Asymmetric Religion and Philosophy

So, I'm cleaning my room today with the television on, unusually, and I overhear that Paris Hilton, the most hated celebrity since Jar Jar Binks, underwent some sort of jail house conversion, to the disbelief and ammusement of the newscasters (I think it was Fox).

Paris Hilton's apparent abandonment of shallow celebutanthood and newfound religiously-inspired introspection reminded me of a conversation I had with an Army buddy of mine. Don't ask me how we happened upon this subject; I'll just say that long gaps break up Army training and that, in their boredom, soldiers breach a great many topics. Anyways, we started talking about attractive women (I begged them to stop, honey) and somebody...OK, I asked whom they thought was the prettiest Latina actress. Of course, Jessica Alba was mentioned and somebody may have said "Thalia." This went on for a few minutes until one of the guys uttered, "Sky Lopez." Never having heard of her, I went to Wikipedia that evening and searched for her name. It turned out that Sky Lopez was a porn star. And I'm not just being tense-consistent when I say "was." According to the entry, Ms. Lopez converted to Christianity and gave up pornography, although I don't know which adjustment occurred first.

I bring this up for two reasons. First, according to Christopher Hitchens, whom I've heard say in interviews given to promote his book, that it's preposterous to think that Christianity makes people better and that, in fact, it's much more likely to make people worse. I can't know the sincerity of either Paris' or Sky's conversion, but I wonder to what else they could have turned besides religion, assuming you think something is wrong with pornography in both their cases and, I don't know, hard-partying airheadedness which I think is exclusive to Paris amongst the two? Didn't Paris have access to as much help as she needed? Don't you think she could have contracted the best psychologists, counselors, and educators? I'm sure Hitchens would have spoken to Paris about the inner peach brought about by rigid secularism had she met his fee. It says something about the power of God that even the wealthiest and most privileged focus on Him in times of desperation.

Religion, at its best, can act as both a motivation for good and as a rational reason to improve oneself. Hitchens may not need God to be a decent person, but not everybody is Hitchens, are they? As good as I'm sure Hitchens is, he might be better if he did believe in God. He already has a good foundation and would be smart enough to avoid the negative aspects of religion (yes, they exist).

The second thing I wanted to talk about was that both Sky Lopez and Paris Hilton's conversions illustrate a difference between men and women. In equal numbers, men and women hit moral rock-bottom and again, in identical numbers, I'm certain, some of those are able to climb their way out. However, except for Augustine of Hippo, I can't think of many famous men who felt the need for salvation primarily because of their highly active sex life. Most men, I think, consider personal improvement after drinking too much, committing crime, or some other serious offense.

A woman can have no other vice, however, besides promiscuity, and feel that they're doing something wrong. I wonder if women are more sensitive to the misuse of their sexuality than men-that they intuit the intrinsic wrongness of a non-family/non-love sexual orientation-even if they're not formally religious.

Anyways, good luck to both of them. May they lead happy lives.

Believe it or not, this was the most decent picture I could find of Ms. Lopez.

Hey, sometimes pain spurs improvement.

Christopher Hitchens

God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything by Christopher Hitchens