on Earth..when Christ comes back He establishes His Kingdom here and reigns for a thousand years..and after that is the final judgement, called the white throne judgement. When that is finished, Heaven and Earth are remade and established forever.
>> ^luxury_pie:
>> ^SDGundamX:
I think you just proved his point for him. According to the website you linked to, being wildly generous with estimations, the total number of Jehovah's Witnesses is around 20 million worldwide. Compare that with 2.1 billion Christians worldwide and do a little math and you'll see the Jehovah's Witnesses represent less than 1% of Christians.
>> ^DerHasisttot:
>> ^Morganth:
At least for Christianity, Hitchens is really arguing against a minority position. This "screw the world, we want the apocalypse so we can go to heaven" mentality is a small portion and has not been the historical position of Christianity. This came about with American dispensationalism in the mid-19th century, where it's still confined to today so it's not only the minority position in Christianity, but also American Christian denominations. These are the churches that sadly ignore the fact that a lot of Jesus' ministry included feeding and healing the poor and outcast. These are people who ignore what Jesus said - that the law could be summed up with "love God and love your neighbor as yourself." In practice, these are the churches that never help their communities because they have an Us vs. Them mentality. Churches that say, "Screw you, go to hell" totally missed it. What did Jesus say about your enemies? Love them. Jesus asked God to forgive his murderers as he was dying a torturous death.
Hitchens is arguing against the minority position.

Repeat it more often, you might just convince yourself. The Jehovas Witnesses are all over the world. And they heavily promote the end-times. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Left_behind
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Premillennialism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millennialism
Edit: And these are just the outspoken tendencies of Christians.


So this "afterlife" everybody is eager to have, it's taking place in this world then?


Kinda sounds like the Matrix.

>> ^razzyl:

>> ^bcglorf:
I'm afraid to add this also where I find some Hitchen's arguments to be the weakest. The Christian belief that believers will be sent to heaven and those who don't will go to hell is not some threat against non-belief. It is simply a different belief, and atheists shouldn't find it any more threatening than the shadows in their closet.

If only Christianity was so fluffy and benign. Not sure if the The American Christian Lobbyists Association got that memo. Or the AFA. Or Dominionists. Or Moral Majority Inc. Or The Social Contract - National Religious Lobbying group. Or the hundreds of other Christian based groups that have and will pump millions of dollars into lobbying and political campaigns until every citizen in the US and other countries bends to their beliefs.
Or maybe I'm just being a little cynical...


By that standard nobody is benign. People with a common interest lobbying the government to support their common interest. Shocking.

Christians are among those opposing any so-called christian groups wanting to limit religious freedoms or impose religious beliefs on the people though. Freedom of religion has it origins from christians themselves. Eventually minority protestants, catholics and other smaller sects got tired of being killed off by the other side and agreed that separation of church and state amounted to an appropriate and mutually beneficial 'truce'.

Making out as though all christians are X because some people calling themselves christians are X is a fundamental and very basic logical fallacy.

>> ^bcglorf:

I'm afraid to add this also where I find some Hitchen's arguments to be the weakest. The Christian belief that believers will be sent to heaven and those who don't will go to hell is not some threat against non-belief. It is simply a different belief, and atheists shouldn't find it any more threatening than the shadows in their closet.


If only Christianity was so fluffy and benign. Not sure if the The American Christian Lobbyists Association got that memo. Or the AFA. Or Dominionists. Or Moral Majority Inc. Or The Social Contract - National Religious Lobbying group. Or the hundreds of other Christian based groups that have and will pump millions of dollars into lobbying and political campaigns until every citizen in the US and other countries bends to their beliefs.

Or maybe I'm just being a little cynical...

>> ^shinyblurry:

Yes, the Kingdom of Heaven will be on Earth..when Christ comes back He establishes His Kingdom here and reigns for a thousand years..and after that is the final judgement, called the white throne judgement. When that is finished, Heaven and Earth are remade and established forever.
>> ^luxury_pie:
>> ^SDGundamX:
I think you just proved his point for him. According to the website you linked to, being wildly generous with estimations, the total number of Jehovah's Witnesses is around 20 million worldwide. Compare that with 2.1 billion Christians worldwide and do a little math and you'll see the Jehovah's Witnesses represent less than 1% of Christians.
>> ^DerHasisttot:
>> ^Morganth:
At least for Christianity, Hitchens is really arguing against a minority position. This "screw the world, we want the apocalypse so we can go to heaven" mentality is a small portion and has not been the historical position of Christianity. This came about with American dispensationalism in the mid-19th century, where it's still confined to today so it's not only the minority position in Christianity, but also American Christian denominations. These are the churches that sadly ignore the fact that a lot of Jesus' ministry included feeding and healing the poor and outcast. These are people who ignore what Jesus said - that the law could be summed up with "love God and love your neighbor as yourself." In practice, these are the churches that never help their communities because they have an Us vs. Them mentality. Churches that say, "Screw you, go to hell" totally missed it. What did Jesus say about your enemies? Love them. Jesus asked God to forgive his murderers as he was dying a torturous death.
Hitchens is arguing against the minority position.

