more proof that even Hitchen's death has become one of JK's 'great stories" as his elevation to literary sainthood continues: A mediocre speech reported as brilliance :
www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/dec/18/chr...dawkins-award-speech
Christopher Hitchens: one man's service in the war against delusion
I went to Hirchen's last talk at an Aethiest conference in Sydney.... I found him to be pontificating at his best..all presentation but light on actual facts (most of which have been written hundreds of times him before including those in his God Is Not Great book and repeated ad nauseum by Richard Dawkins)...and never engage a room full of athiests in discussion by announcing..as I did..you are a spiritualist..talk about fanatics.
I've got nothing against or for any religion...but man was doing horrible things to each other long before religion came along. And now they do it in all sorts of names..like 'freedom' and 'bringing democracy'.
Yet Hitchens supported one of the worst atrocities in recent times..the war on innocent Iraqis. And it must never be underestimated how important Hitchen's editorial support was.
I also went to Noam Chomsky's talk in Sydney about 6 weeks ago. Hitchens waged an unholy and dishonest war on Chomsky including twisting Chomsky's words to fit Hitchen's false claims about him. Every minute of a Chomsky speech is a 1000 times more illuminating.
Both Dawkins and Hitchens continually avoided one startling fact in their crusade against organised religion : even scientists have to admit that despite their theory that man rose via the ranks from some amoembo swimming in the sea...they still cannot pin point or explain the spark that created life.
They cannot explain it or re-produce it.