Re: Christopher Hitchens Died

[Gawen]

Christopher Hitchens died Thursday. He was 62.
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/cutline/christopher-hitchens-dies-62-051006229.html

[DeterminedJuliet]

 

I'm not surprised, but it is still sad.

[OldGit]

What's the betting there'll be rejoicing in the Bible Belt tonight?  BBQs and fireworks, most likely.

[Gawen]

Good grief, the comments coming from the "Christians" at the bottom of that page I linked to. Sad and disturbing to say the least...the vitriol ladled hate.

Hitchens is a man I can identify with, what with his life style, although I never drank near as much as he did. Hitchens finally prompted me to do as he did, pull no punches, sugarcoat nothing, respect no religion and a singular wit that appealed to me very much. His writing style, command of rhetoric and debate tactics are refreshing to me. While Dawkins' approach appeals to the intellect, Hitchens' appealed, it seemed, to common sense. At one time, as I knew he would take people under his wing from time to time, I thought of contacting him for just that. But I couldn't up and leave for New York and probably couldn't afford it.

A lot of people seem to not like his style. I loved it. But it was time for someone that could handle himself in public and mix it up in the ring with the theists...no pussy-footing around - afraid you might offend. It was great to see him throw condescension and arrogance without using fallacies back at them.

Some of you may not have liked him, but we all have lost a great ally.

[joeactor]

He seemed like a very genuine person.  I really enjoyed watching his talks and debates.

62 is far too young.

Condolences to his friends, family, and all those whose lives he touched...

[Ecurb Noselrub]

Good grief, the comments coming from the "Christians" at the bottom of that page I linked to. Sad and disturbing to say the least...the vitriol ladled hate.

I don't understand it. For me, it's sad when anyone dies before their time (meaning, before the normal life span).

[xSilverPhinx]

If there is no god the world has lost a great character.
If there is a god I wouldn't like to be in his/her/its shoes right now!

You know if Christopher Hitchins were resurrected then I'd become a believer!

There you go god, accept my challenge!

What if there was a god and that god liked his company too much to send him back?

[Tank]

If there is no god the world has lost a great character.
If there is a god I wouldn't like to be in his/her/its shoes right now!

You know if Christopher Hitchins were resurrected then I'd become a believer!

There you go god, accept my challenge!

What if there was a god and that god liked his company too much to send him back?

The ultimate question would remain unresolved.

[Happy_Is_Good]

Message to American Atheists

April, 2011

Dear fellow-unbelievers,

Nothing would have kept me from joining you except the loss of my voice (at least my speaking voice) which in turn is due to a long argument I am currently having with the specter of death. Nobody ever wins this argument, though there are some solid points to be made while the discussion goes on. I have found, as the enemy becomes more familiar, that all the special pleading for salvation, redemption and supernatural deliverance appears even more hollow and artificial to me than it did before. I hope to help defend and pass on the lessons of this for many years to come, but for now I have found my trust better placed in two things: the skill and principle of advanced medical science, and the comradeship of innumerable friends and family, all of them immune to the false consolations of religion. It is these forces among others which will speed the day when humanity emancipates itself from the mind-forged manacles of servility and superstitition. It is our innate solidarity, and not some despotism of the sky, which is the source of our morality and our sense of decency.

That essential sense of decency is outraged every day. Our theocratic enemy is in plain view. Protean in form, it extends from the overt menace of nuclear-armed mullahs to the insidious campaigns to have stultifying pseudo-science taught in American schools. But in the past few years, there have been heartening signs of a genuine and spontaneous resistance to this sinister nonsense: a resistance which repudiates the right of bullies and tyrants to make the absurd claim that they have god on their side. To have had a small part in this resistance has been the greatest honor of my lifetime: the pattern and original of all dictatorship is the surrender of reason to absolutism and the abandonment of critical, objective inquiry. The cheap name for this lethal delusion is religion, and we must learn new ways of combating it in the public sphere, just as we have learned to free ourselves of it in private.

Our weapons are the ironic mind against the literal: the open mind against the credulous; the courageous pursuit of truth against the fearful and abject forces who would set limits to investigation (and who stupidly claim that we already have all the truth we need). Perhaps above all, we affirm life over the cults of death and human sacrifice and are afraid, not of inevitable death, but rather of a human life that is cramped and distorted by the pathetic need to offer mindless adulation, or the dismal belief that the laws of nature respond to wailings and incantations.

As the heirs of a secular revolution, American atheists have a special responsibility to defend and uphold the Constitution that patrols the boundary between Church and State. This, too, is an honor and a privilege. Believe me when I say that I am present with you, even if not corporeally (and only metaphorically in spirit...) Resolve to build up Mr Jefferson's wall of separation. And don't keep the faith.

Sincerely

Christopher Hitchens

[squidfetish]

Sad to learn of your departure, Hitch.  Thanks for the fantastic reading material and much loved brain-candy. You will be missed, sir!  I am now going to raise a glass of 12 year old Macallan to the man.   

[OldGit]

The Daily Mash has done an obituary which is very nearly serious.  First time I've ever known the Mash not to be mocking.

http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/science-%26-technology/hitchens-cancer-not-intelligently-designed-201112164685/

[Norfolk And Chance]

Good grief, the comments coming from the "Christians" at the bottom of that page I linked to. Sad and disturbing to say the least...the vitriol ladled hate.

Hitchens is a man I can identify with, what with his life style, although I never drank near as much as he did. Hitchens finally prompted me to do as he did, pull no punches, sugarcoat nothing, respect no religion and a singular wit that appealed to me very much. His writing style, command of rhetoric and debate tactics are refreshing to me. While Dawkins' approach appeals to the intellect, Hitchens' appealed, it seemed, to common sense. At one time, as I knew he would take people under his wing from time to time, I thought of contacting him for just that. But I couldn't up and leave for New York and probably couldn't afford it.

A lot of people seem to not like his style. I loved it. But it was time for someone that could handle himself in public and mix it up in the ring with the theists...no pussy-footing around - afraid you might offend. It was great to see him throw condescension and arrogance without using fallacies back at them.

Some of you may not have liked him, but we all have lost a great ally.

This.

[Recusant]

The Conservapedia buffoons have chimed in:

...atheism could have been the roots of Hitchens' bad habits, which lead to his cancer death.

 
. .
. . .

This was predictable, and is typical of the vile, petty, wrongheaded attitude exhibited by a certain brand of theist that Hitchens skewered on a regular basis.

[Crocoduck]

If there is a God I bet he's being Hitch Slapped right now.

[Tank]

If there is a God I bet he's being Hitch Slapped right now.

Arse fucked more like!