Prayer and Christopher Hitchens

Christopher Hitchens

Concerning Monday 20th of September 2010 that was "Everybody Pray for [Christopher] Hitchens Day," an arbitrarily assigned, nondenominational day of reflection for the religious, irreligious and religiously indifferent, Tony Norman wrote "No need to say a prayer for Hitchens" (here).

Too ill to join the meeting of American Atheists in person Hitchens wrote an address. He refers in it to prayer eloquently but with rather unflattering words:

"Perhaps above all, we affirm life over the cults of death and human sacrifice and are afraid, not of inevitable death, but rather of a human life that is cramped and distorted by the pathetic need to offer mindless adulation, or the dismal belief that the laws of nature respond to wailings and incantations. "
Christopher Hitchens


What can we say to this?

One of the most beautiful songs ever written for human voice asks St Mary, Mother of God, blessed be she and the fruit of her womb Jesus, to pray for us sinners now and at the moment of our death.

Avē Marīa, grātiā plēna, Dominus tēcum. Benedicta tū in mulieribus, et benedictus frūctus ventris tuī, Iēsus.

Sāncta Marīa, Māter Deī, ōrā prō nōbīs peccātōribus, nunc et in hōrā mortis nostrae. Āmēn.

Justly celebrated Austrian composer Franz Schubert (1797-1828) wrote the hauntingly beautiful and unforgettable melody originally for Walter Scott's play The Lady of the Lake as Ellens dritter Gesang (D. 839). The song has since become world famous with the words of Ave Maria and is frequently performed by the greatest singers of our times such as, for example, Luciano Pavarotti (1935-2007). This performance has been viewed almost four million times in youTube.

As if this melody would not be enough, our Lord has given the world another unforgettable version, created by the French composer Charles Gounod who created the melody over Johann Sebastian Bach's amazing C major Prelude (BWV 846) and fitted Ave Maria on it in 1859. Here it is performed by soprano Cecilia Bartoli.

Some prayer, I say...

BTW, J.S. Bach has composed quite a few prayers himself, too.

So Christopher Hitchens's rather bleak opinion about these wailings and incantations sets him pretty far in the dark and cold from these masterpieces of Western music, sincere prayer at the moment of death.


He has the beautiful name of one who carries Christ, Greek Χριστοφορος. But what does approaching Death squeeze from him? Hitchens has left us as part of his legacy a bitter and truly ugly statement mocking those who pray. It will be soon forgotten by most, the sad words of an unbeliever who mistakenly thinks he has figured out what religion is all about and then forcibly rejects the caricature he himself has created as a man of science and rational thinking.


What did approaching Death squeeze from too young Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart?

A deep and sincere prayer.

Such a prayer that it will probably never be forgotten by the human race. It is magnificent beyond description, solemn, heart breaking and reaches towards the only God, the God of Israel, the God of Scriptures.

It ends with words of prayer to God. Those present at the funeral ask that eternal light would shine on him and that Lord would give him eternal piece, requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine.

Lux æterna luceat eis, Domine,

cum sanctis tuis in æternum,

quia pius es.

Requiem æternam dona eis, Domine;

et lux perpetua luceat eis ;

cum Sanctis tuis in æternum,

quia pius es.

Well, if you who read this are about to die and do not know how to pray use the prayer which Jesus Christ taught to His disciples. It says it all.

Our Father, Who art in heaven
Hallowed be Thy Name;
Thy kingdom come,
Thy will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
and forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us;
and lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
Amen.

Harming Portal and the Four Horses of Atheism

(Before reading the allegory take a look at the original discussion here.
About the Four Horsemen of Atheism click here)

The Castle was built for those who want to overcome the evil wizard Lord Vladimir, whose aim is to conquer the wizarding world and subjugate non-magical people, and who threatens with utter and final destruction all those who stand in His way.

