Letters to the Editor
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There's no God? Yeah, but...
Hitchens is going to be interviewed about his book tonight on Australian national radio. As an atheist and someone who despairs about the effects of "belief" combined with human nature, I was really looking forward to it, but this article has totally drained me of any anticipation. I haven't read the book, and I obviously haven't heard the interview, but if he's just talking about the impossibility and a "god" and the delusions of believers, well... tell me something I don't know. I'd have to agree that the books sounds like more "preaching to the converted" (so to speak) and, while it may reach some people, I think we need to move beyond that if we're going to actually achieve anything useful.
As the author of the article and a number of posters have said, until we can really connect to those things that make faith/religion so attractive - purpose, life after death, community etc - then it's hard to see what ridiculing people's core beliefs is going to achieve. Religion can't be removed, but maybe it can be "evolved"... but by what, and how? That's what I'm interested in.