Hitchens on cancer diagnosis: 'Why not me?'

Anderson Cooper
I just flew down to Washington to talk with author Christopher Hitchens. He was diagnosed with esophageal cancer in June, and is currently undergoing chemotherapy.

Many people upon receiving a cancer diagnosis would ask "why me?" Hitchens's answer, is "why not me?"

Much of his hair has fallen out, but he seems strong as ever. We discussed whether his diagnosis has in any way altered his well-known opinion of religion and prayer.

From: BLACK SKEPTICS GROUP - What if?

Black atheist! Do these words mean anything? Certainly not if such a person does not exist.

Everyone knows that black people love Jesus. With tears in our eyes and a bittersweet joy in our hearts, we marvel at the wonder of the divine. With hands raised high we sway to our own celestial rhythm. With a look of transcendent torment upon our faces, we sing His praises. Don’t we love Jesus? Don’t we all love Jesus?

I’ve heard it said that black people have a “Jesus fixation”, a single minded focus on God. From our earliest days we are taught that there is a mysterious and powerful man in the heavens above- enthroned some place between time and space. Omnipotent, omnipresent and omniscient- He is God-the-Father. The ethereal embodiment, if you will allow, of benevolence and love. We are taught by parents, grandparents and the preacher that “God is good!”

But, as the lesson of God’s goodness is taught with one breath, we are taught that God is awful with the next. He knows our thoughts, He knows our feelings, He knows what we will do next, and He knows our secrets and the hour of our deaths. This God is not to be trifled with. What fool would question Him- even in the quiet of one’s own mind?

Respecting the God that black Christians serve means not speaking doubt or even thinking it. How could there ever be such a thing as a black Atheist?

You serve the Lord with fear and trembling. You serve Him in perfect submission. You must love Him always. You must never think ill of Him. He is without fault. He is responsible for everything good in your life- not you. You are responsible for everything bad in your life- not Him. Praise the Lord when things go right; beg His forgiveness when they go wrong.

Now, how did we end up with this particular religious system? Well, that’s simple: Slavery. One of the original justifications for slavery was to bring the “heathen” African into contact with Christianity. The earliest enslaved Africans were converted by force before even leaving the slave castles of western Africa. They were now Christian by virtue of the slave trader’s power.

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ABC: Gillard won't play religion card

This was also posted in discussions last night but many people have sent the article in for posting this morning - you can see comments on the Discussion here

Prime Minister Julia Gillard says she has no intention of pretending to believe in God to attract religiously-inclined voters.

Former prime minister Kevin Rudd was a regular at Canberra church services and Opposition Leader Tony Abbott is known as a devout Catholic.

In contrast, Ms Gillard says that while she greatly respects other people's religious views, she does not believe in God.

Read the Article

What is your theological stance on the idea of God?

I created a poll when I first started this Blog but some people have asked what they mean, so here are the simple explanations of each one.

Theist - Believes in a God that Created and Interferes in the world (listens to prayers)

Deist - Believes in a God that Created but doesn't interfere in the world

Pantheist - Believes that God is the world and the universe, not something that created it or interferes.

Atheist - Believes that there is no God and only the physical world we can see and prove. Some also think that Pantheists are really just spiritual atheists :P

I hope that helps :)

UPDATE: Atheist - Believes there are no deities, but can also mean the rejection of belief in the existence of deities.

In the Beginning...

Some may wonder where the connection between being Atheist and being "Environmentally Conscious" comes from, or why I find the connection important enough to mention it on the start of my blog.

Well I guess I've recently been questioning faith in a higher power; not just my own but other peoples faith, the history of faith and whether we still need faith in modern day society.

Indeed, there are those with faith who see the destruction of our planet, or the mistreatment of our fellow man, as blasphemous. Surely these people should be sympathized with, they certainly seem to be good people with good intentions.

Of course the most important thing is that when we hear of something inhumane, or detrimental to the environment, we act to remedy those atrocities. Therefore, it doesn't matter if someone has faith, just that we have a good understanding of own moral consciousness.

However, a lot of people have the belief that religion or even the concept of a divine creator automatically helps them to develop a strong moral compass.

I think this concept that creating an allegiance with a particular religion, instead of using our naturally inquisitive mind, as a way of choosing what is right and what is wrong, completely misguided.

Throughout this blog I'll try to explain why I believe this, and more importantly why it is important that we must question what we hear from others, especially those who have power over the actions of others, be that political power, or religious power. We must be conscientious and use our own minds to make up what we think is right for a better society.

Today, I'll start with a little background on who I am. I am an Atheist, I have no belief in the supernatural and until someone can prove otherwise I can't see that changing, but it wasn't always that way.

I was born into a Roman Catholic family; my Grandmother, my father's mother, is the matriarch of our part of the Family Clan and is a devout Catholic. Throughout my childhood I remember my Granddad, attended church services with my Grandmother, and as far as I'm aware still does.

My father, has a certain level of spirituality or at least a theological idea on "God", that I've since learnt is called Pantheism, and he always taught us that we should feel connected to our planet, our environment and our fellow man, but he is not taken in by the dogma of any particular church.

My mother, comes from a Protestant family but did not attend mass unless it was for a wedding, christening or in the unfortunate event of a funeral.

Neither parent ever felt the need or desire to force religion on their children, so although we attended Catholic School which taught us the quaint traditions and superstitions of Catholicism we really saw it as just that, quaint traditions and superstitions.

At home we would pray and talk of God, as this is what we were taught at schools, but I was one of four brothers and as we grew up we preferred to spend our time outdoors, or learning about nature, animals, dinosaurs and anything else that sounded fun and dangerous.

When at school I learnt the theory of evolution all that exploration into the English countryside with my brothers and learning about various types of wildlife either native or exotic suddenly had an explanation that just made sense.

However, there was no need to question, or even think about labeling my faith, or lack thereof, until recently when I found out that a close friend of mine believed that the earth was 6000 years old. I just couldn't understand that people in 2009/2010 still believed something science had proven so wrong just because of her faith.

I've since tried to read as many books or blogs on faith and theology that I can get my hands, and listened to lots of great videos or podcasts available online and can now proudly call myself an atheist. Not just an atheist but an Eco-Atheist.

I believe that in order for Mankind to move forward and become a sustainable, environmentally conscious global community we must ditch the stone age theory that we are here on this planet to please a supernatural being, but instead work to build a society upon the principle of doing what is best for all human beings, all animals and this wonderful planet we call home.

This is my blog.