Philosophy - The answer to Christopher Hitchens' famous challenge
January 8, 2013

I have figured out the answer to Christopher Hitchens' famous challenge, which he stated publicly as follows:

My answer is as follows (and how I so dearly wish he were still living today so that I could send this to him via courier in a giant box with only my letter suspended in the centre by strings, all in the hopes of being entertaining to make it more memorable for him):

The premise is based on his conclusion that "religion poisons everything," and so "reverting to atheism" would therefore be a "moral action" (at least in accordance with his standard) since [at least] some of the restrictions imposed by religion on a person's freedoms may be considered "immoral" by people who live based on "different values."

What I mean by "reverting" to atheism:  People and animals seem to begin life as atheists, then some people learn and/or create the concept of one or more deities (which is a pre-requisite for belief in a deity since, logically, it's not possible to believe in something without first having some concept of it), after which point it is then possible to become a theist...

So, finally, that brings us to my rationale which also happens to be the only requirement for "reverting" to atheism:  Being a theist.

(Note:  A person may revert to atheism more than once, but in order to do this they must convert to {or become} a theist before that, even if only for as little as a few minutes.)

See also:  My original Google+ posting of this answer