Many religions now come before us with ingratiating smirks and outspread hands, like an unctuous merchant in a bazaar. They offer consolation and solidarity and uplift, competing as they do in a marketplace. But we have a right to remember how barbarically they behaved when they were strong and were making an offer that people could not refuse.
Interpretation
The quote critiques how religions may appear benevolent while ignoring their historical wrongdoings.
Christopher Hitchens highlights the paradox of religions that seem to offer comfort and support in a benevolent manner, akin to a merchant in a marketplace. However, he urges us to remember their past actions when they held power and failed to act with compassion, suggesting that such historical perspectives should inform our current view of these institutions.
In practice
During a debate on the impact of religion on society, one might quote Hitchens to emphasize the need to critically evaluate historical actions of religions.
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.
We are ever dying to one world and being born into another.
I'm not me but living matter fermenting and forming its own shapes in the fruitfulness of every day.
Being offended by freedom of speech should never be regarded as a justification for violence.
One of the peculiar sins of the twentieth century which we've developed to a very high level is the sin of credulity. It has been said that when human beings stop believing in God they believe in nothing. The truth is much worse: they believe in anything.
Without looking through the window, you can see Heaven's Way.
Why were you so old when we met? I answered with the truth: Age isn't how old you are but how old you feel.
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