To reflect upon the event horizon is a great deal more awe-inspiring than a burning bush or a wooden statue that weeps or pees or bleeds.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the profound awe inspired by cosmic phenomena compared to religious symbols.
Christopher Hitchens highlights the significance of scientific wonder over traditional religious symbols. He suggests that contemplating something as vast and mysterious as the event horizon of a black hole is far more impressive than biblical miracles, framing the universe's mysteries as a source of inspiration and reverence.
In practice
This quote can be shared at a science conference to spark discussions on the significance of understanding the universe.
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 have not come to know atheism as a result of logical reasoning and still less as an event in my life: in me it is a matter of instinct.
You see, one thing is, I can live with doubt and uncertainty and not knowing. I have approximate answers and possible beliefs and different degrees of certainty about different things... It doesn't frighten me.
The blues aren’t pessimistic. We’re prisoners of hope but we tell the truth and the truth is dark.
Anyone who lives within their means suffers from a lack of imagination.
The virtuous man contents himself with dreaming that which the wicked man does in actual life.
What is truth? A difficult question; but I have solved it for myself by saying that it is what the 'voice within' tells you.
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