He was also coherent and concise. Sometimes I feel like many intellectuals provide so much unnecessary context to their point that I totally forget what they're trying to convey.
@@clapdrix72 I find Harris quite overrated. Much sharper overall than me and most other people, no doubt, but overrated nonetheless. He gets hung up on dumb stuff a lot, and his political takes have been abysmal for years now. As someone who sits on neither side of the aisle and thus has gained a lot of perspective from doing so, it's sad to see even someone of his impressive intellect suffer the same fate as the common man when it comes to being absolutely blinded by tribalism.
@@EB-bl6cc I'm not necessarily referring to the moral content of his positions, or even the persuasiveness of his arguments, but rather his eloquence and clarity in communicating the same. The aesthetic of his discourse is almost musical, with a kind of logical lyricism. In my opinion, his actual beliefs on many things (especially religion) are cartoonishly overzealous.
lol.. his books didn't even have index, footnotes and references,.. our professors throw even a simple article paper to garbage if it doesn't have proper referencing... and these are academic writings we are talking about, which aren't novel and poetry books...
He would have been incredible in the decade since he passed. Putin in Crimea. Trump v. Clinton. Putin in the rest of Ukraine. Afghanistan. Syria. Ethiopia. All of these conflicts, and he was so powerful at bringing overlooked details from just those kinds of battles that the rest of journalism looks so lost in comparison.
@@martinsoukup562 the breadth of his knowledge is what did it for me. There's an interview in his home and it's simply stacked with books, which is a decent metaphor I feel for Hitch's pursuits. Furthermore, I suppose his courage was moreso what I respected about him than his intellect. There's many smart people out there, but not so many that are outspoken and independent.
The Douglas Wilson and Christopher Hitchens film Collision was a wonderful example of colliding worldviews mixed with humanity, drinks and laughter between friends.
As a Hitchens fan who sports a similar contrarian attitude, I'd say Wolpe's assessment of Hitch's debating style is pretty accurate, haha... In fact, I've always found Wolpe to be one of the most likeable opponents that Hitch went up against, and his sense of humour is undoubtedly one of the main reasons why. It's all too easy for thiests to get defensive/uptight when their dearly-held beliefs are challenged, but Wolpe has an amiable air that lets him laugh at himself. Loved this clip! It's always wonderful to hear people still bringing up the Hitch in their conversations :)
Again, I agree completely. Although a Christian believer, I could always tell when Christians he was debating g with lost the fight when I saw them taking his humor seriously.
Only Hitch can kick everyone's ass & still be liked by them, but that was the late great Christopher Hitchens.. Gone but clearly not forgotten.. For those who may not know him, look him up he was a great man.. RIP Hitch..
It isn't an argument if the person saying it claims to be a materialist. It's diametrically opposed to their world view. A materialist believes that everything just matter/energy following the laws of physics. This would include your brain. meaning that you've never made a "choice". You couldn't. It isn't possible as your brain is just matter/energy following the laws of physics.
Heart felt speech about the frau that was abused by her father made me never doubt his belief in what he said. He was not an actor although he could be a comedian.
The rabbi is right that it is an indefensible position, though, of course. I agree that religion poisons most things it touches, but there are plenty of things it does not touch, and therefore it does NOT poison everything. It's not a horrible argument but it's obviously exaggeration. He probably knew it was exaggeration but he also knew that brevity is the soul of wit [and being popular, usually]
@@EB-bl6cc The notion that each of us is not responsible individually for whatever choice we make or action we excecute, that we are all of us far too small and petty to ever be able to fully comprehend some imaginary cosmic plan...IS poison to the mind. And if you look around you, at the world, at human civilization, you will see very few people taking responsibility. Everyone has either an excuse or a lawyer. If more people practiced what Jocko Willink calls "Extreme ownership", or explored the world as individuals and free thinking life forms, like Lex Fridman and Joe Rogan... so much of this false narrative bullshit and these suicidal-on a global scale - trends would fade away. If children were taught critical thinking instead of how to shut off large parts of their brain in order to incorporate an imaginary friend into their picture of reality, we would all be better off. Put aside all these institutions that claim to speak in the name of god and who have sent their believers to butcher other humans in his name for a moment. And yes, good people do good work in the name of religion, but the bad ones set people on fire and rape children, so religion isn't really a factor there, is it? Decent people do decent things and other people do other things. As for wit and brevity; if a thing is truly funny, it's usually because it's true. What religion teaches is that ultimately....there is someone else steering the ship and you are too insignificant to ever be held responsible. That idea.....is poison.
Christopher Hitchens bullied everyone . People don’t wanna go head to head with guys like sam Harris, Christopher Hitchens or Richard Dawkins. Especially when it comes religion. Christopher Hitchens in specific tho man is an absolute legend. Can anyone honestly imagine him today ? He would’ve such a leader in these kinds of times. The man was so independent, he was never attached to either side, called out both Henry Kissinger and Hillary Clinton. He would’ve been massive today. Shit is so sad he was taken away so early. Top five greatest intellectuals of the 20th century.
