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.
Interpretation
The quote reflects on the evolution of religious discourse and the power dynamics that have historically surrounded it.
Christopher Hitchens highlights the radical change in the way religion is discussed in society today compared to the past, emphasizing that the openness we now have is derived from a historical context where such conversations could endanger lives. He warns against forgetting the oppressive nature religion exhibited when it wielded significant control and influence, suggesting a critical examination of its power and historical behavior is necessary even when it presents itself in a more benign manner.
In practice
In a debate about the influence of religion on modern society.
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.
I boldly assert, in fact I think I know, that a lot of friendships and connections absolutely depend upon a sort of shared language, or slang. Not necessarily designed to exclude others, this can establish a certain comity and, even after a long absence, re-establish it in a second.
The true test of one's commitment to liberty and private property rights doesn't come when we permit people to be free to do those voluntary things with which we agree. The true test comes when we permit people to be free to do those voluntary things with which we disagree.
It is better for you to be free of fear lying upon a pallet, than to have a golden couch and a rich table and be full of trouble.
Either we conform our desires to the truth or we conform the truth to our desires.
God is an unutterable sigh, planted in the depths of the soul.
Just as primitive man believed himself to stand face to face with demons and believed that could he but know their names he would become their master, so is contemporary man faced by this incomprehensible, which disorders his calculations.
When men abandon reason, physical force becomes their only means of dealing with one another and of settling disagreements.
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