Repeat it more often, you might just convince yourself. The Jehovas Witnesses are all over the world. And they heavily promote the end-times. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Left_behind
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Premillennialism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millennialism
Edit: And these are just the outspoken tendencies of Christians.


So this "afterlife" everybody is eager to have, it's taking place in this world then?



Kinda sounds like the Matrix.

Jehovah's Witnesses are not Christians, nor do they claim to be. >> ^SDGundamX:

I think you just proved his point for him. According to the website you linked to, being wildly generous with estimations, the total number of Jehovah's Witnesses is around 20 million worldwide. Compare that with 2.1 billion Christians worldwide and do a little math and you'll see the Jehovah's Witnesses represent less than 1% of Christians.
>> ^DerHasisttot:
>> ^Morganth:
At least for Christianity, Hitchens is really arguing against a minority position. This "screw the world, we want the apocalypse so we can go to heaven" mentality is a small portion and has not been the historical position of Christianity. This came about with American dispensationalism in the mid-19th century, where it's still confined to today so it's not only the minority position in Christianity, but also American Christian denominations. These are the churches that sadly ignore the fact that a lot of Jesus' ministry included feeding and healing the poor and outcast. These are people who ignore what Jesus said - that the law could be summed up with "love God and love your neighbor as yourself." In practice, these are the churches that never help their communities because they have an Us vs. Them mentality. Churches that say, "Screw you, go to hell" totally missed it. What did Jesus say about your enemies? Love them. Jesus asked God to forgive his murderers as he was dying a torturous death.
Hitchens is arguing against the minority position.

Repeat it more often, you might just convince yourself. The Jehovas Witnesses are all over the world. And they heavily promote the end-times. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Left_behind
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Premillennialism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millennialism
Edit: And these are just the outspoken tendencies of Christians.

Precisely. Christians are called to contributing members of society, and to do good works whenever possible. Not to be isolationists and pine away from the second coming. Our hope is in Jesus Christ, but until He returns our life is here on Earth doing His will.

>> ^Morganth:
At least for Christianity, Hitchens is really arguing against a minority position. This "screw the world, we want the apocalypse so we can go to heaven" mentality is a small portion and has not been the historical position of Christianity. This came about with American dispensationalism in the mid-19th century, where it's still confined to today so it's not only the minority position in Christianity, but also American Christian denominations. These are the churches that sadly ignore the fact that a lot of Jesus' ministry included feeding and healing the poor and outcast. These are people who ignore what Jesus said - that the law could be summed up with "love God and love your neighbor as yourself." In practice, these are the churches that never help their communities because they have an Us vs. Them mentality. Churches that say, "Screw you, go to hell" totally missed it. What did Jesus say about your enemies? Love them. Jesus asked God to forgive his murderers as he was dying a torturous death.
Hitchens is arguing against the minority position.

Yes, the Kingdom of Heaven will be on Earth..when Christ comes back He establishes His Kingdom here and reigns for a thousand years..and after that is the final judgement, called the white throne judgement. When that is finished, Heaven and Earth are remade and established forever.

>> ^luxury_pie:
>> ^SDGundamX:
I think you just proved his point for him. According to the website you linked to, being wildly generous with estimations, the total number of Jehovah's Witnesses is around 20 million worldwide. Compare that with 2.1 billion Christians worldwide and do a little math and you'll see the Jehovah's Witnesses represent less than 1% of Christians.
>> ^DerHasisttot:
>> ^Morganth:
At least for Christianity, Hitchens is really arguing against a minority position. This "screw the world, we want the apocalypse so we can go to heaven" mentality is a small portion and has not been the historical position of Christianity. This came about with American dispensationalism in the mid-19th century, where it's still confined to today so it's not only the minority position in Christianity, but also American Christian denominations. These are the churches that sadly ignore the fact that a lot of Jesus' ministry included feeding and healing the poor and outcast. These are people who ignore what Jesus said - that the law could be summed up with "love God and love your neighbor as yourself." In practice, these are the churches that never help their communities because they have an Us vs. Them mentality. Churches that say, "Screw you, go to hell" totally missed it. What did Jesus say about your enemies? Love them. Jesus asked God to forgive his murderers as he was dying a torturous death.
Hitchens is arguing against the minority position.

Repeat it more often, you might just convince yourself. The Jehovas Witnesses are all over the world. And they heavily promote the end-times. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Left_behind
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Premillennialism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millennialism
Edit: And these are just the outspoken tendencies of Christians.


So this "afterlife" everybody is eager to have, it's taking place in this world then?

According to a recent poll 42% of American Christians believe that Jesus will return in their lifetime. One could argue that 42% is rather a large minority who can't wait for the end time, and that's just in the USA. We need many, many more like Hitchens, Harris, Dennet and Dawkins and far, far fewer religious apologists.

In reply to this comment by SDGundamX:
I think you just proved his point for him. According to the website you linked to, being wildly generous with estimations, the total number of Jehovah's Witnesses is around 20 million worldwide. Compare that with 2.1 billion Christians worldwide and do a little math and you'll see the Jehovah's Witnesses represent less than 1% of Christians.

