Peter Hitchens: The Christian pessimist

[@nigelwinter8196]

What a lovely honest non-pompous intellectual Christian man. May God continually bless him.

[@tonycarey9430]

Love that quote "If you desire God you will find Him" - I have known this to be true with so many people I have met

[@shaunmcgee4204]

If you desire Santa Claus, you’ll find Him too, but it’s nothing more than self delusion.

[@tonycarey9430]

Your right Santa doesn’t exist

[@casualbynature5059]

I really enjoyed hearing this side of Peter’s world. One of the very few respectable journalists we have left here in the UK who we can say has integrity, is intelligent and interesting enough to listen to. 👏 Thanks for bringing us this interview 🙏

[@kiwitoffee]

Peter Hitchens shines light in places where politicians would prefer there was darkness. On education, policing, law and order, the 'war on drugs', the Conservative Party, the Bible and the C of E, he's been right. An impressive track record.

[@notlimey]

I was married in the CofE in 1971 and stayed with my wife even when times with us were terrible - friends do not understand why I didn't leave her - it was simple for me: i said before a priest, my family, her family and God - till death us do part

[@chesterdonnelly1212]

What a wonderful interview. This deserves a lot more views.

[@alanwindsor6383]

He seems perfecty reasonable and honest to me.

[@Raymond-d2l7n]

Peter comes across as very buttoned up, very Victorian, maybe a bit curmudgeonly but dammit, you can't help liking the man!

[@Ornamentmountain]

@@Raymond-d2l7n those qualities are refreshing these days lol

[@stuartbritton4811]

Only comparitively. No, he's eternal.

[@horizonsfluidline]

I can very easily

[@JohnFromAccounting]

To correct Peter's interpretation of the Catholic recognition of annulment, it can only be applied when there is sufficient proof that a valid marriage did not occur. If there was a deception, or the marriage was intended to be fraud, then it will be annulled. However, longstanding and legitimate marriages cannot be annulled merely because the couple dislikes each other. In some cases, bishops will "annul" a legitimate marriage out of a lack of due diligence to their office, but this is scandalous and forbidden.

[@matildarampley5006]

I totally agree with Peter Hitchens, and I’m a devout Catholic! I know several people who were forced to get a divorce because the other person filed and pushed for divorce, although one person really did not want to go ahead with it…

[@fattyz1]

I am too. “A survivor from another age.” My wife of 35 yrs and I. We don’t recognise the world anymore because the one we came from is gone. But I think anyone who lives 60+ years feels like this because things change such a great deal in that amount of time.

[@PeterShieldsukcatstripey]

Interesting as morrissey complained about how silent 60s abd 70s manchester was with no music.

[@Fidelisjoff]

Faith, hope and charity basic Christian virtues

[@maureentravers3419]

Great respect to Peter. I wish he would speak more about his own views, it’s a great help to people like me, a Catholic. Please have him on 😮again to speak more on his views with time to hear his humour which is frequently talked over. Interviewer often eager to get there next question or point over. missing the last thing , ( often the subtle humour) Lovely interview , thank you , Good bless.

[@maureentravers3419]

I did not use the strange imogie

[@maureentravers3419]

God bless

[@jenniferbate9682]

I ignore it too Peter. It’s the only way forward….

[@transcendentpsych124]

As a divorcee, I don't object to Peter's view. There is more grace than many acknowledge but the general standard is important.

[@stevecamm9733]

Peter Hitchens knows what it means to be moral. There's no doubt about that

[@transcendentpsych124]

Gotta love a bit of Hitch. Jeremiah lives.

[@joelharvey]

As someone who understands basic audio mixing, it pains me that no podcaster has figured out that Peter’s voice is much more dynamic than most, and needs to be ran through a compressor in order to raise the volume to same level as his interlocutor.

[@c.i.8770]

This! The whistling…someone needs to adjust his mic in all interviews. Shame

[@benphilips9918]

It is easy to become fatalistic about the state of the country and the world which is where Peter is at.😅 There is no harm in trying to fight back and for each of us to challenge the fallacies of the modern world. I pray that people will begin to understand the need to search for profound truth as they sift through the ashes of their meaningless lives and realise they have been sold down the river by the empty promises of post-Christian secularism. It's never too late. One should begin by praying. In the end it can shift mountains

[@raymondtaylor6049]

Have an ice cream 🍦 😊😋🤗🤭.

