Think for yourself

I want to live my life taking the risk, all the time, that I don’t know anything like enough yet. That I haven’t understood enough. That I can’t know enough. That I’m always hungrily operating on the margins of a potentially great harvest of future knowledge and wisdom. I wouldn’t have it any other way, and I’d urge you to look at […] those people who tell you, at your age, that you’re dead until you believe as they do. What a terrible thing to be telling to children. And that you can only live by accepting an absolute authority. Don’t think of that as a gift, think of it as a poisoned chalice. Push it aside however tempting it is. Take the risk of thinking for yourself. Much more happiness, truth, beauty and wisdom will come to you that way.

— Christopher Hitchens, 2010

Christopher Hitchens said this towards the end of his debate on the existence and goodness of God with William Dembski. The only edit I’ve made it to remove some duplication when Hitch slightly misspoke.