SEPTEMBER 7, 2010
Christopher Hitchens is dying from cancer. No big deal, people die every day. Bigger people, more famous people, more important people but their impending deaths don’t always make news. Their deaths are reported but not until they are dead. Mr. Hitchens is going out differently.
Hitchens is a British born writer, satirist, activist and atheist. He has written for The Atlantic, Vanity Fair, The Nation and other well known publications. He is an intellectual and doesn’t mind that you know it. He might even tell you himself if he wasn’t sure you knew.
An admirer of George Orwell and Thomas Jefferson, he is better known for his scathing writings against Mother Teresa, Henry Kissinger and the Clintons. He enjoys being confrontational and seemingly takes an unpopular position just to be a contrarian.
Hitchens does not believe in God. He has recently written an article that appears in the September issue of Vanity Fair dealing with his anti-God views and his dying from cancer. Hitchens does not like the term atheist. He says a person “could be an atheist and wish the belief was true.” But that “An antitheist, a term I’m trying to get into circulation, is someone who’s very relieved that there’s no evidence for this proposition.” His book God Is Not Great (2007) explains his position in great, if not mis-guided detail.
He takes the minority position that the belief in a supreme being, a God, is a totalitarian belief that destroys individuals by taking away from them freedom and expression.
Mr. Hitchens was diagnosed with metastic esophageal cancer in June of 2010. At least he announced his cancer on June 30, 2010 when he cancelled his book tour for his most recent book, Hitch-22. The announcement was in Vanity Fair. The cancer has spread within his body. He does not think he has long to live, but he has not said exactly.
The September article in Vanity Fair tries to persuade every reader, and I suspect himself, that should he change his anti-God views while dying from cancer, it really is not him changing his position. It will be an irrational act by a dying man full of treatment chemicals. He is blaming science rather than himself.
He wants to take his contrarianism to the grave. Where is the down side in praying on your death-bed? If you are right, no God is listening. If you are wrong and God is hearing you pray, it can’t hurt.
Mr.. Hitchens you don’t have to take your shtick to the grave. You will be quickly forgotten as history swallows you to become a part of it. Your family may remember you but I wouldn’t bet on the wife you dumped in 1989 to really care. You and your younger brother, Peter were estranged for a period of time in the recent past. I wouldn’t bet on him mourning your demise for very long.
A heavy drinker and smoker, Hitchens tried to quit smoking but was never successful. The heavy drinking was just the way it was. Nothing wrong with that. Perhaps a few of your drinking buddies will mourn you. It will be brief, however. They can’t remember the last drinking buddy that died, you will be no different.
I have enjoyed your writing. IT was interesting and thought provoking. I rarely agreed with you, but that is O. K. I won’t remember you a few months after your dead.
Good Luck Mr. Hitchens, I will say a rosary for you. It can’t hurt.
“It’s a small world, until you have to paint it.”
STEVEN WRIGHT
“Is it weird in here, or is it just me?”
STEVEN WRIGHT
“Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any one thing.”
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good article
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