I don't think Romney is wacky at all, but religion makes intelligent people say and do wacky things, believe and affirm crazy things. Left on his own, Romney would never have said something like the Garden Of Eden was in Missouri, and will be again.
Interpretation
This quote critiques how religion can lead intelligent individuals to express nonsensical or absurd beliefs.
Christopher Hitchens points out that intelligent people, when influenced by their religious beliefs, can sometimes express ideas that seem irrational or outlandish. In the context of politics and public statements, he argues that such beliefs may distort an individual's perspective, leading them to make claims like the Garden of Eden being located in Missouri. This reflects a broader commentary on the intersection of faith and reason, suggesting that even well-educated individuals can succumb to dogmatic thinking.
In practice
During a debate on the role of religion in politics, one might quote Hitchens to highlight contradictions in public statements.
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.
Since trifles make the sum of human things, And half our misery from our foibles springs.
Again, it may be said, that to love justice and equality the people need no great effort of virtue; it is sufficient that they love themselves.
Imagination magnifies small objects with fantastic exaggeration until they fill our soul, and with bold insolence cuts down great things to its own size, as when speaking of God.
Tis' better to live your own life imperfectly than to imitate someone else's perfectly.
Character, like a photograph, develops in darkness.
The custom of speaking to God Almighty as freely as with a slave - caring nothing whether the words are suitable or not, but simply saying the first thing that comes to mind from being learnt by rote by frequent repetition - cannot be called prayer: God grant that no Christian may address Him in this manner.
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