>> ^DerHasisttot:

>> ^Morganth:
At least for Christianity, Hitchens is really arguing against a minority position. This "screw the world, we want the apocalypse so we can go to heaven" mentality is a small portion and has not been the historical position of Christianity. This came about with American dispensationalism in the mid-19th century, where it's still confined to today so it's not only the minority position in Christianity, but also American Christian denominations. These are the churches that sadly ignore the fact that a lot of Jesus' ministry included feeding and healing the poor and outcast. These are people who ignore what Jesus said - that the law could be summed up with "love God and love your neighbor as yourself." In practice, these are the churches that never help their communities because they have an Us vs. Them mentality. Churches that say, "Screw you, go to hell" totally missed it. What did Jesus say about your enemies? Love them. Jesus asked God to forgive his murderers as he was dying a torturous death.
Hitchens is arguing against the minority position.

Repeat it more often, you might just convince yourself. The Jehovas Witnesses are all over the world. And they heavily promote the end-times. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Left_behind
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Premillennialism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millennialism
Edit: And these are just the outspoken tendencies of Christians.

>> ^SDGundamX:

I think you just proved his point for him. According to the website you linked to, being wildly generous with estimations, the total number of Jehovah's Witnesses is around 20 million worldwide. Compare that with 2.1 billion Christians worldwide and do a little math and you'll see the Jehovah's Witnesses represent less than 1% of Christians.
>> ^DerHasisttot:
>> ^Morganth:
At least for Christianity, Hitchens is really arguing against a minority position. This "screw the world, we want the apocalypse so we can go to heaven" mentality is a small portion and has not been the historical position of Christianity. This came about with American dispensationalism in the mid-19th century, where it's still confined to today so it's not only the minority position in Christianity, but also American Christian denominations. These are the churches that sadly ignore the fact that a lot of Jesus' ministry included feeding and healing the poor and outcast. These are people who ignore what Jesus said - that the law could be summed up with "love God and love your neighbor as yourself." In practice, these are the churches that never help their communities because they have an Us vs. Them mentality. Churches that say, "Screw you, go to hell" totally missed it. What did Jesus say about your enemies? Love them. Jesus asked God to forgive his murderers as he was dying a torturous death.
Hitchens is arguing against the minority position.

Repeat it more often, you might just convince yourself. The Jehovas Witnesses are all over the world. And they heavily promote the end-times. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Left_behind
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Premillennialism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millennialism
Edit: And these are just the outspoken tendencies of Christians.



So this "afterlife" everybody is eager to have, it's taking place in this world then?

I think you just proved his point for him. According to the website you linked to, being wildly generous with estimations, the total number of Jehovah's Witnesses is around 20 million worldwide. Compare that with 2.1 billion Christians worldwide and do a little math and you'll see the Jehovah's Witnesses represent less than 1% of Christians.

>> ^DerHasisttot:

>> ^Morganth:
At least for Christianity, Hitchens is really arguing against a minority position. This "screw the world, we want the apocalypse so we can go to heaven" mentality is a small portion and has not been the historical position of Christianity. This came about with American dispensationalism in the mid-19th century, where it's still confined to today so it's not only the minority position in Christianity, but also American Christian denominations. These are the churches that sadly ignore the fact that a lot of Jesus' ministry included feeding and healing the poor and outcast. These are people who ignore what Jesus said - that the law could be summed up with "love God and love your neighbor as yourself." In practice, these are the churches that never help their communities because they have an Us vs. Them mentality. Churches that say, "Screw you, go to hell" totally missed it. What did Jesus say about your enemies? Love them. Jesus asked God to forgive his murderers as he was dying a torturous death.
Hitchens is arguing against the minority position.

Repeat it more often, you might just convince yourself. The Jehovas Witnesses are all over the world. And they heavily promote the end-times. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Left_behind
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Premillennialism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millennialism
Edit: And these are just the outspoken tendencies of Christians.

>> ^Morganth:

At least for Christianity, Hitchens is really arguing against a minority position. This "screw the world, we want the apocalypse so we can go to heaven" mentality is a small portion and has not been the historical position of Christianity. This came about with American dispensationalism in the mid-19th century, where it's still confined to today so it's not only the minority position in Christianity, but also American Christian denominations. These are the churches that sadly ignore the fact that a lot of Jesus' ministry included feeding and healing the poor and outcast. These are people who ignore what Jesus said - that the law could be summed up with "love God and love your neighbor as yourself." In practice, these are the churches that never help their communities because they have an Us vs. Them mentality. Churches that say, "Screw you, go to hell" totally missed it. What did Jesus say about your enemies? Love them. Jesus asked God to forgive his murderers as he was dying a torturous death.
Hitchens is arguing against the minority position.


Repeat it more often, you might just convince yourself. The Jehovas Witnesses are all over the world. And they heavily promote the end-times. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Left_behind
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Premillennialism

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millennialism

Edit: And these are just the outspoken tendencies of Christians.