Dawkins isn't a debater. Eloquent and smart in his field of evolutionary biology but when it comes to debates, he doesn't come off as very articulate, especially when it gets deeper into theology. Harris and Hitchens on the other hand are holistically educated and introspective about what comes out of their mouth.
ah yes, this time when we saw a sweaty Hitchens get coldly dismantled by a calm William Craig during the cross examination. Hitch looked so helpless. Yeah, everyone rememebers it, it was sweet.
@@tony16991 When I heard Dawkins say in an interview or debate that he hadn't read the King James Bible in its entirety it surprised me. Hitchens on the other hand had read the Old and New Testaments frontwards and backwards, as well as an English translation of the Koran, and key verses of the Mahabharata if i recall correctly.
No. He was not politically independent in the slightest. He was wholly of the left and criticizing Clinton and Kissinger does not mean someone is independent. I do not like Clinton or Kissinger but that does not mean I am independent. The man was a self identified marxist for most of his life and working career. He lauded Che Guevara which is bad enough in its own, but is especially strange considering he was bisexual and Che was notoriously anti gay. His work was always political and was not independent at all. I agree the man was a master rhetor and that God does not exist. But to say he would do well in the current year? I am not so sure. Consider that the religious right in his time made claims such as redefining marriage would lead to bad things. Now the state of California is a sanctuary for performing sex changes on minors and drag shows happen for child audiences. The right in his time were also neocons and therefore easier to debate. This is not the case now and someone like Carl Benjamin would not be as easy of an opponent as someone like Dinesh DaSouza.
Lex is the only person that ever asks about Christopher Hitchens. I love it. I often wonder what the world would be like with Hitchens still in it today. HItch had more style and intellectual prowess than most civilizations
I wonder if Hitchens ever realized just how much he had contributed to the current cultural mindset that seems to now be ascendant which recognizes no standards of morality, comity, or sanity?
I was a child when he died and I didn’t become an atheist until 10 years later. But even as a Christian in my teenage and young adult years I respected Hitchens. Something about being able to just come out and directly attack the God that so many people worshiped and to hold on to the end without begging for a deities help was something I found immensely respectable. And it is something that inspires me as i now face health problems and faced death as a new atheist just last year at 24.
The moment I hear Lex mentioning Christopher 🤯! How many times I wondered what would his ideas have been in the divisive period of the pandemic, pronouns, US and international affairs... He would have been all around the place a solid opinion with wisdom and zero regrets. RIP Christopher
Hitchens books didn't even have index, footnotes and references,.. our professors throw even a simple article paper to garbage if it doesn't have proper referencing... and these are books we are talking about, which aren't novel and poetry books...
I don’t know how someone measures intelligence, but Hitch’s biggest strength was appearing to be the smartest in the room. There may be more intellectual and analytical thinkers but none can express themselves and catch your attention more than Hitchens. Vidal was one but he was much too caustic for his own good.
Hitch will be missed by many who haven't been born yet. Trillions on war, be nice to see how far a trillion spent on a cure for cancer would go. Or a trillion on teachers. If you wish for a better world teach the children better.
Like all religious people David believes he knows something that he couldn’t possibly know, like what Hitchens actually believed, or Sam Harris for that matter. Hitchens was very straight forward and he made no qualms about his utter distaste for religion. I believe Hitchens, above all things, spoke truth to power with regard to religion, and he meant what he said, he didn’t mince words, or beat around the bush. He was a fierce critic of injustice, inequality and the absurdity’s that played out in people’s lives because of religion, and if it wasn’t for religion many of the ailments of the human condition would be greatly improved upon if we as intellectual conscious being’s stopped believing Stone Age mystical esoteric stories as valid explanations for the nature of reality. It was his opinion, and his argument. Had he wanted to change it before he died, he would have shared it publicly. I think Hitchens would have laughed at this and said, “Perhaps you didn’t hear me…”
Absolutely right about Hitchens, but naive about people. There are plenty of horrible humans willing to do evil in the name of a secular goal, like eco terrorists. Atheists seem to be as willing to censor as the non religious and as prone to mob thinking.
@Heath Sims This is strictly curiosity. There are no Catholic churches named Einstein so I assume this is some other type of Christian church ( obviously, Catholics are Christian but some people use the word Christian to denote Protestants as opposed to Catholics). Did it have an appearance of a Catholic church or were you unsure? My reason for wondering is that evangelical churches are growing rapidly in Latin American countries and some use certain accoutrements of Catholic services to appeal to former Catholics. Here in Los Angeles, the archdiocese occasionally sends out a warning to congregants to not be fooled by the appearance of these churches but to continue to give their money the official catholic church.
@Heath Sims The church has lasted 2000 years for a reason, it will survive. There is no way a Catholic school is called Einstein. Really sounds like an evangelical type, though they all try to claim Einstein believed in God.
