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Entry: Hitchens' Hubris Link: http://www.takimag.com/site/article/hitchens_hubris#2693 Post contents: Wonderful article, full of truth and insight. But, wih respect, you ought to be careful in using examples that you don't know enough about. To take an example, why do you say this? "By contrast, men who believe that life is 'random and contingent,' the result of a process that was 'callous and cruel … and capricious,' are likely to produce ... music like Arnold Schonberg [sic] ..." In the first place, what makes you attribute such a belief to Schoenberg? He was, so far as I've ever heardl, a believer. He identified himself, at various times in his life, as a Protestant, a Catholic, and a Jew. So he can hardly be a good example, even if we discount his art, which this Catholic agrees with almost all the musical profession as being among the great creations of European musical art. It is so easy to discredit otherwise good arguments by going beyond your depth. We should leave that sort of thing to Hitchens. Sent at: 2008 07 24