The Four Horsemen: The Conversation That Sparked an Atheist Revolution

by Christopher Hitchens

it is characteristic of theologians that they just make stuff up. Make it up with liberal abandon and force it, with a presumed limitless authority, upon others, sometimes – at least in former times and still today in Islamic theocracies – on pain of torture and death.

Scientists love not knowing the answer, because it gives us something to do, something to think about. We loudly assert ignorance, in a gleeful proclamation of what needs to be done.

Science combines a massive contribution, in volume and detail, of what we do know with humility in proclaiming what we don’t. Religion, by embarrassing contrast, has contributed literally zero to what we know, combined with huge hubristic confidence in the alleged facts it has simply made up.

Why did I speak of intellectual courage? Because the human mind, including my own, rebels emotionally against the idea that something as complex as life, and the rest of the expanding universe, could have ‘just happened’. It takes intellectual courage to kick yourself out of your emotional incredulity and persuade yourself that there is no other rational choice.

There is strength in numbers, but much more strength when the numbers know roughly how numerous they are.

Many things are quite harmless in moderation and poisonous only in quantity.

religious dogmatism hinders the growth of honest knowledge and divides humanity to no necessary purpose. The latter is a dangerous irony, of course, because one of religion’s most vaunted powers is that it unites people. It does that too, but generally by amplifying tribalism and spawning moralistic fears that would not otherwise exist. The fact that sane men and women can often be found doing good for God’s sake is no rejoinder here, because faith gives them bad reasons for doing good when good reasons are available.

In the absence of God, we find true sources of hope and consolation. Art, literature, sport, philosophy – along with other forms of creativity and contemplation – do not require ignorance or lies to be enjoyed.

The religions have contrived to make it impossible to disagree with them critically without being rude.

I’m fascinated by the contrast between the amount of offence that’s taken by religion and the amount of offence that people take against nearly anything else.

Religions purport to be representing reality, and yet there’s this peevish, and tribal, and ultimately dangerous response to having these ideas challenged.

It’s a sad fact that people won’t, in a sense, trust their own valuing of their numinous experiences. They think it isn’t really as good as it seems unless it’s from God, unless it’s some kind of a proof of religion. No, it’s just as wonderful as it seems. It’s just as important.

Somebody plays the faith card. They say, ‘Look, I am a Christian, and we Christians, we just have to believe this, and that’s it.’ At which point – and I think this is the polite way of saying it – you say, ‘Well, OK, if that’s true, you’ll just have to excuse yourself from the discussion, because you’ve declared yourself incompetent to proceed with an open mind.’

If you really can’t defend your view, then, sorry, you can’t put it forward. We’re not going to let you play the faith card. Now, if you want to defend what your Holy Book says in terms that we can appreciate, fine. But because it says it in the Holy Book – that just doesn’t cut any ice at all. And if you think it does, you’re clearly – first of all, that’s just arrogant. It is a bullying move, and we’re just not going to accept it.

‘If it’s real to them, why can’t you respect it?’ This wouldn’t be accepted in any other field of argument at all.

The universe is a grand, beautiful, wonderful place, and it’s petty and parochial and cheapening to believe in jinns and supernatural creators and supernatural interferers.

There is something trivial and horrible about the day-to-day fascinations of most people, most of the time. There is a difference between using your attention wisely, in a meaningful way, and perpetual distraction.

we can’t condone the beliefs and practices of the Aztecs, but we can stand in awe of, and want to preserve, their architecture and many other features of their culture. But not their practices [laughs] and not their beliefs.

You can lose yourself in fiction, and be totally moved to tears by it, but nobody would ever say you’ve got to believe that this person existed or that the sadness that you feel really reflected something that actually happened.