Lex please never abandon your RUclips audience and go Spotify. Joe left and we miss him but he a abandoned his audience and now he is not anymore doing video podcast in RUclips and is sad. We listen to you and we love you 💙
What did he say about believing with zero evidence and which fairytale story to believe in ? What about the horrible things in the holy books? How does he apologize for the horrors in the fiction books ?
He was amazing debater and nobody bested him. He really destroyed Islam and showed it up for the fraud that it is. He also predicted cancel culture would happen if you spoke out against the religion and be called right wing.
I swear hitch was so good a disrespecting and destroying a person's opinions while obliterating them with hit vocabulary, but at the end they always liked him, and respected them.
The brilliance of Christopher Hitchens is that the answer, “I choose to believe in it.” Is in of itself an act of free will. It wasn’t just an answer, it was a demonstration.
David Wolpe is one of the finest of men. He is the Son of two of the most bright and brave Jewish families of Philadelphia. Of course he is a man of generous compassion and his parents were so much so.
I have to agree. Not that he was a closet believer but he certainly never entertained the notion that it simply was not possible for there to be a God. That was made evident in his statement that - and here I have to paraphrase somewhat - if there is some sort of tribunal ( his word) at least I could not be convicted of pretending to believe; I could not be convicted of being disingenuous.
When he said it poisons every, he didn’t mean it made everything bad. But that when it made something good, it did for the wrong reasons. If you don’t believe in religion, I think that is a defensible stance.
Hitchens held a world view or "belief" that his atheistic understanding of the world, or similar enough to it, would make the world a better place. A more morally and for human flourishing consistent place. He also adamantly thought the Iraq war of 2003 was justified and good despite it being done on false grounds, leading to the deaths of 100 000s of innocent lives and a completely destabilized region. In that sense, he did a great service in humility not only to those religious dogmatists he so deftly dealt with many a time but also to himself and to those who felt and still feel and think the way he did. Perhaps inadvertantly though but still. It is through common ground and common understanding that a better world can be construed. Not through the process of elimination, however eloquently and wittily done.
Just as you can not prove that you are in a Dream, when you are in fact in a dream, you can not prove, that which permeates everything, is that which permeates everything. Either you know, or you do not.
Glad to hear Wolpe say he admired Hitchens. I’ve seen the debates multiple times and I always got the impression that Wolpe respected Hitchens at a minimum.
They respected and were fond of each other as human beings. They may not have agreed on the subject of religion but those beliefs or lack of them do not make the man. I vehemently disagree with David Wolpe on religion and god but I respect the man and find him very eloquent and compassionate. I very much enjoyed his debates with Hitch because of his character, not his views.
Chris was a saint :) Miss him constantly. His political and regional historical knowledge and keen sense of what's underlying world issues no matter who gets the spotlight. The easiest position to defend is atheism, given no evidence for any of the 4000 invented gods out there. Yes sam harris meditates, that doesn't make him spiritual in any way, just mindfulness and relaxation, it is as insulting to him as me saying DW is really an atheist since he well understands there's no good evidence for what he believes.
I saw him lose a debate against an old Catholic apologist. The guy didn’t have great arguments, Hitch just seemed to not think responding was best, and the audience liked the apologist most.
BLIND faith is believing without evidence. There’s plenty of evidence for the veracity of the Gospels, you simply choose to ignore it or not consider it. It may not CONVINCE you, but you cannot say it is not “evidence”.
I used to worship Hitchens. Now when I rewatch him he just seems smug and snide and arrogant to me. Without denying his intellect, I really don't think he's anything amazing and certainly not this unique and beautiful person Lex describes him to be.
I loved how Hitchens proved God, by his aggressive resistance. God, described his anti boss, anti authority, anti God nature, long before he was born. Hilarious, that Hitchens called it myth.
Hitchens has aged poorly. Most of the opinions don't hold up. And as a debater he was constantly confronting straw men, easily badgered by that baritone. A revealing debate is his one on the existence of God with William Lane Craig. Craig wipes the floor with him, and once seen it cannot be unseen. Hitchens has only the trite baritone picked up at English Public Schools to hide behind and it is not much of a defense. I encourage all to watch the debate to realize quickly that he was all rhetoric and no logic. A sad end for someone who was a conrtrarian with no commitment to the truth, only a cheap commitment to opposing whatever is before him. In the end, the very epitome of arrested development.
Hence why so much of his fan base was in the states. The English accent doesn’t work such wonders in the UK, unsurprisingly! He was a good rhetorician and that’s it.
