QuoteProject
Everything about Christianity is contained in the pathetic image of 'the flock.
Christopher Hitchens
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

The quote suggests that Christianity reduces individuals to a simplistic, submissive role within a group, rather than encouraging critical thinking and individuality.

Christopher Hitchens critiques Christianity by likening its followers to a 'flock,' implying that the religion promotes conformity over individuality. He argues that this imagery reflects a broader critique of religious belief systems that prioritize blind faith and submission over personal autonomy and critical thought. By using the term 'pathetic,' he emphasizes that he views this collective identity as a weakness rather than a strength, advocating for a more independent and questioning approach to spirituality and belief.

Themes

ChristianityFlockFaithIndividualityCritique

In practice

Example use cases

During a debate on the influence of religion in society, this quote could be used to illustrate the importance of individuality over conformity.

More from Christopher Hitchens

In a public dialogue with Salman in London he [Edward Said] had once described the Palestinian plight as one where his people, expelled and dispossessed by Jewish victors, were in the unique historical position of being 'the victims of the victims': there was something quasi-Christian, I thought, in the apparent humility of that statement.
Christopher HitchensRead
What can be asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence.
Christopher HitchensRead
Never ask while you are doing it if what you are doing is fun. Don't introduce even your most reliably witty acquaintance as someone who will set the table on a roar.
Christopher HitchensRead
[E]xceptional claims demand exceptional evidence.
Christopher HitchensRead
The worst days are when you feel foggy in the head - chemo-brain they call it. It's awful because you feel boring. As well as bored. And stupid. And resigned.
Christopher HitchensRead
Let me tell you something: for hundreds of thousands of years, this kind of discussion would have been impossible to have, or those like us would have been having it at the risk of our lives. Religion now comes to us in this smiley-face, ingratiating way β€” because it’s had to give so much more ground and because we know so much more. But you’ve got no right to forget the way it behaved when it was strong, and when it really did believe that it had God on its side.
Christopher HitchensRead

Similar quotes

Pride defeats its own end, by bringing the man who seeks esteem and reverence into contempt.
Henry BolingbrokeRead
All thought of something is at the same time self-consciousness [...] At the root of all our experiences and all our reflections, we find [...] a being which immediately recognises itself, [...] and which knows its own existence, not by observation and as a given fact, nor by inference from any idea of itself, but through direct contact with that existence. Self-consciousness is the very being of mind in action.
Maurice Merleau-PontyRead
I repeat Sturgeon's Revelation, which was wrung out of me after twenty years of wearying defense of science fiction against attacks of people who used the worst examples of the field for ammunition, and whose conclusion was that ninety percent of it is crud.
Theodore SturgeonRead
Two nations between whom there is no intercourse and no sympathy; who are as ignorant of each other's habits, thoughts, and feelings, as if they were dwellers in different zones, or inhabitants of different planets. The rich and the poor.
Benjamin DisraeliRead
In the Destroyer's steps there spring up bright creations that defy his power, and his dark path becomes a way of light to Heaven.
Charles DickensRead
Old events have modern meanings; only that survives of past history which finds kindred in all hearts and lives.
James Russell LowellRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.