When I entered the castle I paid attention to the carved image above the main gate. Although cut form stone it magically changed depicting different embryos of vertebrates in pharyngeal state but so that while the image altered between different species it always made visible the notochord, dorsal hollow nerve cord, post-anal tail and a series of paired branchial grooves that almost looked like gills.

The witches and their students staying in the castle were weary of Muggle people in general. They were especially tired of visitors smelling of Lord Vladimir and these were given at the entrance a strange top hat and a green coat. In the hat there was in clear and big yellow letters written "Village Idiot" and in the coat "Moron" so that also younger wizards staying in the castle would know how to properly use the thousand times repeated and tested spells against possible agents of Lord Vladimir.

Even the supervisors did not notice the white dove that was some times sitting on my shoulder and some times flying ahead of me showing the way. It seems they had such scientifically polished goggles on their eyes that they were totally incapable of noticing the dove. This gave me a certain advantage since this bird is very special.

THE GARDEN OF GREEK STATUES

Democritus The Laughing Philosopher

The castle was quite large and I only visited a small section of it. There was a well-kept and pleasant garden decorated with classical statues of people who were highly respected by the wizards. I guessed that other gardens might have statues of other people who have contributed to the wizard's world.

Under the marble head of smiling Democritus was written
ONLY MATTER MATTERS.
Beside this stood a bronze statue of Epicurus with a bunch of grapes on his shoulder and a pretty slave girl sitting and holding his sandal. The text written on the base read
LET US EAT AND DRINK FOR TOMORROW WE SHALL DIE

The wizards had given special place of honor to the head of Platon with his high forehead and his teacher, long bearded Socrates. In the base of the sculpted head I noticed the word αθεϊστής. written in beautiful golden letters.

WILD DOGS

Wild dogs of Africa

A fenced area was open for public. Pack of ferocious wild dogs was there to amuse onlookers waiting that something was fed to them. I chose from my bag items and threw them down and immediately and with great rejoicing the dogs broke them apart waiting for more fun. The more the things I threw in there smelled like Lord Vladimir the happier the ferocious and self-confident beasts were giving cause to much laughter and sneering by the onlookers. This seemed to be a favorite pastime in the castle.

MAGIC SPELLS

Some real HP characters in action

Because many of the wizards and witches suffered from a christophobia and because I had the funny strange top hat and the coat they detected me easily and some avoided me and others tried their trusty spells on me just for fun (and maybe some extra immunity protection). One noble wizard looked at me amused from some distance, lifted his magic wand and said "Boo! So your killer argument consists of a rhetorical trick followed by a conflation of probability with set outcomes and distributions with blind anything-goes luck." Very impressive spell! Another wizard amused himself and the crowd with slightly less sophisticated spell "iftah jasimsim! BTW, moron, no-one says that we are purely the product of chance - it's just that you are too stupid to grasp how natural selection works. Oh, and BTW again, the possessive of "Dawkins" is "Dawkins'" or "Dawkins's", not "Dawkin's".

At such wizardry of words I blushed in my ignorance of facts and was also quite ashamed by my lack of spell-ing skills, especially the lèse majesté in miss-spelling the possessive of the name of one of the Four Horses of Atheism. Absolutely unforgivable!

THE QUIDDITCH GAME OF EVOLUTION
The wizards and their student witches staying in the castle were very skilled in the popular game of quidditch. For a while I followed two teams that had been formed for this particular game, not purely by chance, after a new winged golden snitch had been brought to the castle from the City of Science. Riding the latest models of their broomsticks the players reached frightening heights of pure knowledge and informed understanding of the biological processes in time we call evolution. No simple man like me can ride those broomsticks! The audience did not tire reminding me of the fact. (About the Evotution of Quidditch click here)

At one moment the snitch flew near me and stopped for a moment, maybe it recognized the white dove on my shoulder, and I imagined I saw something on it. When I later said that I saw the word h-e-g-e-l on it one of the witches took some time to tell me that I was all wrong, no such garbage words had scratched the pure golden snitch. We had no time to finish the argument when I already had to go. Fast game it was and showed real wizardry in arguing about the significance and lack of significance of the latest of the latest in human science. In this castle quiddith of evolution is trusted only to the illuminated ones.