@@j.a.8970 I’m trying to understand what they watched also. This man is and was respected by the brightest minds on earth for a reason. And his arguments are sound. Saying there is no proof is still sound. There is none. There is a wonderful discussion to be had about the beauty and complexity of the world. And if you want to call that evidence or not. And that’s what his point is. The religion of “I don’t know”. Because none of us know. Most religious people even the renowned ones say they question their faith and gods existence. Hitchens courageously took that notion and didn’t let fear make him run back to it. And stood in the face of religions that are providing anecdotal night lights for grownups to sleep okay and not worry about what happens when they die. If you need your night light. Keep it on. But do not downplay someone so much more intelligent and courageous than these religious men pushing fables as fact to the gullible. Where after they go home and doubt they are even right. Hitchens is right and will always be right. Because right now. Before now. And for a very long time most likely. We don’t know what god is or if it’s a thing
What a load of utter nonsense. Craig is a formidable debater in the televised spectacles he performs in - largely due to his use of the logical fallacy of Gish Gallop (famously used by Duane Gish to try and disprove evolution); however, Hitchens handled him masterfully in their debate. I genuinely enjoy listening to Craig speak as he's a talented orator in his own regard, but matching him against Hitchens sadly ended in a predictable fashion. It was no contest. For you to try and pretend otherwise screams to me that perhaps you just *wanted* Craig to win due to Hitchens stance on religion. In the words of a certain infamous television character, you want it one way, but it's the other.
I agree with Hitchens on a lot of things.. however he wasn't as intelligent as people say. He was a drunk and destroyed himself.. people who destroy themselves are not "intelligent ".
@@Michael-tq6xm Sure, by all means. That's your esteemed right as a mammal. What about zealous religious nation states at the potential helm of nuclear weapons? Believing whatever you want has consequences and diminishing returns in the sense that the claimant will feel satiated but meanwhile has potentially endangered themselves and everyone around them in the process. Many examples of this.
Hitchens would have flourished even more in the age of podcasts. I dont know if there was anyone who spun words better.
He was also coherent and concise.
Sometimes I feel like many intellectuals provide so much unnecessary context to their point that I totally forget what they're trying to convey.
The only one better that I know is is old pal Sam Harris.
@@clapdrix72 Yeah, maybe 10 yrs ago but not since.
@@clapdrix72 I find Harris quite overrated. Much sharper overall than me and most other people, no doubt, but overrated nonetheless. He gets hung up on dumb stuff a lot, and his political takes have been abysmal for years now. As someone who sits on neither side of the aisle and thus has gained a lot of perspective from doing so, it's sad to see even someone of his impressive intellect suffer the same fate as the common man when it comes to being absolutely blinded by tribalism.
@@EB-bl6cc I'm not necessarily referring to the moral content of his positions, or even the persuasiveness of his arguments, but rather his eloquence and clarity in communicating the same. The aesthetic of his discourse is almost musical, with a kind of logical lyricism. In my opinion, his actual beliefs on many things (especially religion) are cartoonishly overzealous.
Hitchen's work is timeless.
lol.. his books didn't even have index, footnotes and references,.. our professors throw even a simple article paper to garbage if it doesn't have proper referencing...
and these are academic writings we are talking about, which aren't novel and poetry books...
@@EnigMagnum says the religious clown who uses a book of fairy tales lol
Love this segment. As a total Hitchens fanboy, it was good to hear some fond memories from a friend. 🙏🏼
I'll always miss Hitch. He was phenomenally intelligent. No one else like him.
He would have been incredible in the decade since he passed. Putin in Crimea. Trump v. Clinton. Putin in the rest of Ukraine. Afghanistan. Syria. Ethiopia. All of these conflicts, and he was so powerful at bringing overlooked details from just those kinds of battles that the rest of journalism looks so lost in comparison.
He’s trying to convince Jesus now that he doesn’t exist
Why do you think he was phenomenally intelligent?
@@martinsoukup562 the breadth of his knowledge is what did it for me. There's an interview in his home and it's simply stacked with books, which is a decent metaphor I feel for Hitch's pursuits. Furthermore, I suppose his courage was moreso what I respected about him than his intellect. There's many smart people out there, but not so many that are outspoken and independent.
Not so intelligent bro.. he was a drunk and destroyed himself. How is that intelligent??
The Douglas Wilson and Christopher Hitchens film Collision was a wonderful example of colliding worldviews mixed with humanity, drinks and laughter between friends.
As a Hitchens fan who sports a similar contrarian attitude, I'd say Wolpe's assessment of Hitch's debating style is pretty accurate, haha...
In fact, I've always found Wolpe to be one of the most likeable opponents that Hitch went up against, and his sense of humour is undoubtedly one of the main reasons why. It's all too easy for thiests to get defensive/uptight when their dearly-held beliefs are challenged, but Wolpe has an amiable air that lets him laugh at himself.
Loved this clip! It's always wonderful to hear people still bringing up the Hitch in their conversations :)
Again, I agree completely. Although a Christian believer, I could always tell when Christians he was debating g with lost the fight when I saw them taking his humor seriously.
Only Hitch can kick everyone's ass & still be liked by them, but that was the late great Christopher Hitchens.. Gone but clearly not forgotten..
For those who may not know him, look him up he was a great man..
RIP Hitch..
Is it not ironic that a religious man says 'Well, I choose to believe in it' is not really an argument?
