Finally, notice what you will not find in Hitchens’s VF piece: any statement that says, clearly and unambiguously, “I was wrong.” You will not find any acknowledgement that those he’s been smearing for the past seven years were right; no apologies to Amnesty or to anyone else. Hitchens presents the most obvious claims — waterboarding is torture, and torture is wrong and counterproductive — as if they were his very own discoveries, with no context, no history, no owning up to his own past mistakes. He is, in other words, effectively just another “liberal hawk” trying to rehabilitate his shattered reputation by pretending that his being wrong about everything for years never happened, and that his very serious opinions must be taken very seriously by very serious people.
No thanks. I still prefer to listen to people who got it right the first time.
Beleive Me, It’s Torture – Christopher Hitchens
I have to agree, any knowledge, whether empirical or spiritual must always be self-realized before it has any true meaning. Hitchens folly as an Atheist is his certainty in matters that he has not confirmed; that makes him no different from your average run of the mill theist.
I’m an Atheist, but people like him give me heartburn sometimes. There is true value to both sides, but they can both be corrupted by the desire for self-confirmation.
I never listened to him anyway, he doesn’t speak for me, but it’s interesting to see the reactions. He just pointed out a huge failing among the so-called New Atheists. It’s really hard to be right in this communication age without checking your facts first, because someone else will.