View Full Version : Christopher Hitchens interview "What if?"
Daynna
11 Apr 2009, 07:24 PM
Anyone else listen to this? I'm not sure how long ago the interview was, but PZ Myers recently posted it on his blog:
http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2009/04/how_to_frustrate_an_evangelica.php
It's a great listen.
Todd Friel came off like a total douche bag.
reddhedd
12 Apr 2009, 05:11 AM
I don't know about "a total douche bag". I didn't listen to both links...frankly I got bored. BUT..the game was called "what if..." and the premise, if I understood it correctly, was that the host got to pose "what if" questions, and the guest was supposed to answer as if the ''what if'' was true. Mr. Hitchens refused to follow the format...I understand why, but I don't understand why he bothered to call in as the featured guest, if he wasn't going to play the game as it was set up.
David B
12 Apr 2009, 09:51 AM
I don't know about "a total douche bag". I didn't listen to both links...frankly I got bored. BUT..the game was called "what if..." and the premise, if I understood it correctly, was that the host got to pose "what if" questions, and the guest was supposed to answer as if the ''what if'' was true. Mr. Hitchens refused to follow the format...I understand why, but I don't understand why he bothered to call in as the featured guest, if he wasn't going to play the game as it was set up.
I'd guess that he took the role of featured guest in order to plug his book, as well as to have a bit of fun with the guy.
I've just listened to it now, and I thought he did follow the format.
I rather enjoyed it.
David
BigEvil
12 Apr 2009, 11:21 AM
I thought he followed the format also. And he was definitely trying to plug his book, he mentioned it on almost every answer if not every answer.
I thought he was responding properly to the dimwitted questions. And yes, he was plugging his book, but OTOH the questioner came across as knowing nothing about the book, which was crass. I think all he knew was the title, and hence went on at some length about Hitchens being angry with God. It's like people who have never read Dawkins's The Selfish Gene who assume that the book justifies selfishness in people.
BigEvil
12 Apr 2009, 09:03 PM
Just out of curiosity, is Hitchens' book worth reading? I have always passed on it, because it just seemed like a rehash of arguements that I am familiar with. Is it well written? Is it aimed at people who are new to atheist arguements?
I found a few ideas that were given a different twist. He always writes extremely well and entertainingly.
Worldtraveller
12 Apr 2009, 11:37 PM
I haven't finished it, I keep skipping around and reading in bits and pieces, but his writing style is much better than his speaking style. I'd say it's worth reading.
I have a signed copy. :)
Philosophickle
13 Apr 2009, 02:10 AM
I love reading Hitchens' literary criticism stuff. His book on Orwell is amazing.
Anyway, Hitchens dominated that interview. Friel is retarded and Hitchens just blew him up.
Stout Drinker
13 Apr 2009, 02:52 AM
"Groveling, thanksgiving, and endless praise is my idea of Hell."
Too damn funny.
Hitchens pwned him.
miss djax
13 Apr 2009, 03:19 AM
that guy is a total tool - i love hitchens :)
this guy can't just get past the point that hitchens isn't going to let each one of these ridiculous premises slide. he comes across like a mental midget.
i heart hitchens...
miss djax
13 Apr 2009, 03:30 AM
sorry i can't get enough of this...his first fatal mistake is assuming that hitchens knows nothing about the bible, when it is absolutely obvious that hitchens knows more than the host.
is it just that it makes it easier for fundamentalists to rail against people like hitchens or other atheists by assuming they know nothing of the bible and other religous works?
he's really bummed he didn't get to spring his 'gotcha' on hitchens at the end.
Daynna
13 Apr 2009, 06:29 PM
He did follow the format. He just refused to be led to the obvious conclusion this guy was trying to lead him to. Friel wasn't playing a "what if" game. It was a pretty transparent tactic to get a famous atheist to concede he agrees that a god must exist. I can't believe anyone could have missed it even if they weren't familiar with this particular trick.
SallyAnne
20 Apr 2009, 12:04 AM
That interview was rather intriguing, I am going to read Hitchens book.
SallyAnne
20 Apr 2009, 02:09 AM
I don't know about "a total douche bag". I didn't listen to both links...frankly I got bored. BUT..the game was called "what if..." and the premise, if I understood it correctly, was that the host got to pose "what if" questions, and the guest was supposed to answer as if the ''what if'' was true. Mr. Hitchens refused to follow the format...I understand why, but I don't understand why he bothered to call in as the featured guest, if he wasn't going to play the game as it was set up.
Right, he didn't follow the format or play the game as it was set up. He seemed to be saying "there is no Soverign Authority from Anyone or Anything that I will ever accept, I am my own god. Even "if" there should be a Supreme Authority, I shall never submit to it." That seemed like the gist of his "what if."
Copernicus
20 Apr 2009, 05:15 AM
Hitchens seems to be replacing Dawkins now as the most visible, prominent atheist on the American scene. He is much more entertaining than Dawkins, who comes off as too intellectual. Hitchens is much more earthy.
This interview has become an instant classic on the internet. I have seen it on several bulletin boards now. Hitchens turns the interviewer into a kind of "bozo" punching bag. Every time he knocks him over, the guy springs back up as if nothing had happened. Great entertainment.
The thing I can't get over about Hitchens is how much guts he has. He had himself waterboarded just to see if it really qualified as torture. Then he had it done a second time just to make sure that he got his facts right.
I don't know about "a total douche bag". I didn't listen to both links...frankly I got bored. BUT..the game was called "what if..." and the premise, if I understood it correctly, was that the host got to pose "what if" questions, and the guest was supposed to answer as if the ''what if'' was true. Mr. Hitchens refused to follow the format...I understand why, but I don't understand why he bothered to call in as the featured guest, if he wasn't going to play the game as it was set up.