It isn't an argument if the person saying it claims to be a materialist. It's diametrically opposed to their world view.
A materialist believes that everything just matter/energy following the laws of physics. This would include your brain. meaning that you've never made a "choice". You couldn't. It isn't possible as your brain is just matter/energy following the laws of physics.
Also, Hitchens never said that. He said, and I'm paraphrasing, "of course I have free will, I have no choice but to"
Respect to the good Rabbi, but I think he's wrong about Hitch. When he said religion poisons everything....he meant it.
He damn well meant it. Go Hitch!
Heart felt speech about the frau that was abused by her father made me never doubt his belief in what he said. He was not an actor although he could be a comedian.
The rabbi is right that it is an indefensible position, though, of course. I agree that religion poisons most things it touches, but there are plenty of things it does not touch, and therefore it does NOT poison everything. It's not a horrible argument but it's obviously exaggeration. He probably knew it was exaggeration but he also knew that brevity is the soul of wit [and being popular, usually]
@@EB-bl6cc The notion that each of us is not responsible individually for whatever choice we make or action we excecute, that we are all of us far too small and petty to ever be able to fully comprehend some imaginary cosmic plan...IS poison to the mind. And if you look around you, at the world, at human civilization, you will see very few people taking responsibility. Everyone has either an excuse or a lawyer. If more people practiced what Jocko Willink calls "Extreme ownership", or explored the world as individuals and free thinking life forms, like Lex Fridman and Joe Rogan... so much of this false narrative bullshit and these suicidal-on a global scale - trends would fade away. If children were taught critical thinking instead of how to shut off large parts of their brain in order to incorporate an imaginary friend into their picture of reality, we would all be better off.
Put aside all these institutions that claim to speak in the name of god and who have sent their believers to butcher other humans in his name for a moment. And yes, good people do good work in the name of religion, but the bad ones set people on fire and rape children, so religion isn't really a factor there, is it? Decent people do decent things and other people do other things.
As for wit and brevity; if a thing is truly funny, it's usually because it's true.
What religion teaches is that ultimately....there is someone else steering the ship and you are too insignificant to ever be held responsible. That idea.....is poison.
@@cabanford so you knew him better than him?
Christopher Hitchens bullied everyone . People don’t wanna go head to head with guys like sam Harris, Christopher Hitchens or Richard Dawkins. Especially when it comes religion. Christopher Hitchens in specific tho man is an absolute legend. Can anyone honestly imagine him today ? He would’ve such a leader in these kinds of times. The man was so independent, he was never attached to either side, called out both Henry Kissinger and Hillary Clinton. He would’ve been massive today. Shit is so sad he was taken away so early. Top five greatest intellectuals of the 20th century.
Dawkins isn't a debater. Eloquent and smart in his field of evolutionary biology but when it comes to debates, he doesn't come off as very articulate, especially when it gets deeper into theology.
Harris and Hitchens on the other hand are holistically educated and introspective about what comes out of their mouth.
I’d give almost anything to see another hitch v hitch debate. Those brothers going at it was awesome. Need Christopher for levity sake tho.
ah yes, this time when we saw a sweaty Hitchens get coldly dismantled by a calm William Craig during the cross examination. Hitch looked so helpless. Yeah, everyone rememebers it, it was sweet.
@@tony16991 When I heard Dawkins say in an interview or debate that he hadn't read the King James Bible in its entirety it surprised me. Hitchens on the other hand had read the Old and New Testaments frontwards and backwards, as well as an English translation of the Koran, and key verses of the Mahabharata if i recall correctly.
No. He was not politically independent in the slightest. He was wholly of the left and criticizing Clinton and Kissinger does not mean someone is independent. I do not like Clinton or Kissinger but that does not mean I am independent.
The man was a self identified marxist for most of his life and working career. He lauded Che Guevara which is bad enough in its own, but is especially strange considering he was bisexual and Che was notoriously anti gay. His work was always political and was not independent at all.
I agree the man was a master rhetor and that God does not exist. But to say he would do well in the current year? I am not so sure. Consider that the religious right in his time made claims such as redefining marriage would lead to bad things. Now the state of California is a sanctuary for performing sex changes on minors and drag shows happen for child audiences. The right in his time were also neocons and therefore easier to debate. This is not the case now and someone like Carl Benjamin would not be as easy of an opponent as someone like Dinesh DaSouza.
Hitch was amazing, if I could choose to see 1 persons debate. It would have been one of his.
Lex is the only person that ever asks about Christopher Hitchens. I love it. I often wonder what the world would be like with Hitchens still in it today. HItch had more style and intellectual prowess than most civilizations
I wonder if Hitchens ever realized just how much he had contributed to the current cultural mindset that seems to now be ascendant which recognizes no standards of morality, comity, or sanity?
I was a child when he died and I didn’t become an atheist until 10 years later. But even as a Christian in my teenage and young adult years I respected Hitchens. Something about being able to just come out and directly attack the God that so many people worshiped and to hold on to the end without begging for a deities help was something I found immensely respectable. And it is something that inspires me as i now face health problems and faced death as a new atheist just last year at 24.
