-- PARAPHRASING Mr. Hitchens' argument:
3,000 years ago at the most, it is decided that heaven must intervene now, but the revelation must be made to the most backward, barbaric, illiterate, superstitious and savage people in the most stony part of the world.
Not in China where they could already read. Not in the Indus valley.
And later on not to the Greeks either, around the time of Christ, whose inventors were building rudimentary steam engines. If God had some instructions to pass along, they would have made good candidates too. And you know what else? No updates from "God" either since the Ten Commandments and other things are clearly crafted by a barbaric culture for a barbaric culture. Maybe when God saw what the Medieval Church and the Muslims did after sending Christ to "update" humanity, God just gave up.
Hitchens' point is entirely logical, and what tends to happen is when religion does not hold up under the most basic scrutiny, you see many theists attack the very process of applying logic. Ah well.
Hitchens and so on do a good job just normalizing and promoting atheism / critical thought, which is sorely needed in American culture today.