[@joewarhurst5646]

Atheists will see the claim Hitchens makes that belief is a choice as a weakness of Christianity. In reality, it’s absolutely true and atheists also choose to believe that God does not exist, whether they admit that or not. There is certainly enough evidence to believe in God if you want to, and I believe my experience of the real world aligns more with that worldview. But there are also other ways of looking at the evidence that could help you argue for atheism if it suits you to believe that.

[@shaunmcgee4204]

I haven’t seen one shred of evidence that supports the existence of your God. Not one.

[@JohnFromAccounting]

@@shaunmcgee4204 Yes, you have. You choose to ignore the evidence because it does not coincide with your dogma.

[@RDHamel]

There’s nothing like being miserable for money. Sometimes you can even make stuff up to be miserable about…

[@iainrae6159]

As a non religious person I've never understood why this God, Peter talks about, bothered to create the Universe in the first place.

[@davidknox5929]

He wanted to

[@Ornamentmountain]

Why would you understand?

[@Mister_Underhill]

​@@Ornamentmountainyeah, I absolutely agree. How on earth could a mere mortal know this? But I guess this sort of hubris is a sin as old as time. 🤷🏼

[@Mister_Underhill]

@@Ornamentmountain My point to your comment would be along the line of "why would you (a mere mortal) understand why God created the universe" and that is fairly logic in my view. If God exists and created the universe, how could any person know why? That is not in our sphere of knowledge. Just like we never could know what started everything we see. We may theorize any number of possibilities, but we can absolutely never know and trying to bombasticly state anything in that matter would be pure hubris. Is that not clear?

[@Ornamentmountain]

@@Mister_Underhill it’s for you to prove that we wouldn’t know as that’s your assertion.

[@jenniferbate9682]

Peter is quite a complicated person for me to understand. Interesting but complicated.

[@MM-yi9zn]

Peter Hitchens like his late tremendous brother Christopher Hitchens is half Jewish on his Mother’s side.

[@JohnFromAccounting]

Judaism is a religion not a race.

[@CSUnger]

If you are a Christian and, humanly speaking, you’re NOT pessimistic, your discernment needs checking.

[@davidpayne8413]

Peter Hitchens behaved appallingly when interviewed by Alex O'Connor

[@ATG848]

You'll get over it.

[@joanneleeson516]

I watched the interview and Alex O'connor was the one in the wrong.

[@ManForToday]

Other way around. Alex was going in circles at a dead end and refused to move on despite being asked to do so several times. He’s 25, was just pure social naivety and poor EQ.

[@pkingpumpkin]

I think they both behaved poorly. Peter asked to do something else several times, Alex didn't and then Peter behaved poorly. I think Peter should have handled it the way John Cleese did on the BBC. He just said "I thought you were going to interview me about X, you've only asked me about Y, therefore I am going, ta-ta" and just left

[@alphabetaxenonzzzcat]

He "actively dislikes you" - for bringing up that incident. 😉

[@brianbridges8124]

''Anybody can choose anything if they wish to believe it'' I respect peter hitchens but that might be the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard him say. Choose to believe you're a billionaire supermodel tomorrow as you spend your lifesaving on one day since its only small change to a billionaire , choose to believe that you can walk across a busy motorway blindfolded and that there is no danger involved in doing so, choose to believe that Islam is the one true religion if you're a passionate Christian, try any of those for one day and see how far you get, try it for a week, or month. Funnily enough if you follow peters logic, that you wont convince yourself of something unless you really want to implies that all beliefs are simply based on desire and therefore a mulsim, hindu and Mormon all have equally valid and sound religious views. belief and compulsion is not like a lightswitch that you can turn on and off whenever it suits. nobody chooses what they find convincing, and the fact he said that, makes me wonder whether he even truly buys any of the supernatural claims in the bible at all, it seems like this is more of a surrendering of critical thinking and a cessation of uncomfortable questions that are popping up in his mind about Christianity like most atheists have, and instead he's just going to go along with it as if it is true, much like Jordan petersons cultural Christianity.

[@raymondtaylor6049]

Have an ice cream 🍦 😋 😊 🤗.

[@brianbridges8124]

@@raymondtaylor6049 yeh great....

[@temmuz9138]

First

[@ajeet490]

Life happens and beliefs come and go like everything else.

