not even devils advocate, just don't like intellectual inconsistency
you're drawing distinctions that don't matter. whether the us and ussr and nazi germany were ostensibly secular or actually secular is as relevant as whether medieval europe was actually christian or just using a guise of christianity
if someone told you the spanish inquisition wasn't true christianity but was instead power politics operating under a guise of righteousness, you'd slap that shit out of here and rightfully so.
but then don't pussy out when atrocities happen in states that have claimed to discard state religion in order to operate on secular motives
hitchens is praising the secular shift of government that has allowed for freedom of religious (and anti-religious) speech. in the same breath, he's invoking the thousands of years of horrors committed by supposedly religious governments and stating that we should never forgive them for what they did while in power. if we're going to be even-minded, then we should talk about what else came with this supposed secular shift. have we rooted out or at least lessened the atrocities seen in less secular times?
no. atrocities continue on par with the worst of the past and supposedly secular governments have been some of the worst offenders. blaming religion is a cop out.
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