ABRAHAM AND THE ALTAR OF SACRIFICE

Sacrifice of Isaac - detail
Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1601-02)

Many things I saw during my short visit to this Castle of the Four Horses of Atheism. When I tried to say that Abraham is venerated by two billion as Father of Faith, Friend of God, el-Khalil, I was taken to see the horrific painting by Caravaggio where a bloodthirsty god demanded human blood from this rude and most primitive person.

The dove whispered to my ear and indeed, when I looked on the left I noticed a wizard looking in disgust at this crude display of religion which such a bad influence on humans. Beside him was standing a sad looking beautiful young woman. I realized that this was his girl friend and he had encouraged her to sacrifice the fetus in her womb in the name of Freedom on Her Own Body.
The real reason for the horrific murder of a child in her womb was that he would not have to pay alimony for this girl with whom he had had such a drunken fun night some months ago. Bible takes extremely the sacrifice of humans – which after all never took place at the end of the narrative – while this young wizard experienced the extreme lightness of living in the company of his friend whose womb had been turned into Altar of Molok of Pleasure and Convenience. I was well aware that many in the crowd did not agree with the lighthearted attitude of this wizard who was so abhorred by the Sacrifice of Isaac (that did not take place).

But there was no time for such rumblings and I had to continue my explorations.


ONE OF THE FOUR HORSES

The Day to Pray for Christopher Hitchins was a failure

I had a chance to look at the rooms of one of the Four Horses of Atheism. It was there with a letter, a handsome creature indeed, but sadly it seemed to be seriously ill. The roof was supported by Stoic columns. I noticed there in the far corner also a marble statue of a man carrying a child. Did they know that this is related to Lord Vladimir?


THE FORGOTTEN ROOM

Oh how many interesting and touching things I noticed in the castle! There were embryos of discussions, scientific theme parks and marvelous duels on theories and logic and everything although the pan-dimensional 42 was not in the program.

Just before leaving the castle the white dove took me to an old door that nobody had opened in ages. It was dusty, made of thick oak and rather low as some castle doors can be. Since it was not locked I pushed the door open and entered into the small dimly lit and apparently forgotten room. I was deeply saddened, truly, and left the room very quickly in deep thoughts.

What I had seen in the dim light was a bronze tablet attached to the wall with text that explained some of the bitterness and lack of joy I noticed in the castle.
THE BRAIN OF AN ATHEIST IS NOT LOST BUT THE SOUL IS

What made me even sadder was the sentence written under it in one of the languages known by the greatly despised feared and even ridiculed Lord Vladimir.

Ecen crutzezco hitza, galtzen diradeney behinçát
erhogoa çaye: baina guri saluatzen garenoy
Iainçoaren verthute da

.......
I dedicate this memoir to Professor PZ Myers at the University of Minnesota, Morris, who kindly allowed me to visit one section of his castle between 29 April and 4 May 2011 and when the laughter and melee grew up showed me not so kindly out - as is, of course, his right.

Christopher Hitchens

Well, that was an interesting visit to a different kind of WEB forum.

As is his right, Professor P Z Myers closed his blog page at 1000 messages writing

"Sorry, this thread is way too long, and I'm cutting you off.
MikkoL is yet another in a long line of idiots who spur excessive thread growth."

That pretty much summarizes the level of discussion there when crazy morons like me try to argue with the illuminated ones!

Christopher Hitchens address

Considering one final time Mr Hitchens' address to American Atheists. Regardless of whether we side with God Delusion or with Dawkins Delusion we may agree that there are only few fundamentally different alternatives to 1. any kind of religious belief system or 2. optimistic expectation that one day in the future science will provide humanity also with an answer to that Ultimate Question of the Meaning of Life and Everything.