Miss Hitchens so much.
The moment I hear Lex mentioning Christopher 🤯! How many times I wondered what would his ideas have been in the divisive period of the pandemic, pronouns, US and international affairs... He would have been all around the place a solid opinion with wisdom and zero regrets. RIP Christopher
I wonder if he ever realized just how much he had contributed to its rise?
Hitchens was my favorite dude ever.
His debates with Hitchens flipped my perspective like 3 times. It was beautiful.
Hitchens books didn't even have index, footnotes and references,.. our professors throw even a simple article paper to garbage if it doesn't have proper referencing...
and these are books we are talking about, which aren't novel and poetry books...
I don’t know how someone measures intelligence, but Hitch’s biggest strength was appearing to be the smartest in the room. There may be more intellectual and analytical thinkers but none can express themselves and catch your attention more than Hitchens. Vidal was one but he was much too caustic for his own good.
Christopher was a factual person, he didn’t put up with fools....
Hitch will be missed by many who haven't been born yet.
Trillions on war, be nice to see how far a trillion spent on a cure for cancer would go.
Or a trillion on teachers. If you wish for a better world teach the children better.
I've watched many debates with Christopher Hitchens playing the protagonist. No one will fill his 👞👞👞👞👞
Like all religious people David believes he knows something that he couldn’t possibly know, like what Hitchens actually believed, or Sam Harris for that matter. Hitchens was very straight forward and he made no qualms about his utter distaste for religion. I believe Hitchens, above all things, spoke truth to power with regard to religion, and he meant what he said, he didn’t mince words, or beat around the bush. He was a fierce critic of injustice, inequality and the absurdity’s that played out in people’s lives because of religion, and if it wasn’t for religion many of the ailments of the human condition would be greatly improved upon if we as intellectual conscious being’s stopped believing Stone Age mystical esoteric stories as valid explanations for the nature of reality. It was his opinion, and his argument. Had he wanted to change it before he died, he would have shared it publicly. I think Hitchens would have laughed at this and said, “Perhaps you didn’t hear me…”
As well as Jefferson. “Mr Jefferson build that wall.” CH
Absolutely right about Hitchens, but naive about people. There are plenty of horrible humans willing to do evil in the name of a secular goal, like eco terrorists. Atheists seem to be as willing to censor as the non religious and as prone to mob thinking.
@Heath Sims This is strictly curiosity. There are no Catholic churches named Einstein so I assume this is some other type of Christian church ( obviously, Catholics are Christian but some people use the word Christian to denote Protestants as opposed to Catholics). Did it have an appearance of a Catholic church or were you unsure? My reason for wondering is that evangelical churches are growing rapidly in Latin American countries and some use certain accoutrements of Catholic services to appeal to former Catholics.
Here in Los Angeles, the archdiocese occasionally sends out a warning to congregants to not be fooled by the appearance of these churches but to continue to give their money the official catholic church.
@Heath Sims The church has lasted 2000 years for a reason, it will survive. There is no way a Catholic school is called Einstein. Really sounds like an evangelical type, though they all try to claim Einstein believed in God.
one of my favourite comments about atheists is by ricky G "atheists don't go about busting into churches, ruining their day?"
Lex please never abandon your RUclips audience and go Spotify.
Joe left and we miss him but he a abandoned his audience and now he is not anymore doing video podcast in RUclips and is sad.
We listen to you and we love you 💙
I read Wolpe's "Why Faith Matters"...was an excellent aspect of my journey in life...definitely recommend it!
What did he say about believing with zero evidence and which fairytale story to believe in ? What about the horrible things in the holy books? How does he apologize for the horrors in the fiction books ?
@@marcwells03 That edgy teenage atheist shtick was old and tired 20 years ago.
@@LuckyFlesh typical theist attacks without addressing the obvious buffoonery of their goofy religion
@@marcwells03 Why are you lashing out like a frightened child?
@@LuckyFlesh because I have no respect for adults who believe in fairytales. You keep attacking me because you lack facts. You’re brainwashed….
Alex O'Connor (a.k.a. Cosmic Skeptic) is someone worth listening to, if you're a fan of Hitch.
He was amazing debater and nobody bested him. He really destroyed Islam and showed it up for the fraud that it is. He also predicted cancel culture would happen if you spoke out against the religion and be called right wing.
I swear hitch was so good a disrespecting and destroying a person's opinions while obliterating them with hit vocabulary, but at the end they always liked him, and respected them.
The brilliance of Christopher Hitchens is that the answer, “I choose to believe in it.” Is in of itself an act of free will. It wasn’t just an answer, it was a demonstration.
Religion is not about ideas, religion is about rituals - Nassim Taleb.
I’ve watched that debate a couple times. Top tier content period
You couldnt win an arguement because he was right
David Wolpe is one of the finest of men. He is the Son of two of the most bright and brave Jewish families of Philadelphia. Of course he is a man of generous compassion and his parents were so much so.
