The gospel according to Christopher Hitchens:
“Since it is obviously inconceivable that all religions can be right, the most reasonable conclusion is that they are all wrong.”
That’s Brilliant.
That’s “Brite.”
This is a term coined by some within the ranks of militant atheism. It seems to me that most thoughtful atheists either have to grin and bear the likes of Mr. Hitchens, roll their eyes, checkout their minds, and invite the Unwanted Uncle to the picnic of thoughtful interaction on this subject.
Who invited him? He is just here because he is part of the family. Most of what this crotchety, old man has to say can be portrayed as the repainting of relatively good people who are involved in some religious aspirations as the blight and plague of human civilization. Give him a few more drinks and the show will begin as he paints the other side with caricatures and vitriolic language.
Those who listen are somewhat amused.
But mostly embarrassed.
And I get this vague impression from reading his words in his books or others that the working pictures of his opponents are shining out of one of those children toys that has a bunch of colored pegs in which you press into a grid-work of holes in a box that contains a light of some sort. It makes a picture. Sort of.
The picture radiates in the light. You can almost make out a sort of argument in the portrait and its really bright and beautiful.
That’s “Brite.”
That’s “Lite Brite.”
You can almost make out some sort of argument in the midst of the ranting and raving of an uncle that has lost his mind, his marbles, but unfortunately not his speech. You can almost see the picture and its real pretty if you turn off the lights.
“Since it is obviously inconceivable that all religions can be right, the most reasonable conclusion is that they are all wrong.”
It sounds good. It quite pretty. But if this reasoning were applied to a multiple-choice test would the results demonstrate the robust nature of this statement?
A: Animism.
B: Buddhism.
C: Christianity.
D: Do include all the other major and minor Belief Systems.
Since it is obviously inconceivable that all answers can be right, the the most reasonable conclusion is that they are all wrong.
It seems to me that one ought to consider the merits of each answer to make an educated guess with respect to belief systems. To consider that all the answers can not be right—being quite obvious—and conclude that all answers must be wrong—being quite dubious—seems to be a nice way of trying to argue to a conclusion that one already believes to be true.
E: None of the above.
Perhaps that makes great sense to binge-drinkers in universities everywhere. But it stands to reason that if they are using such a rationale it is being reflected in their grand achievements of entering the workforce earlier than planned.
Perhaps, this is the correct answer to the multiple-choice question, but if the question was asked in a Logic 101 and required an essay to give reason for the answer chosen, then something tells me the results would be just as grand.
And there might be a chance that you could get a job on the ground floor of a manufacturing plant producing Multiple-choice Lite Brites.
