Intelligence Squared - Hitchens / Harris Flashcards
Stephen Fry speech - Hitchens
A true thing badly expressed is a lie. Supreme intelligence Range of learning Breadth of knowledge He had a miraculous ability to put one word after another in the service of poetry
What we’re here to celebrate in this cultural desert of celebrity worship, counter-enlightenment malice and revealed scripture tyranny is that there is still someone in this world, especially amongst the intelligent and curious, with a furious appetite for ideas, for knowledge, for thought and for the questioning of authority.
He was a hero of the mind with an unencumbered morality.
“There is such an opportunity when you own a billion souls on this planet. It’s an opportunity which is always being wasted”.
Casuistry between the sin of homosexual behaviour and just being a homosexual
Sam Harris
People rarely defend the truth of religion. Even fundamentalists tend not come forward with evidence of miracles or confirmation of prophecy. What everyone tends to lead with is this concern about the usefulness of religion and the failure of non-belief to provide the same utility. This utility is the notion of a moral framework.
Belief in God is a source of moral blindness.
Moral values are a certain kind of fact. They are facts about the wellbeing of conscious creatures. They’re facts about the kinds of experiences this universe allows for.
