HE MAKES ERIC ZORN LOOK LIKE BILLY GRAHAM

Nearly every day, some religious right bozo posts a comment on Eric Zorn's blog to the effect that Zorn is an crazed monster at war with organized religion.

EZ doesn't need me to defend him from his own readers, but in the interest of letting the hyper-religious know the full range of non- and anti- religious thought, please let me share this nugget from Christopher Hitchens:

Well, first off, I'm not, as people sometimes claim me to be, an atheist. I'm an anti-theist. I think the influence of religious belief is horrible. ***

Listen, if a child tells me he's seen a ghost, I'll say, "Well, I'm sure you did, but I don't think I'll be able to see it myself, and I don't think it's really there, though I do think you must have a very vivid imagination." However, if a grown-up says "I've just a heard a voice telling me what to do," what they really mean is "I can now tell you what to do." That's what I don't like.

What I noticed when I was a kid wasn't just that what the headmaster was preaching at sermon time was rubbish (which was easy to see), it was also that it seemed very important that the headmaster be able to invest his otherwise rather feeble authority with religious authority. In other words, I could see already when I was eight that religion is used to say, "You better listen to what I say. My power is not just of this world. I have divine right." That's where you have to say, "Say that again and I'll burn your church." ***

I loathe it. And I tend to loathe the people who believe it.

And just a reminder: Christopher Hitchens is a very vocal supporter of Bush's war on Iraq.

(via The Atlantic, emphasis added)