"Religion is part of the human make-up. It's also part of our cultural and intellectual history. Religion was our first attempt at literature, the texts, our first attempt at cosmology, making sense of where we are in the universe, our first attempt at health care, believing in faith healing, our first attempt at philosophy"
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Hitchens doesn’t deny religion’s scale; he reassigns its job title. The line is structured like a brisk inventory, a roll call of human needs religion once met: story, explanation, medicine, meaning. That catalog is doing sly rhetorical work. By calling religion our "first attempt" at literature and cosmology, he pays it a backhanded respect while quietly framing it as a prototype: ingenious for its time, superseded by better tools. The phrase "human make-up" sounds almost biological, as if belief is an evolved impulse, but the next clause yanks it into history, not destiny. If religion is in our makeup, Hitchens implies, so is outgrowing it.
The subtext is classic Hitchens: admiration without deference. He concedes religion’s cultural horsepower to preempt the easy rebuttal that atheism is philistine or historically illiterate. Then he folds religion into the broader story of human inquiry, where trial-and-error eventually gives way to methods that can be checked. "Faith healing" is the tell: he picks the most emotionally charged example of religion stepping into medicine, where comfort can look like cure and authority can masquerade as evidence.
Context matters. Hitchens is speaking from the late-20th/early-21st century moment when science, pluralism, and the culture wars collide, and the "New Atheist" project is not just disbelief but demystification. He’s arguing that religion’s achievements are real, but they’re achievements of humanity under conditions of ignorance and vulnerability. The barb is gentle, the conclusion unsparing: religion was our first draft of understanding, and first drafts aren’t sacred.
The subtext is classic Hitchens: admiration without deference. He concedes religion’s cultural horsepower to preempt the easy rebuttal that atheism is philistine or historically illiterate. Then he folds religion into the broader story of human inquiry, where trial-and-error eventually gives way to methods that can be checked. "Faith healing" is the tell: he picks the most emotionally charged example of religion stepping into medicine, where comfort can look like cure and authority can masquerade as evidence.
Context matters. Hitchens is speaking from the late-20th/early-21st century moment when science, pluralism, and the culture wars collide, and the "New Atheist" project is not just disbelief but demystification. He’s arguing that religion’s achievements are real, but they’re achievements of humanity under conditions of ignorance and vulnerability. The barb is gentle, the conclusion unsparing: religion was our first draft of understanding, and first drafts aren’t sacred.
Quote Details
| Topic | Faith |
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