WHEN CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS TOLD A CHRISTIAN THAT RELIGION WAS EVIL

Christian Frank Turek of https://impactapologetics.com/ is a prime defender of the Christian faith.

He wrote the runaway best seller Stealing from God.

Quote: I asked Christopher [Hitchens] to identify the objective standard by which he judged something to be evil. He kept avoiding a direct answer, so I finally just blurted out, “What is evil?” Without missing a beat, he quipped, “Religion!”

My comment: It takes guts to be evil. Even being cowardly has risks. You fail to protect yourself. It takes faith. It is the case that you think something supernatural is protecting you and you are made magically powerful and safe through the evil. You may not realise it. That is a form of religion for it is a strong form of religious faith. Religion and faith can be implicit and it is obvious that even self-proclaimed atheists who are sure they can start a war and win think some magical force such as God or luck is on their side. Hitchens is right.

Many forces including religion say that evil is banal. That is it is unnecessary and done for boring stupid reasons. That allows Catholics to explain how a nice person can go to Hell for having illicit sex against God's law. Evil is so crafty and can look harmless so religion could be harmless and still evil. Religion is based on banality and is a bandage for banality.