The museums of medieval Europe, from Holland to Tuscany, are crammed with instruments and devices upon which the holy men labored devoutly, in order to see how long they could keep someone alive while being roasted. It is not needful to go into further details, but there were also religious books of instruction in this art, and guides for the detection of heresy by pain.
Interpretation
This quote critiques the cruel lengths to which medieval religious practices went in the name of faith, emphasizing the dark side of human history.
Christopher Hitchens reflects on the horrors of medieval European practices where religious figures devised instruments for torture and prolonged suffering. It highlights a grim aspect of history, examining the intertwining of religion, morality, and inhumane actions, suggesting a critical view of the misuse of faith and the obsession with heresy detection. The reference to 'holy men' shows a stark contrast between faith and cruelty, prompting deeper reflection on the consequences of extreme beliefs.
In practice
In a discussion on the ethical implications of historical religious practices.
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 — 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.
I never relied on my beauty for anything. It was one of those things that was inevitable; you have a bit of philosophy about it. I didn't go into mourning.
I'm going to die one day. I know it's coming for me, too. I'll be a mountain, I'll be a stone on the beach. I'll be nourishment.
The rage for wanting to conclude is one of the most deadly and most fruitless manias to befall humanity. Each religion and each philosophy has pretended to have God to itself, to measure the infinite, and to know the recipe for happiness. What arrogance and what nonsense! I see, to the contrary, that the greatest geniuses and the greatest works have never concluded.
The complexity of the connection between the world of perception and the world of physics does not preclude that such a connection can be shown to exist at any time.
A society in stable equilibrium is-by definition-one that has no history and wants no historians.
Temperance is simply a disposition of the mind which binds the passion.
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