by JRosemary » November 16th, 2008, 1:23 am
I have two favorite heretics:
Spinoza--a brilliant philosopher who deserved far better treatment from his Jewish community. (Not that I agree with him straight down the line, but he's still a breathtaking thinker.)
and
Christopher Hitchens--actually, I'm not sure if he counts as a heretic, because very few Jewish communities play the 'heretic' card now-a-days. But I'm sure he takes flack for his atheism (especially for his loud brand of atheism) so he probably counts. Not so much flack from the more liberal branches of Judaism, I'd imagine--at least, I've never heard my Conservative rabbi denounce him--but from the more Orthodox branches.
What I chiefly admire about Hichens is that, back when he was pro-waterboarding and insisting that it wasn't a form of torture, he accepted a challenge from Vanity Fair: undergo waterboarding himself. He did so and completely changed his mind. If that's not torture, he said, then nothing is.
I admire his guts and integrity tremendously--that's why, right now, he's even higher on my list than Spinoza. (Heck, he's higher on my list than lots of non-heretics!)