I'm a bit surprised that the variety of opinions and lack of swallowing doctrines whole among christians in general or of any specific religion comes as a revelation to Mr. Hitchens. Does he think that sceptics have cornered the market on doubt?

I would surmise that most christians in this country remain in their church for reasons other than dogma: purpose, self-discovery, social support, moral and spritual development are all worthy and valid reasons for being a religious person, and churches help one attain those goals.

"I would surmise that most christians in this country remain in their church for reasons other than dogma: purpose, self-discovery, social support, moral and spritual development are all worthy and valid reasons for being a religious person, and churches help one attain those goals."

I would think these ideas for being a member of a church are fine, as long as they aren't out there getting trying to get their tepid beliefs into the political system. If you are just going to church for the community support, and a reason to find meaning to your life etc etc etc, then they shouldn't be supporting political ideology that wants to force those beliefs on others.

Religion without doctrine is a bit like a philosophy without ontology, it might have the right-feeling answer for any question, but the contradictions are pretty easy to pick apart.

Hemlock, Just curious. Exactly which "political ideology" is it that does NOT push those beliefs on others? The entertaining part of your post is that you seem to honestly believe that the "tepid beliefs" of Christians are somehow unique with regard to passion and conviction. Good one! If you believe that, you probably also believe in concepts such as "objective journalists" and "tolerant liberalism." At least your bigotry is humorous.

To clarify, I said that religion is MORE than doctrine - of course all religions have a set of doctrines that they espouse, but it is up to the individual member whether they believe all, some, or none of it - my point was that there are plenty of good reasons to be a member of a church even if you don't believe all the doctrines.

Mr. Hitchens' attempts to convince churchgoers to become atheists may fall on deaf ears for many of them, since that is not the reason they attend church anyway.