[@Raymond-d2l7n]

And I tell thee, thou are Peter and upon this rock I will build my church and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it. ~ Matthew 16:18

[@JohnTheMmmMachine]

Truth is eternal Jesus is Lord

[@ajeet490]

@@JohnTheMmmMachine If you know the truth then it's no longer a belief. Faith is perhaps a better word.

[@iainrae6159]

​@@JohnTheMmmMachine When religious folks use the term 'truth' my sceptical genes kick in.

[@h-uk7702]

PH is an interesting man but my, how he likes to talk over people.

[@grrlgd3835]

Ask Hitchens if he thinjs drugs should be legalised

[@xavierpaquin]

😂

[@hezkyden]

I'm afraid I don't believe that Peter Hitchens really is a Christian. Even allowing for a growth in knowledge about Christianity, meaning that not all professing Christians are at the same stage, Peter displays a lack of interest in what he calls 'theology', which is the study of God and he doesn't believe in God's inspiration of the Scriptures. He also calls the doctrine of justification by faith alone an 'opinion', implying that it's just a matter of mental acceptance, just as valid as the belief, say, of Roman Catholicism, that a person is justified before God by a combination of faith and works. He also doesn't seem to display, through his speech, any of that necessary gratefulness to God and Jesus, for being saved from hell due to his (PH's) being a sinner in need of a Saviour. I can't imagine his being able to sing, with personal conviction, the hymn of John Newton the former slave trader, who wrote, 'Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me, I once was lost but now I'm found, was blind but now I see.''

[@Rootle2]

What sort of speech would display gratefulness to God?

[@hezkyden]

@@Rootle2 The words of 'Amazing Grace'

[@Rootle2]

@@hezkyden Can you really judge that someone isn’t truly grateful to God because they don’t talk poetically about it or don’t make a big fanfare out of it publicly? I don’t think you can make windows into men’s souls just from the way they speak. You’d have to same thing about some of those dour, hardcore Scottish Presbyterians if so.

[@hezkyden]

@@Rootle2 Do you know any Scottish Presbyterians? I do. They're not dour in the slightest. When they pray or when they speak about Jesus and what He has done for them, in public, they sound more like John Newton than Peter Hitchens.

[@Rootle2]

@@hezkyden I do, I am Scottish and was taught theology by some. Not the wee free ones tbf. And yes, but Peter is Peter and they are them. I don’t think it is for us to judge him on how grateful he feels, that is between God and himself.

[@joedenby2645]

I really can't be bothered with Peter anymore. He throws his friends and allies under the bus at the first sign of trouble and when he finally got what he spent over a decade saying he wanted he turned round and called everyone idiots.

[@joanneleeson516]

This doesn't make sense.

[@SagaciousFrank]

No, he wanted to destroy the Tories in 2010 while they were the so-called opposition. If you were smart enough, you would understand why he wanted to keep Labour out in 2024 on the same logic. There is nobody to vote *for*, instead we can vote *against*. It's not difficult to grasp.

[@joanneleeson516]

@@SagaciousFrank You are right of course. But it is surprising how many people cannot grasp this.

[@joedenby2645]

@@SagaciousFrank Hopefully one day I'll be as smart as you but I still know a cantankerous defeatist when I see one.

[@SagaciousFrank]

@@joedenby2645 , it's not defeatist if the only course of action is to sack the 'opposition', because we'll always get the government, and as inconceivable as it was to imagine, Labour are worse than the Tories.

[@sardo.numspa]

Peter Hitchen's priorities: 1) love for russia 2) love for despots, No.1 being putin 3) the British Empire 4) Empires in general 5) spamming Twitter/X 6) crying about the clocks 7) demagoguery 8) shirking from difficult questions 9) God! 10) scooters

[@Brahmacharyan]

11) being based

[@sardo.numspa]

@@Brahmacharyan Yup, he is so based he is that far down the list. Thanks for contributing.

[@sardo.numspa]

@@Brahmacharyan You misspelt biased 🤣🤣😂

[@gamingwithslacker]

This is just rubbish.

[@sardo.numspa]

@@gamingwithslacker Cry more, just because you don't like the truth :)

[@robertjarman4261]

Greetings from Holy Russia.Peter will come home one day.

[@stuartbritton4811]

There's nothing Holy about Russia. I've never heard any country's citizens idolise its country more arrogantly and deludedly than Russia. The place is a hell hole. Go there and find out . If you don't see it like that, you would be immune to goodness and everything God loves.