Ad astra per aspera.

Very often, when I give my view that there is no supernatural dimension, and certainly not one that is only or especially available to the faithful, and that the natural world is wonderful enough—and even miraculous enough if you insist—I attract pitying looks and anxious questions. How, in that case, I am asked, do I find meaning and purpose in life? How does a mere and gross materialist, with no expectation of a life to come, decide what, if anything, is worth caring about? Depending on my mood, I sometimes but not always refrain from pointing out what a breathtakingly insulting and patronizing question this is. (It is on a par with the equally subtle inquiry: Since you don’t believe in our god, what stops you from stealing and lying and raping and killing to your heart’s content?) Just as the answer to the latter question is: self-respect and the desire for the respect of others—while in the meantime it is precisely those who think they have divine permission who are truly capable of any atrocity—so the answer to the first question falls into two parts. A life that partakes even a little of friendship, love, irony, humor, parenthood, literature, and music, and the chance to take part in battles for the liberation of others cannot be called ‘meaningless’ except if the person living it is also an existentialist and elects to call it so. It could be that all existence is a pointless joke, but it is not in fact possible to live one’s everyday life as if this were so. Whereas if one sought to define meaninglessness and futility, the idea that a human life should be expended in the guilty, fearful, self-obsessed propitiation of supernatural nonentities… but there, there. Enough.

Christopher Hitchens, Hitch-22 (via hitch-22)

(via apoplecticskeptic)

1. tiiigerstyle liked this
2. twinhug reblogged this from morecommondecency
3. godofsmallthings reblogged this from apoplecticskeptic
4. thecherrytrees liked this
5. rclesham reblogged this from apoplecticskeptic
6. palisadeofpleasure liked this
7. prawnmael liked this
8. hansicle liked this
9. professorjoke liked this
10. whalegoat reblogged this from sixtyforty
11. atomicyawn reblogged this from nutopiancitizen
12. atomicyawn liked this
13. nutopiancitizen reblogged this from cocknbull
14. davincisbarber liked this
15. dachesterfrench liked this
16. karloelschlaeger liked this
17. cbbandb liked this
18. nevermindthegaps liked this
19. figgdimension reblogged this from apoplecticskeptic
20. evensometimestheskyexplodes liked this
21. misconceptionoftheoyster liked this
22. saiaanggi liked this
23. altidude liked this
24. garrettcz reblogged this from apoplecticskeptic
25. garrettcz liked this
26. queenkong liked this
27. powderkegger reblogged this from hitch-22
28. donotcallmeashley liked this
29. chrisrex reblogged this from franklymrshanklyy
30. carsinmycoffee reblogged this from apoplecticskeptic
31. carsinmycoffee liked this
32. mybutt-hole liked this
33. randompolock reblogged this from apoplecticskeptic
34. completeculture liked this
35. willismyfriend liked this
36. tragos liked this
37. franklymrshanklyy reblogged this from hitch-22
38. ninawilkins liked this
39. ironicboredom liked this
40. heavensunfastened reblogged this from apoplecticskeptic
41. kyliefarris liked this
42. ardiecoll reblogged this from apoplecticskeptic
43. jahmaal liked this
44. pussytooth liked this
45. mjhopkinsjr liked this
46. allisonunsupervised liked this
47. dreamingaboutthemoon reblogged this from apoplecticskeptic
48. lacielaurendine reblogged this from apoplecticskeptic and added:

    Interesting and enlightening perspective.

49. deltaomega liked this
50. doublejack liked this
51. Show more notesLoading...