"Just have a beer, it's water" lol
😂
Great conversation!
I have to agree. Not that he was a closet believer but he certainly never entertained the notion that it simply was not possible for there to be a God. That was made evident in his statement that - and here I have to paraphrase somewhat - if there is some sort of tribunal ( his word) at least I could not be convicted of pretending to believe; I could not be convicted of being disingenuous.
When he said it poisons every, he didn’t mean it made everything bad. But that when it made something good, it did for the wrong reasons. If you don’t believe in religion, I think that is a defensible stance.
Hitchens held a world view or "belief" that his atheistic understanding of the world, or similar enough to it, would make the world a better place. A more morally and for human flourishing consistent place. He also adamantly thought the Iraq war of 2003 was justified and good despite it being done on false grounds, leading to the deaths of 100 000s of innocent lives and a completely destabilized region.
In that sense, he did a great service in humility not only to those religious dogmatists he so deftly dealt with many a time but also to himself and to those who felt and still feel and think the way he did. Perhaps inadvertantly though but still. It is through common ground and common understanding that a better world can be construed. Not through the process of elimination, however eloquently and wittily done.
Just as you can not prove that you are in a Dream,
when you are in fact in a dream,
you can not prove,
that which permeates everything,
is that which permeates everything.
Either you know, or you do not.
Glad to hear Wolpe say he admired Hitchens. I’ve seen the debates multiple times and I always got the impression that Wolpe respected Hitchens at a minimum.
They respected and were fond of each other as human beings. They may not have agreed on the subject of religion but those beliefs or lack of them do not make the man. I vehemently disagree with David Wolpe on religion and god but I respect the man and find him very eloquent and compassionate. I very much enjoyed his debates with Hitch because of his character, not his views.
Hitchens Verbal wit is second to none.
Miss him so much.
Hitchins was the epitome of arrogance. He could never admit when he was wrong.
he was rarely wrong is why
A fool believes anything, a smart person questions everything...
Hitch was the man. I really miss him.
I love Christopher Hitchens, and this gives me a new respect for David Wolpe!
0:31 more lies - he got roasted by George Galloway.
ruclips.net/video/bd_k8Ud7n9c/видео.html
Hitchens books really help me leave religion, truly open my mind how religion it’s like slavery
RIP the great Christopher Hitchens. I wish we had more time with him.
5:15 he is right. it does tho
Chris was a saint :) Miss him constantly. His political and regional historical knowledge and keen sense of what's underlying world issues no matter who gets the spotlight. The easiest position to defend is atheism, given no evidence for any of the 4000 invented gods out there. Yes sam harris meditates, that doesn't make him spiritual in any way, just mindfulness and relaxation, it is as insulting to him as me saying DW is really an atheist since he well understands there's no good evidence for what he believes.
I saw him lose a debate against an old Catholic apologist. The guy didn’t have great arguments, Hitch just seemed to not think responding was best, and the audience liked the apologist most.
Who was the debater against Hitchens?
I wish he is alive & having his own podcast hitch is a "god" of storytelling.
Great Hitchens will always be…missed deeply.
man.. Christorpher went WAY to fucking soon. its so sad.. he was amazing.. BTW this guy could not win cause he was wrong ha
😂 Hitchens had beat this dudes ass in the past how dare he speak
no one being can be god...for god is in everything...
Question asked , what did you learn from him. Question answered , nothing.
Religion makes good people do bad and immoral things...
And the lack of it hasn’t seemed to improve things much.
but religion does poison everything
Why are you not inviting Muslim scholars
He Hitchslapped him back to the old Testament
I miss Hitchens gravely. 😓
God is a faith position. Faith is believing without evidence. Hitch was always right.
BLIND faith is believing without evidence. There’s plenty of evidence for the veracity of the Gospels, you simply choose to ignore it or not consider it. It may not CONVINCE you, but you cannot say it is not “evidence”.
Hitchens is my favorite author. Gone too soon.
I still miss Hitchens…wokeness would not have taken hold had he been around
I see...
This weird little earth 🌍…
🙌🙏
I used to worship Hitchens. Now when I rewatch him he just seems smug and snide and arrogant to me. Without denying his intellect, I really don't think he's anything amazing and certainly not this unique and beautiful person Lex describes him to be.
🥃 Hitch!
beautiful human¡¡🥰
I'm so happy you're here with us today. First question; what was it like to have Christopher Hitchens wipe the floor with you?
ahhh, the fan boy delusion. Sweet and also somewhat sad.
The debate didn’t turn out in Hitchens favor when he debated Frank Turek
Frank Turek is a terrible debater, and Hitchens had no trouble showing that at all. Now if you had said John Lennox, you would have a point.
💙💙💙💙💙💙💙💙
Alcoholic? Now I understand...
Hitchens was incredible. One of the greats
Jordan Peterson would have destroyed Hitchens, now go debate about my comment, see you!!
