2min chapter

Decoding the Gurus cover image

Christopher Hitchens: Rhetoric, Religion, and Ramadan

Decoding the Gurus

CHAPTER

The Inconsistency of Hitchens' Argument

Bocris: What he's saying though isn't in terms of his form or his style, it's not as precise as Hitchens. He slides between things at times because of that. It feels like as he shifts what type of argument he's going to make. But the fact that he's arguing, religion is not just one thing to speak about it as a single unitary thing is a simplifying point. Bocris: When they're done right, these kind of engagements are interesting.

00:00
Speaker 2
What he's saying though isn't in terms of his form or his style, it's not as precise as Hitchens though, is it? It's kind of more...
Speaker 9
I don't know. I thought...
Speaker 7
Yeah, but
Speaker 1
I think it's the nature of the argument that he's making. And I did think that he slides between things at times because of that. There he said, for example, that it's not because he thinks there is a good Islam and the right Islam. No, he's never said that. But as we'll see in other clips, he does imply that. And so it's an inconsistency. It feels like as he shifts what type of argument he's going to make.
Speaker 7
But the fact that he's
Speaker 1
arguing, religion is not just one thing to speak about it as a single unitary thing is a simplifying point. It's too silly. It's George Bush. I think that's a good argument. And he did that thing, Matt, of responding to Hitchens' attempt to trap him by saying, I'm not so simple, I don't say that, I never said that. And then moves on. So again, that's a kind of response. But yeah,
Speaker 2
it's the... You would just listen to this like enjoying the debate, Bocris. You were just enjoying the parry and thrust of the
Speaker 7
debate. Yeah,
Speaker 1
because they're both good at it in this. And I also, I think like you are interested in the be it's about religion and the kind of atheist and the creationist debates and all those kind of things. So I'm not to mention that academically I've studied religion from the point of view of like psychology and anthropology. But I do find these kind of engagements like where there's different worldviews presented and people debate them. When they're done right, they're interesting. Even if I find some of the points made annoying or to kind of argue scared, I think it's... It is good that we do this on occasion or these kind of things can be organized. Yeah, not fair enough.

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