This kind of stuff fascinates me.

Occasionally.

A thousand words, each comprehensible as a unit, but utterly without purpose or meaning when joined together.

"Christopher Hitchens is no atheist - he just thinks he is"

That's a pretty arrogant - and condescending - opener.

Could you please enlighten your readers Mr Christensen, as to the substantive difference between thinking one is an atheist, and actually being one?

"More recently, social critics have queried the legitimacy of Western civilisation itself"

Legitimacy?

On what basis do these unnamed "social critics" regard our civilization illegitimate?

"The essential weakness of Postmodernism is its failure to explain why, if there are no answers, humanity is endowed with the wonders of reason and language. Is God a sadist, equipping us with nifty tools, an insatiable curiosity, only to then set us off in search of a non-existent quarry?"

Why is this suddenly a weakness of "Postmodernism"?

Does any "-ism" actually explain why we are so endowed? Any such effort would first have to show that there are indeed answers. Which can clearly only be achieved through circular logic.

As for God being a sadist, why does he suddenly make an appearance as an actor in this miasmic argument?

"Let’s say Jesus walked on water and rose again. For such events to have lasting value, for them to be authentic and heart-felt, they must be rendered intellectually meaningless... Hitchens and his allies won’t enlighten religious types if they themselves are defined by a similar unenlightened, self-important need to know"

I get it. Because the walking on water and the rising-again are intellectually meaningless, Hitchens' position is also "unenlightened" and "self-important".

I do appreciate the self-deprecating "similar", though. Nice touch.

It is simply another way to say "Christians believe, atheists don't", while pretending that the religious view somehow has greater moral authority.

C'mon, Mr Christensen. These are just a load of words strung together, aren't they?

From the link to your web site, it would appear that you make a living from this stuff.

Congratulations. That's some achievement.

To say "the basic building blocks of reality, at least when they’re not being observed, are best described as random wave functions" is to take several things out of context, and to make the paragraph that sentence is part of , a non-sequitur.

The reality of atomic mechanics is different to more tangible human and earthly realities.

To invoke vague assertions such as "wisdom comes from accepting we effectively know nothing" is unrealistic.

Word salad and phrase salad are not an effective means of communication.

This article is a semantic pea-and-thimble trick. Its purpose is to confuse not enlighten.

It proves that too much intellectual navel-gazing reveals nothing more than bits of fluff!

Pericles, thanks for making the effort I couldn't manage.

Pericles

I echo GlenC, you've done the de-construction of this article for me.

What a load of "unprintable".

Obviously someone is very unhappy that their (Hitchens & Dawkins) books sell really well and these modern thinkers are not religious - two concepts that seriously get the wind up Christensen.

While my taxes still support superstitious beliefs, I will continue to support valid critics such as Hitchens and Dawkins.

An interesting essay altogether. But like everyone else the author does not have any real solutions to the mind created trap (mind-forged-manacles) in which we are all tightly trapped.

Speaking of Quantum Reality, the intrinsic nature of light, how all of our systems of knowledge (including "religion") are purposed to gain power and control over every one and everything, or are effectively primitive hunter-gatherer behavior, check out an essay re Reality & The Middle via this url (scroll down).

The first paragraph alone is remarkable.

http://www.dabase.org/s-atruth.htm

Plus two references on the limitations of both scientism and what is usually called religion. And how our every minute fraction of our entire culture is patterned by the ideology of scientism.

http://www.adidam.org/teaching/aletheon/truth-science.aspx

http://www.adidam.org/teaching/gnosticon/universal-scientism.aspx

Plus a related reference on art and quantum physics

http://www.artandphysics.com

Also very much related to Art & Physics this Artists Statement

http://www.aboutadidam.org/readings/transcending_the_camera/index.html