Christopher Hitchens now knows the truth of it.
Christopher Hitchens the smart, acerbic, funny, mean, insightful, and thick commenter on all things has passed away at the age of 62.
Hitchens may have been most famous for his outspoken atheism. A year and a half ago when Hitchens was diagnosed with esophageal cancer, I wrote that even if he thought it was stupid, I was praying for him. I still am.
I have no reason to think that Hitchens had a sudden religious awakening at the end, but I can hope. I can hope that at the end there was a small crack in the veneer large enough to let in the light. But I can never know, not in this life.
But there are things I do know….
December 16, 2011 at 2:03 pm
It saddens me deeply to see this man pass away. What a warrior he could have been for Truth, had he seen it. I hope for mercy for him! Why not? What matters is what he did or thought at the moment when Christ appeared before him in judgement. It's possible that he threw himself at His Infinite Mercy and received it!
December 16, 2011 at 4:09 pm
How's this for a little hope: he understood that killing embryonic humans to cure him was bad.
December 16, 2011 at 4:11 pm
Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon him. May God have mercy on his soul.
December 16, 2011 at 5:19 pm
I was so puzzled by his drive to undermine belief in God. Greater skeptics than he understood the power of faith, even a false faith, to keep men from becoming animals. What did he think would happen, when childlike faith is stripped from the simple? It's not as if they would become Marcus Aurelius or Cicero and lead lives of virtue that they;d arrived at philosophically. They would become the basest of pleasure seekers.
He was a smart man, yes. But I wise man? No.
December 16, 2011 at 9:11 pm
Blackrep –
from others of a similar stripe that I know personally, it's a self-appointed champion of truth thing. They're wrong, but that's what they believe they're doing– oddly, I respect that when they're doing it from good will.
(as opposed to the guys who get their jollies by telling painful truths like "Santa isn't real" to little kids, or "Mohammad was a pedophile" to Muslim kids– only nasty truths need apply)
December 16, 2011 at 11:07 pm
I was talking with a friend this afternoon about Hitchens, and my friend was going on and on about what a great life Hitch led, all the exciting things he did, how he lived life to the fullest. And all I could think was, all that doesn't matter much now, does it?
December 17, 2011 at 2:12 am
Peter Hitchen's, "The Rage Against God", refers, methinks.
December 17, 2011 at 8:30 am
Smart? Since when was Christopher Hitchens smart?
Actually for the most part he didn't pretend to be smart, that's what made him slightly more tolerable than Myers, Dawkins, and Dennett, who honestly think they're "Brights" (a label Hitchens rightly condemned as elitist—though not because they're the last people who get to call themselves that).
On the other hand, given the things he said about Mother Teresa, I must limit my remarks to "Good riddance, and may God have mercy on his imbecile soul." If "mercy" is even called for; if ignorance is ever an excuse, the "New Atheists" certainly get to use it.
December 17, 2011 at 5:36 pm
“Human decency is not derived from religion. It precedes it.”
― Christopher Hitchens
December 17, 2011 at 11:54 pm
To the Archbolds: I think a wonderful commentary, on the Hitchens death, ought to be re-published, on your website. Mr. Kresta, who is a phenomenal interviewer, also has written a wonderful article about Christopher. (He also has a link by Christopher's brother, Peter, as well)
http://krestaintheafternoon.blogspot.com/2011/12/kresta-comments-remembering-christopher.html
December 18, 2011 at 5:49 am
@Second most recent anonymous, tell us another one, you're a laugh a minute. What Hitchens took for "human decency" only exists as a product of two things, Christianity and Buddhism. Go read any of the Roman Stoics about the proper treatment of slaves if you don't believe me.
Or, to quote an actually smart atheist, "This morality is by no means self-evident: this point has to be exhibited again and again, despite the English flatheads. Christianity is a system, a whole view of things thought out together. By breaking one main concept out of it, the faith in God, one breaks the whole: nothing necessary remains in one's hands."
Yes, Christopher Hitchens was a better person than Nietzsche. But he had no intellectual right to be: he had to live according to ethics that emphatically did not follow from his metaphysics. And even so, for all his virtues, like sincerity and conviction, he was a sincerely convinced ignorant bigot. So was Bull Connor.
December 18, 2011 at 3:08 pm
Christopher Hitchens? Wasn't he Andrew Sullivan's buddy? Two [very] strange psuedo intellectuals, who were always a yawn whenever they were on C-SPAN, well, until Andy thought that it was relevant to inject into their discussions, as he always does incessantly, that he is a homo, like that has anything to do with the prices of eggs in Wisconsin. The only thing about both of them that was consistent was that both of them were consistently boring to anyone who has an IQ higher than the IQ of an eggplant. (A small one.)
December 18, 2011 at 5:33 pm
Re: Hitchens/Sullivan
Oh, and BTW, Did I mention that their shallowness was exceeded only by their pretentiousness? You know, like Obama?
December 18, 2011 at 6:13 pm
The only thing about both of them that was consistent was that both of them were consistently boring to anyone who has an IQ higher than the IQ of an eggplant.
Amusing. One of the things that made him less than charming was his tendency to be brutal and needlessly insulting if he thought he was right– and to disregard the chance that he was wrong.
December 18, 2011 at 9:24 pm
If I recall his interview on the Hugh Hewitt show correctly, Hitchens was farmed out to a Methodist boarding school when he was 9. Basically, he was a scared kid who hated being torn from his parents at an early age.
Subsequently, his mother committed suicide along with her Episcopal priest lover in a hotel room in some foreign land.
Not the type of stuff that would cause you to like religion. I think he just had a gut reaction to some bad experiences.
Hitchens' religious writings always had the tone of irrationality. He hated something that had been involved in hurting him deeply.
Hitchens and the other atheists have probably had the exact opposite effect. More people are learning how to defend their faith, as a result. More people are learning about their faith.
December 19, 2011 at 12:10 pm
You are a smart human, blackrep. Loved your statement…he was smart, but not wise. He didn't see the value for society, regardless of the truth behind it, of faith. Well put. And you're right – some people do need faith as a protection against their own devices.
December 19, 2011 at 6:24 pm
I prefer the Orthodox approach. Translated into Catholic idiom, they would pray for someone who died in the Church "may he rest in peace" and for someone who died outside the Church, "may God have mercy on his soul".
December 21, 2011 at 3:45 pm
why dont you guys jump on some other topic to train your disgust and your righteousness. you pray for him? lol what a bad joke.