1. כך בחיים - kacha bechayim - Because!
Thats life, things just are because they are. All we should do is just to accept existence as it is because that's the way it is. We should not even ask questions that our human language cannot express in meaningful ways. However, "it is because it is" may remind some about the meaningful meaning of the name of the Hebrew God "I Am Who I Am", in short "I Am".

2. במקרה‎ - bemiqreh - by chance. Biologist Daniel C. Dennett presents this view about us humans as nothing but lucky mutations of chromosomes . According to him we can scientifically study those processes that evolved in time.

Honoring Miss Fortune with such an enormous role in the shaping our existence is obviously not a new idea. Two other brilliant human beings, Leucippus and Democritus ("chosen of the people" rather than "people chosen by God") shared the view that everything is caused by chance. Without any tools of observation they figured out by thinking what seemed to them to be the true nature of everything. As first true materialists they assumed that only matter exists. It is made of very small indivisible things (atomos) that move randomly in emptiness sometimes colliding together into lumps that give matter its observable attributes, hardness, color and so on.

What a celebrated achievement of human brain! However, they were fundamentally wrong in assuming chaotic inner structure of matter. Humanity has learned to study atoms. Periodic Table of Matter gives a hint that there probably is preciously little chaotic in the atomic strucutre of matter. Electronic energy levels must be within allowed limits and can be exactly calculated.

New forms of Mathematics had to be developed to handle the divided indivisible with all the strange tops and bottoms and colorful combinations of quarks that came to our attention. There are rumors that even the God particle, Higgs boson, has been found, believe it or not.

Order, not chaos, rules in modern Biology as it does in Nuclear Physics.

D.C. Dennett, a human being like me, is convinced that he can scientifically demonstrate that DNA is nothing but a lucky product of random mutations evolving in some rather accurately defined environment. I do not believe him.

God of Israel says "I have made everything". This everything includes also the extraordinary complexities surrounding deoxyribonucleic acid. I believe what He says. I do so even I understand very little about DNA evolution in comparison to Professor Dennett.

Christopher Hitchens

Hitchen's letter addresses the problem of American Christian creationists attempts to influence school curriculum. In my opinion religious and philosophical interpretations of scientific theories should be discussed in other classes, not while studying biology. Sarah Palin is a worrying example of the ignorance of USA people using religion for political gain.

The letter seems to adopt positions close to August Comte, who defined what has been positively given to mankind and rejected metaphysics. However, other philosophers have long ago pointed out that Comte's own position is metaphysical. Ludwig Wittgenstein extended this to separate blabbering about things unspeakable from accurate verifiable language. But what made him an authority of reality and limit so drastically what humans are able to think and speak about. Logical positivism is important but also a trap, a prison of mind, that not make Wittgenstein a happy philosopher a la Democritos.

Evolution is the big thing in modern worldview, but it is human concept largely based on the brilliant and difficult to understand work of Hegel (this is a big subject). When human egg becomes pregnant, we do not call the deterministic (teleological) growth and development of the embryo "evolution". But when planet Earth becomes impregnated by life, perhaps by the interstellar sperm in Sir Fred Hoyle's theory of the origins of life, and reaches the peak of biodiversity in Mesozoic era, we do call it "evolution" and try to understand it by observing both living and paleontological evidence like Charles Darwin did in Patagonia and Galapagos Islands.

Interestingly, the name of his brilliant and revolutionary scientific publication "The Origins of Species" remains - after 150 years of intensive research - an elusive goal. We really do not yet know why chimpanzee brains kept that block which was removed from our ancestors head leading to enormous and fast evolution, growth, development, of human brains.

As for religion and science, a value pair that Mr Hitchens seems to abhor - Big Bang theory was originally developed and discussed with Albert Einstein and others by a Catholic priest, Monsignor Georges Henri Joseph Édouard Lemaître, who did not improperly mix science and religion when applying general theory of relativity to cosmology.