Mash note for Hitch

I am just finishing God is Not Great.  As I said in a previous post, I was not a fan of some of Hitch's political positions, but I get a great, positive kick out of his writing.  It's clear, bright, well-informed (mostly), and with just enough tartness to keep me awake and occasionally make me laugh. 

As I said, this was a Lenten exercise (as someone raised Protestant, we celebrated, but did not actively participate, in Lent, i.e., we were not required to give anything up, or do anything on a daily basis).  But in the face of increasing religiosity from all over, it seemed like a good, smack-in-the-face antidote.  GING kept me sane over the past 1-1/2 weeks of increasing religious fervor of Passover and Holy Week (interestingly, Buddha's birthday, April 7, was entirely ignored). 

I do wonder what Hitch would have made of the Republican primary season, with its reactionary claims of faith (ugh).  What ever happened to the idea that we should be electing the person who would do the best job, not the most devout believer in whatever brand of hypocrisy is in current vogue out there?  Actually, I am hard pressed to remember when any candidate was being judged by his fitness to serve, so - never mind. 

Hitch noted that many people of science needed to hide their lack of religious faith, or couch their expressions in vague language that would satisfy various authorities without making them feel like total fools for following the religious diktat of their times.  A couple of years ago I read Galileo's Daughter, which heartbreakingly spelled out the church's tightening noose around the brain of a brilliant man, along with how Italy fell behind in scientific research by prohibiting dissemination of Galileo's work there.  Smuggled copies that made it to Germany and beyond gave those countries a real advantage that they in some ways continue to enjoy.  Surely, that is as good a case of religion poisoning everything as you can get. 

Newsweek also chimed in with its holy week cover story on Jesus.  The writer noted that Thomas Jefferson cut passages from a bible and pasted them together to form what Jefferson thought (hoped?) were Jesus' direct words, and left out what he felt was unreliable, third-hand reporting in the gospels, along with the old testament silly rules and horrible bloodletting that characterizes the earlier book.  What the author in Newsweek chose to focus on was how Jesus kept saying that people should give up their worldly goods and trust in the lord and others' charity to feed and clothe them while they followed the word of god. 

The big problem with this, of course, is that the followers of Jesus would then have to depend on people who actually worked for a living.  If this was really the case (and the author made a brief, but okay, argument), then Jesus and his followers sound like the type of guy my dad would not have wanted me to go out with.  The author suggests this is the path to follow; however, I doubt very much that he or anyone else will be giving up their comfortable digs and ipads anytime soon.

I am not a materialistic person, at least not to the extent of many people I know, and I admire the Japanese aesthetic of rustic simplicity (though the cat hair keeps getting in the way), but I don't think I would last very long quitting my job and throwing myself on the mercy of others.  Mostly it's my sense of independence, very hard won, that keeps me keeping on.   Philosophically, at least, I am the embodiment of Buddha's idea of the middle path. 

I have a friend, whom I like and respect, who is about the be ordained as an Episcopal minister.  I have enjoyed occasionally playing devil's advocate with him.  He says I'm a deist; I say I'm an agnostic.  I talk about hypocrisy; he talks about "grace."  We drink beer.  We talk about something else. 

This time, if I get to see him on one of his treks to the northeast, we will have to talk about something else from the beginning.  It is very hard to read God is Not Great and not walk away wondering why any thinking person could buy what established religions have been selling.  Over the past 10 years there has been a lot of criticism of Islam here, but everyone who has made statements like that should really look very hard at their own glass houses.  Hitch just threw a great, big rock though every one of them.