As most undoubtably know, he had an aggressive cancer. RIP :(
Christopher Hitchens, militant pundit, essayist and author dies after long battle with cancer (http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/christopher-hitchens-militant-pundit-essayist-and-author-dies-after-long-battle-with-cancer/2011/12/16/gIQAXb6HxO_story.html)
:o
Yeah...that is sad. I didn't even know he was in town.
I would have liked to say "Hello...and Thanks".
The man was a giant. I'll always remember him as such.
"So this is where all the vapid talk about the 'soul' of the universe is actually headed. Once the hard-won principles of reason and science have been discredited, the world will not pass into the hands of credulous herbivores who keep crystals by their sides and swoon over the poems of Khalil Gibran. The 'vacuum' will be invaded instead by determined fundamentalists of every stripe who already know the truth by means of revelation and who actually seek real and serious power in the here and now. One thinks of the painstaking, cloud-dispelling labor of British scientists from Isaac Newton to Joseph Priestley to Charles Darwin to Ernest Rutherford to Alan Turing and Francis Crick, much of it built upon the shoulders of Galileo and Copernicus, only to see it casually slandered by a moral and intellectual weakling from the usurping House of Hanover. An awful embarrassment awaits the British if they do not declare for a republic based on verifiable laws and principles, both political and scientific."
- Christopher Hitchens
my favorite quote.
Shame, he was a fun bloke to watch.
I wonder if he repented in the end.
Not the god's great thing, I mean the tobacco is bad thing.
It's a sad day indeed. I'll be having a drink tonight in memory of him.
See ya Hitch.
Christopher Hitchens (1949-2011) (http://www.ivybedworth.co.za/?p=631)
Ivy is a staunch atheist and is worth a read.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-16212418
RIP, friend!
A sad loss. He was a great hammerer of the fundies.
:( Do let us have a drink in memory of him.
Gutted about this.
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!
Quote from: Tank on December 16, 2011, 10:43:10 AM
There you go god, accept my challenge!
Nah... That is beyond Asmo
deus Caesar, methink... :-\
Christopher Hitchens died Thursday. He was 62.
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/cutline/christopher-hitchens-dies-62-051006229.html
:(
I'm not surprised, but it is still sad.
What's the betting there'll be rejoicing in the Bible Belt tonight? BBQs and fireworks, most likely.
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.
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...
Quote from: Gawen on December 16, 2011, 01:24:53 PM
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).
Quote from: Tank on December 16, 2011, 10:43:10 AM
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?
Quote from: xSilverPhinx on December 16, 2011, 04:19:33 PM
Quote from: Tank on December 16, 2011, 10:43:10 AM
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.
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
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.
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/ (http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/science-%26-technology/hitchens-cancer-not-intelligently-designed-201112164685/)
Quote from: Gawen on December 16, 2011, 01:24:53 PM
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.
The Conservapedia buffoons have chimed in (http://conservapedia.com/Christopher_Hitchens#Atheism_and_Hitchens.27_cancer):
Quote...atheism could have been the roots of Hitchens' bad habits, which lead to his cancer death.
(https://www.happyatheistforum.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg818.imageshack.us%2Fimg818%2F2757%2Ficonpicard.gif&hash=5939a87245af11e38450515ca3a3127d19f4ea30)
. .(https://www.happyatheistforum.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.rationalskepticism.org%2Fimages%2Fsmilies%2Ficon_nono.gif&hash=a7c022536ba8a506bde2800c1ca943b8c4563b5c)
. . .(https://www.happyatheistforum.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.rationalskepticism.org%2Fimages%2Fsmilies%2Fpuke.gif&hash=5478342db45fceb8f6dc0c2e304b75ebd4941ab0)
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.
If there is a God I bet he's being Hitch Slapped right now.
Quote from: Crocoduck on December 16, 2011, 09:39:33 PM
If there is a God I bet he's being Hitch Slapped right now.
Arse fucked more like!
Yeah, today was laundry day. I woke up at 4am, and saw this post about his death on my fb. I cried a bit. T_T too much death fir me this year.
Took me long enough to accept that he is gone. :'(
Quote from: Sweetdeath on December 17, 2011, 05:52:32 AM
Yeah, today was laundry day. I woke up at 4am, and saw this post about his death on my fb. I cried a bit. T_T too much death fir me this year.
(https://www.happyatheistforum.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg163.imageshack.us%2Fimg163%2F7355%2Fconsoling2.gif&hash=3a8ffba6dd009744a227ffe4896f21813251a0c2)
Don't really come as a big surprise as he's been sick for a while. Still sad though.
At least he did his fans the kindness of going on a Saturday. That way we can get properly hammered in his honour! ;D
Seriously though, a notable loss to the world. :(
I'm watching Penn and Teller's "Bullshit": "Holier than thou" episode which features Christopher Hitchens.
Much love <3
Yeah... "And after a few more cigarettes and glasses of whisky..."
Gotta say, the man knew how to live ;D
Quote from: DeterminedJuliet on December 18, 2011, 11:14:20 PM
I'm watching Penn and Teller's "Bullshit": "Holier than thou" episode which features Christopher Hitchens.
Much love <3
I need to watch that episode. <3
I liked this one, simple, wise and to the point:
Is it too modern to notice that there is nothing [in the ten commandments] about the protection of children from cruelty, nothing about rape, nothing about slavery, and nothing about genocide? Or is it too exactingly "in context" to notice that some of these very offenses are about to be positively recommended?
―God Is Not Great
Christopher Hitchens
Quote from: DeterminedJuliet on December 18, 2011, 11:14:20 PM
I'm watching Penn and Teller's "Bullshit": "Holier than thou" episode which features Christopher Hitchens.
Much love <3
I've got to watch that episode again sometime...
Quote from: magdalena on December 19, 2011, 05:03:09 AM
I liked this one, simple, wise and to the point:
Is it too modern to notice that there is nothing [in the ten commandments] about the protection of children from cruelty, nothing about rape, nothing about slavery, and nothing about genocide? Or is it too exactingly "in context" to notice that some of these very offenses are about to be positively recommended?
―God Is Not Great
Christopher Hitchens
That is a great quote. Damn, i'll miss him. :(
Sad day indeed. I'm a vodka guy but I bought a bottle of scotch as a tribute.