Moderated Book about Hitchens claims he almost converted

[Magrat]

On reading the book, at $13.00 for Kindle and $16.65 for hardcover, many of us likely do not want to give this author any money and encourage him.

I know of a guy who likes to collect creationist books but he does not like to give the authors money for them. As a result, he looks for people to help him find used copies. He looks himself too but he is only one person.

I maybe will get this from the library eventually, but absolutely no way I'm spending money on this crap.

 

[Bram Kaandorp]

Now the excuse is they don't want to give hitchens friend money

Hey maybe that was the reason those christians people were ragging on for not reading books had.

No, it is a side-issue.

I don't want to give money to someone who is selling something which is probably not true, based on all the evidence available.

 

[Magrat]

Also 16...library...

 

[Magrat]

What is really great about this, is we spent this entire thread arguing with one person and not talking about Hitchens or the article etc.... Thread was hijacked from the start.

 

[ComfySlippers]

Feel free to continue I'm on a lot of threads, loads of opportunities!

Awesome. Another potential victim.
I'll give the lab a quick wipe.
--
The book:

“At the end of his life, Christopher’s searches had brought him willingly, if secretly, to the altar,” Taunton writes at the end of the book. “Precisely what he did there, no one knows.”

Nope. Not 'avin any of that bollocks.
Creepy Christian is, surprisingly, Creepy.

 

[The Big Dog]

Nope. Not 'avin any of that bollocks.
Creepy Christian is, surprisingly, Creepy.

Creepy?

Hitchens once said in an interview, “If everyone in the United States had the same qualities of loyalty and care and concern for others that Larry Taunton has, we’d be living in a much better society than we do.”

Taunton writes of his deep concern for Hitchens — for both his soul and his physical well-being. The two took two cross-country road trips after Hitchens became ill, and Taunton’s recollections of those trips and the conversations they had — untaped and unwitnessed by anyone else — form the heart of the book.

Sounds like Hitchens would clearly disagree

 

[Magrat]

Awesome. Another potential victim.
I'll give the lab a quick wipe.
--
The book:


Nope. Not 'avin any of that bollocks.
Creepy Christian is, surprisingly, Creepy.

Creepy Christian isn't removing his fingerprints from the lab though lol

In all seriousness, dude wrote a book to say Hitchens maybe almost considered converting, but even in the extremity of illness and "teetering on the chasm" of eternity still knew there is no god. So this actually proves what? Nothing, IMHO. Except that you can squeeze money out of any dead "celebrity", maybe.

 

[ComfySlippers]

Creepy?



Sounds like Hitchens would clearly disagree

Hitchens is dead. He can't answer back.
Taunton pretty much says that Hitchens' atheism was caused by loving his mother more than his father.

Oh, and evil Socialism.

Creepy Dingbat.

 

[Magrat]

Hitchens is dead. He can't answer back.
Taunton pretty much says that Hitchens' atheism was caused by loving his mother more than his father.

Oh, and evil Socialism.

Creepy Dingbat.

Hahahhahaha

 

[Craig B]

It is pretty common for Christians to do that. . . . For example, a while back I read The Pope Against the Jews. I was discussing it with a Catholic and he told me to read a book (The Myth of Hitler's Pope) which refutes it. My agreement what that I would read his suggested book if he would read the book above.

I actually got the book through an interlibrary loan, read through it, and basically it was little more than a poor apologetic which does not really address The Pope Against the Jews but instead uses a lot of deflection. I actually wrote a discussion of the book (PM me if you want to read it - Edit: Likely just start a thread if there is a lot of interest.)

Found out later that the Catholic I was arguing with did not read the book he asked me to and never read the book I asked him to either.

I have read that book, and I have it somewhere at home. It is most valuable and impressive, particularly for its account of affairs in the Papal States prior to annexation by Italy; which are not well known to the modern public.

 

[Craig B]

I am simply gobsmacked that people are ripping on this book while at the same time stating they won't read it. Case in point, you are declaring that you are not impressed with a book you have not read and do not intend to do so.

It is like bizarro-Skepticism in here, things I would expect to hear from fundamentalists proffering excuses why they won't do something.

I am not impressed with the claims I know to be contained in the book. Now you read it, and change my mind if you can. That's how discourse works. Nobody can read everything, so you can read this and tell me why it impresses you. Then I may read it if your report seems significant. Otherwise I'd be reading all manner of rubbish about aliens on the moon and the Blessed Virgin talking to shepherdesses and I have no time to read the bulk of this. I have read some of it, just as I've read (and quoted in this thread) Christian stories about deathbed recantations by alleged atheists. I can't read it all, so you do it, and tell me why you believe it.

All the more absurd are your statements, in that during his lifetime I was highly critical of Hitchens. His scholarship and opinions were seriously flawed, in my view.

 

[Desert Fox]

I have read that book, and I have it somewhere at home. It is most valuable and impressive, particularly for its account of affairs in the Papal States prior to annexation by Italy; which are not well known to the modern public.

It was a really good book. . . . .It is really interesting the apologetics given for kidnapping a kid from his parents.

 

[Craig B]

It was a really good book. . . . .It is really interesting the apologetics given for kidnapping a kid from his parents.

If he had been brought up as a Jew he would have gone to Hell. Pius IX stated that he refused to "extradite a soul".

 

[catsmate]

I am simply gobsmacked that people are ripping on this book while at the same time stating they won't read it.

Why? Is it necessary to read every Holocaust denial, xian apologist or 911 conspiracy nut book to know that the facts don't support their worldview?

In this case we have Hitchens's own words.

It is perfectly acceptable to reject a book if you have other reliable sources to refute it.

Do you believe the Holocaust occurred? Have you read any books by Holocaust deniers? If you have not, how can you argue that they are wrong having made the argument that you have to read anything which you argue against?

Exactly. But given 16.5 has nothing to support the premise of the book he has to resort to something or accept that it's nonsense.

 

[zooterkin]

Several posts moved to AAH.

Please keep to the topic of the thread which is, perhaps surprisingly, not each other.

Ta very much.

Replying to this modbox in thread will be off topic  Posted By: zooterkin

 

[angrysoba]

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that this book is almost certainly garbage.

 

[Joey McGee]

I am relatively sure I am a more capable judge of sincerity than our subject, Larry. I think Larry is sincere. And I detect a lack of sincerity in the debate we find ourselves in. This is my highly biased opinion.

 

[Desert Fox]

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that this book is almost certainly garbage.

I am relatively sure I am a more capable judge of sincerity than our subject, Larry. I think Larry is sincere. And I detect a lack of sincerity in the debate we find ourselves in. This is my highly biased opinion.

I suspect that creationist authors often believe that evolution is a lie but does not mean that their books are not garbage.

 

[Joey McGee]

Give me a believer over a cynic any day.

 

[Noztradamus]

Give me a believer over a cynic any day.

Anthony Comstock vs Mark Twain: difficult choice