Eric Reitan<\/a> of Oklahoma State University.<\/p>\nAs I think I\u2019ve made clear, I find it frustrating when Hitchens et al claim that fundamentalism is the only \u201creal\u201d religion. Sewell describes herself as a liberal Christian, Hitchens responds \u201cyou\u2019re really not in any meaningful sense a Christian.\u201d I don\u2019t know how Hitchens is qualified to judge who is and isn\u2019t a Christian, although from the responses in the comments section of the interview, plenty of fundamentalists agree with him.<\/p>\n
Once the interview turns to matters of fact, Hitchens and Sewell are mostly in agreement. That should be no surprise to any UU. What is surprising is how Sewell gets Hitchens to explain his thoughts on the transcendent and the numinous. He says:<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t want you to go away with the impression that I\u2019m just a vulgar materialist \u2026 I know it\u2019s not enough for us to to eat and so forth. We know how to think. We know how to laugh. We know we\u2019re going to die, which gives us a lot to think about, and we have a need for, what I would call, \u201cthe transcendent\u201d or \u201cthe numinous\u201d or even \u201cthe ecstatic\u201d that comes out in love and music, poetry, and landscape. I wouldn\u2019t trust anyone who didn\u2019t respond to things of that sort.<\/span><\/p>\nBut when Sewell suggests that might be \u201ca religious impulse,\u201d Hitchens insists \u201cabsolutely not.\u201d<\/p>\n
I\u2019ll end with a quote from Reitan\u2019s critique \u2013 it sums up my own thoughts quite nicely.<\/p>\n
When it comes right down to it, the biggest difference between Christopher Hitchens and Marilyn Sewell is not in their substantive views but in the emotive sense they attach to the word \u201creligion.\u201d They both dig through the complex phenomenon that is religion\u2014one searching for the jewels amidst the junk, the other lifting up the garbage and yelling out \u201cSee!\u201d But if Sewell should unearth a treasure, Hitchens may be the first of the New Atheists to acknowledge its worth.<\/span><\/p>\nHe\u2019ll just refuse to call it \u201creligion.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Here\u2019s an interesting exchange: New Atheist Christopher Hitchens interviewed by UU minister Marilyn Sewell. I found the article via Religion Dispatches, where it was summarized \/ reviewed by Eric Reitan of Oklahoma State University. As I think I\u2019ve made clear, I find it frustrating when Hitchens et al claim that fundamentalism is the only \u201creal\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1129,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-444","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
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