No need to debate, that's just a joke
Hitchens was witty and entertaining but not a serious philosopher
I loved how Hitchens proved God, by his aggressive resistance. God, described his anti boss, anti authority, anti God nature, long before he was born. Hilarious, that Hitchens called it myth.
Are you alright? Cause that made no sense at all.
There is no proof of a supreme being. Case closed. #hitchwins
John lennox won against hitchens
William Lane Craig vs Christopher Hitchens.
🎯
Hitchens has aged poorly. Most of the opinions don't hold up. And as a debater he was constantly confronting straw men, easily badgered by that baritone. A revealing debate is his one on the existence of God with William Lane Craig. Craig wipes the floor with him, and once seen it cannot be unseen. Hitchens has only the trite baritone picked up at English Public Schools to hide behind and it is not much of a defense. I encourage all to watch the debate to realize quickly that he was all rhetoric and no logic. A sad end for someone who was a conrtrarian with no commitment to the truth, only a cheap commitment to opposing whatever is before him. In the end, the very epitome of arrested development.
You’re spot on, 100%.
Hence why so much of his fan base was in the states. The English accent doesn’t work such wonders in the UK, unsurprisingly! He was a good rhetorician and that’s it.
🤣 what drivel. Is this assessment based off the Pastor Kyle Bailey edit?
@@j.a.8970 I’m trying to understand what they watched also. This man is and was respected by the brightest minds on earth for a reason. And his arguments are sound. Saying there is no proof is still sound. There is none. There is a wonderful discussion to be had about the beauty and complexity of the world. And if you want to call that evidence or not. And that’s what his point is. The religion of “I don’t know”. Because none of us know. Most religious people even the renowned ones say they question their faith and gods existence. Hitchens courageously took that notion and didn’t let fear make him run back to it. And stood in the face of religions that are providing anecdotal night lights for grownups to sleep okay and not worry about what happens when they die. If you need your night light. Keep it on. But do not downplay someone so much more intelligent and courageous than these religious men pushing fables as fact to the gullible. Where after they go home and doubt they are even right. Hitchens is right and will always be right. Because right now. Before now. And for a very long time most likely. We don’t know what god is or if it’s a thing
What a load of utter nonsense. Craig is a formidable debater in the televised spectacles he performs in - largely due to his use of the logical fallacy of Gish Gallop (famously used by Duane Gish to try and disprove evolution); however, Hitchens handled him masterfully in their debate. I genuinely enjoy listening to Craig speak as he's a talented orator in his own regard, but matching him against Hitchens sadly ended in a predictable fashion. It was no contest. For you to try and pretend otherwise screams to me that perhaps you just *wanted* Craig to win due to Hitchens stance on religion. In the words of a certain infamous television character, you want it one way, but it's the other.
It looks like a mortician pot cast...
D...
Did he take one sip from that water?
Vodka 🤪
It's like asking an ant that one day walked on Einstein's shoe, " so ant what do you think Albert didn't get"?
You can’t win against hitches unless your George Galloway!
I agree with Hitchens on a lot of things.. however he wasn't as intelligent as people say. He was a drunk and destroyed himself.. people who destroy themselves are not "intelligent ".
2 small people talking about a giant
Christopher will be 'quipping' in his grave over pooty.
God is real?: yes
#endofdebate
No. #endofdebate (hardly a debate)
@@cabanford no as in God is not real?😕
Show me even a grain of evidence and I'll listen. Until then "belief" is just a synonym for "making things up". No God.
@@cabanford hey does math & science evidence qualify as so? #sidebar #zerobelief #zeroreligion
@@pay_it_forward_franklin4469 absolutely! Is all that we have 👍⭐🙂
You can win the debate if you’re William Lane Craig. He dominated Hitchens despite the deep british accent.
Nice try, American 🤣😂 All anyone remembers from that is the iconic "atheist baby or a wahhabi baby" moment 😂😂 Hitch so classic, it's insane
Hitchens needs to grow up and realise that the fact he is a conscious sentient being is actually a true miracle
@@sparkymmilarky not wrong in my universe
@@Michael-tq6xm definition of delusion.
@@j.a.8970 we're all entitled to a set of beliefs didn't ya know. That is if course unless your some kind of control freak...
@@j.a.8970 ill reply in the medium of song. God bless Ukraine.
ruclips.net/video/lN4AcFzxtdE/видео.html
@@Michael-tq6xm Sure, by all means. That's your esteemed right as a mammal. What about zealous religious nation states at the potential helm of nuclear weapons? Believing whatever you want has consequences and diminishing returns in the sense that the claimant will feel satiated but meanwhile has potentially endangered themselves and everyone around them in the process. Many examples of this.
At least he’s at the eternal banquet for eternity in paradise
Why would a militant atheist be admired so fondly? Seemed like a very angry and cynical person.
Because mature people separate debate life with kitchen table life.
His dinner parties with friends were said to be like an event.