I'm here as a product of process of evolution, which doesn't make very many exceptions. And which rates life relatively cheaply.
Interpretation
The quote reflects on the indifferent nature of evolution and its implications for the value of life.
Christopher Hitchens suggests that the process of evolution is largely blind and does not prioritize individual lives or experiences. This perspective implies that life is valued less in the grand scheme of natural processes, inviting us to contemplate our place in the universe and how we define worth and significance beyond mere survival.
In practice
In a discussion on the value of life and existence during a philosophy class.
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.
Civilization is the art of living in towns of such size the everyone does not know everyone else.
God created man in His own image, says the Bible; philosophers reverse the process: they create God in theirs.
Vladimir: I don't understand. Estragon: Use your intelligence, can't you? Vladimir uses his intelligence. Vladimir: (finally) I remain in the dark.
It struck me that distant cities are designed precisely so you can know where you came from.
I urge you to ask yourself just how honorable it is to preside over the abuse and suffering of animals.
The world is a kind of spiritual kindergarten where millions of bewildered infants are trying to spell "God" with the wrong blocks.
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