Right, he didn't follow the format or play the game as it was set up. He seemed to be saying "there is no Soverign Authority from Anyone or Anything that I will ever accept, I am my own god. Even "if" there should be a Supreme Authority, I shall never submit to it." That seemed like the gist of his "what if."
For me the gist of it was about the "sacrifice" of Jesus and whether it conferred any obligation on Hitchens.
SallyAnne
20 Apr 2009, 08:01 AM
Hitchens seems to be replacing Dawkins now as the most visible, prominent atheist on the American scene. He is much more entertaining than Dawkins, who comes off as too intellectual. Hitchens is much more earthy.
I hadn't heard of Hitchens until I came here, I think I prefer Dawkins.
SallyAnne
20 Apr 2009, 08:23 AM
I don't know about "a total douche bag". I didn't listen to both links...frankly I got bored. BUT..the game was called "what if..." and the premise, if I understood it correctly, was that the host got to pose "what if" questions, and the guest was supposed to answer as if the ''what if'' was true. Mr. Hitchens refused to follow the format...I understand why, but I don't understand why he bothered to call in as the featured guest, if he wasn't going to play the game as it was set up.
Right, he didn't follow the format or play the game as it was set up. He seemed to be saying "there is no Soverign Authority from Anyone or Anything that I will ever accept, I am my own god. Even "if" there should be a Supreme Authority, I shall never submit to it." That seemed like the gist of his "what if."
For me the gist of it was about the "sacrifice" of Jesus and whether it conferred any obligation on Hitchens.
Which Hitchens flat out said it didn't, and even "if" it did, he wasn't having a bar of it.
Daynna
21 Apr 2009, 11:46 PM
I don't think he could ever take the place of Dawkins in my heart. Richard Dawkins was my first nerd crush. Before him I didn't know I liked intelligent older men with foreign accents. My friend, Tod, showed me a video tape of a Dawkins lecture (12 years ago?) and I fell in love. I named a fish after him and took his last name for my character on Everquest. :D
Now he's really famous, but didn't age as well as Sean Connery. Oh well. I never said I wasn't a little shallow.
SallyAnne
21 Apr 2009, 11:56 PM
I don't think he could ever take the place of Dawkins in my heart. Richard Dawkins was my first nerd crush.
LOL!:D I quite liked Dawkins when I saw him on that Darwin program.
TheBear
21 Apr 2009, 11:58 PM
Anyone else listen to this? I'm not sure how long ago the interview was, but PZ Myers recently posted it on his blog:
http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2009/04/how_to_frustrate_an_evangelica.php
It's a great listen.
Hitchens did a good job, he just didn't take it far enough. I would have also asked "what if" questions right back. Then again, he may have been stifled by the rules.
David B
21 Apr 2009, 11:59 PM
I don't think he could ever take the place of Dawkins in my heart. Richard Dawkins was my first nerd crush. Before him I didn't know I liked intelligent older men with foreign accents. My friend, Tod, showed me a video tape of a Dawkins lecture (12 years ago?) and I fell in love. I named a fish after him and took his last name for my character on Everquest. :D
Now he's really famous, but didn't age as well as Sean Connery. Oh well. I never said I wasn't a little shallow.
Hey, I'm a reasonably intelligent older man:evil:
Sadly, though, it is you that has the foreign accent:p
I like Dawkins a lot. If you haven't seen this, you might like it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEl4QfcAK2o&feature=related
David
Daynna
22 Apr 2009, 01:13 AM
My accent is foreign here in Pittsburgh, USA. :) Amazing the difference between areas of the US.
Lemme ask you this. Have you ever heard the phrase, "Hunger is the best sauce?" A couple of my Northern friends laughed at me today for saying that. They said it must be a Southern phrase. I thought it was common!
That's me, the thread jacker. I even jack my own thread. :D
Daynna
22 Apr 2009, 01:17 AM
Ah, David B, that video made me fall in love all over again. :)
David B
22 Apr 2009, 01:20 AM
'Hunger is the best sauce' rings bells.
But I think not verbatim. There is an old Brit adage with the same meaning, I think, but I can't recall it verbatim at this time of night.
Did you watch the Dawkins link?
David
Daynna
22 Apr 2009, 02:10 AM
Yup, you missed my response above.
My accent is foreign here in Pittsburgh, USA. :) Amazing the difference between areas of the US.
Lemme ask you this. Have you ever heard the phrase, "Hunger is the best sauce?" A couple of my Northern friends laughed at me today for saying that. They said it must be a Southern phrase. I thought it was common!
That's me, the thread jacker. I even jack my own thread. :D
Well known on this side of the pond, so it may well be a fairly early expression. :)
hecaterin
25 Apr 2009, 04:16 AM
I don't know about "a total douche bag". I didn't listen to both links...frankly I got bored. BUT..the game was called "what if..." and the premise, if I understood it correctly, was that the host got to pose "what if" questions, and the guest was supposed to answer as if the ''what if'' was true. Mr. Hitchens refused to follow the format...I understand why, but I don't understand why he bothered to call in as the featured guest, if he wasn't going to play the game as it was set up.But I watched it, and I think he did play the game. He just gave his own answers, but not the canned scripted answers that the host wanted and expected and had prepared for.
I don't know about "a total douche bag". I didn't listen to both links...frankly I got bored. BUT..the game was called "what if..." and the premise, if I understood it correctly, was that the host got to pose "what if" questions, and the guest was supposed to answer as if the ''what if'' was true. Mr. Hitchens refused to follow the format...I understand why, but I don't understand why he bothered to call in as the featured guest, if he wasn't going to play the game as it was set up.But I watched it, and I think he did play the game. He just gave his own answers, but not the canned scripted answers that the host wanted and expected and had prepared for.
^^^QFT
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