3 – By Christopher Hitchens
From an atheist perspective
Christopher Hitchens- same criticism as Russell plus criticism of Jesus’ treatment of his mother
Hitchens is very critical of Jesus and of religion in general. Regarding Jesus’ teachings on hell, Hitchens wrote: ‘The god of Moses would call for other tribes, including his favorite one, to suffer massacre and plague and even extirpation, but when the grave closed over his victims he was essentially finished with them unless he remembered to curse their succeeding progeny. Not until the advent of the Prince of Peace do we hear of the ghastly idea of further punishing and torturing the dead.’
Hitchens is critical of Jesus’ apparent inconsistency: ‘If Jesus could heal a blind person he happened to meet, then why not heal blindness?’
He also criticizes Jesus’ treatment of his mother: ‘Jesus makes large claims for his heavenly father but never mentions that his mother is or was a virgin, and is repeatedly very rude and coarse to her when she makes an appearance.’
