it is interesting to find that people of faith now seek defensively to say that they are no worse than fascists or Nazis or Stalinists
Interpretation
This quote critiques individuals who compare their beliefs to extreme historical regimes to justify their positions.
Christopher Hitchens highlights a paradoxical tendency among some individuals of faith who, when challenged, resort to defensively asserting that they are not as morally reprehensible as figures like fascists, Nazis, or Stalinists. This suggests a self-awareness of their beliefs, yet also a troubling effort to mitigate criticism by drawing comparisons with historically violent ideologies, rather than asserting the positive values that faith should ideally embody.
In practice
In a debate about the role of religion in society, one might reference this quote to discuss the moral implications of belief systems.
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 β because itβs had to give so much more ground and because we know so much more. But youβve 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 am in no way different from anyone else, that my predicament, my sense of aloneness or isolation may be precisely what unites me with everyone.
By strengthening the three pillars of the United Nations - security, development and human rights - we can build a more peaceful, more prosperous and more just world for our succeeding generations.
Every man is guilty of all the good he did not do.
Who are we, who is each one of us, if not a combination of experiences, information, books we have read, things imagined? Each life is an encyclopedia, a library, an inventory of objects, a series of styles, and everything can be constantly shuffled and reordered in every way conceivable.
For until men recognize that they owe everything to God, that they are nourished by His fatherly care, that He is the Author of their every good, that they should seek nothing beyond Him - they will never yield Him willing service. Nay, unless they establish their complete happiness in Him, they will never give themselves truly and sincerely to Him.
The Public ... demands certainties ... But there are not certainties
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