Forgotten were the elementary rules of logic, that extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence and that what can be asserted without evidence can also be dismissed without evidence.
Interpretation
Extraordinary claims need substantial backing through evidence, otherwise they can be disregarded.
In this quote, Christopher Hitchens emphasizes the importance of grounding extraordinary claims in solid evidence. He argues that without sufficient evidence to support a claim, it holds no value and can be easily dismissed, highlighting a fundamental principle of logical reasoning that insists on the necessity of evidence for the validation of assertions.
In practice
In a debate about science and pseudoscience, one might quote Hitchens to emphasize the need for evidence.
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.
What can be asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence.
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.
[E]xceptional claims demand exceptional evidence.
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.
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 itβs had to give so much more ground and because we know so much more. But youβve 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.
It is more important that a proposition be interesting than that it be true. This statement is almost a tautology. For the energy of operation of a proposition in an occasion of experience is its interest and is its importance. But of course a true proposition is more apt to be interesting than a false one.
Empires fall, ids explode, great symphonies are written, and behind all of it is a single instinct that demands satisfaction.
Prayer gives a channel to the pent-up sorrows of the soul, they flow away, and in their stead streams of sacred delight pour into the heart.
But manly set the world on sixe and sevene; And, if thou deye a martir, go to hevene.
It is natural for the mind to believe and for the will to love; so that, for want of true objects, they must attach themselves to false.
Sir, I admit your general rule, That every poet is a fool, But you yourself may serve to show it, That every fool is not a poet.
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