Christopher Hitchens Dead

[The Dragon]

The man was one of the mental giants of our era.

I know Madame Zora will be heartbroken by the news.

 

[B_jdunhill]

I miss Hitch already. Dinner parties everywhere mourn the loss. I feel bad for Bill Maher. Wish he was on right now more than anything.

 

[gymfresh]

The Washington Post story of his passing ended with this delicious bit:

"Mr Hitchens was fully aware that some people believed his cancer was the result of divine retribution for his seeming apostasy. Others gathered to prayer for his recovery and, in many cases, for his eventual conversion to the faith of their choice.

"He was grateful for their kind wishes, but he reserved special disgust for those who thought he might recant his atheistic beliefs in the face of cancer.

"'I sympathize afresh with the mighty Voltaire,' Mr. Hitchens wrote in Vanity Fair in October 2010, 'who, when badgered on his deathbed and urged to renounce the devil, murmured that this was no time to be making enemies'."

 

[B_jdunhill]

brilliant. I am drinking and smoking in his memory. I adored him.

The Washington Post story of his passing ended with this delicious bit:

"Mr Hitchens was fully aware that some people believed his cancer was the result of divine retribution for his seeming apostasy. Others gathered to prayer for his recovery and, in many cases, for his eventual conversion to the faith of their choice.

"He was grateful for their kind wishes, but he reserved special disgust for those who thought he might recant his atheistic beliefs in the face of cancer.

"'I sympathize afresh with the mighty Voltaire,' Mr. Hitchens wrote in Vanity Fair in October 2010, 'who, when badgered on his deathbed and urged to renounce the devil, murmured that this was no time to be making enemies'."

 

[bobbyboyle]

The contrast between the shallow nonsense and, frankly, self-righteous bragging of some bloggers and journalists I've seen with the intelligent reasoning of his own writing is striking. It's quite disgusting that the more religious commenters colour any sympathy with a version of Pascal's wager or just flat-out fire-and-brimstone bullshit. His scathing tone I'm sure upset many; but honesty, not faith, is a virtue. The man was as honest a man as there ever was. Much of his politics I would contend, but he was still a great man.

 

[B_Hickboy]

The contrast between the shallow nonsense and, frankly, self-righteous bragging of some bloggers and journalists I've seen with the intelligent reasoning of his own writing is striking. It's quite disgusting that the more religious commenters colour any sympathy with a version of Pascal's wager or just flat-out fire-and-brimstone bullshit. His scathing tone I'm sure upset many; but honesty, not faith, is a virtue. The man was as honest a man as there ever was. Much of his politics I would contend, but he was still a great man.

Yup.

 

[Bob Ross]

All of his fans have known for awhile now that this might be happening soon...

One of the few people I would debating calling a personal "hero"...

I recommend buying/reading "Hitch-22"

 

[B_Nick8]

The contrast between the shallow nonsense and, frankly, self-righteous bragging of some bloggers and journalists I've seen with the intelligent reasoning of his own writing is striking. It's quite disgusting that the more religious commenters colour any sympathy with a version of Pascal's wager or just flat-out fire-and-brimstone bullshit. His scathing tone I'm sure upset many; but honesty, not faith, is a virtue. The man was as honest a man as there ever was. Much of his politics I would contend, but he was still a great man.

I'd love you for this post alone, but now I'm going to be keeping an eye out for you. :wink:

 

[bobbyboyle]

Yup.

I knew you'd agree with me about honesty, at least :wink:

 

[HellsKitchenmanNYC]

I loved him. He will be missed!

 

[lafever]

I bid him fairwell to this cruel world that made him hardened like a philosophical criminal, I feel that at the end of his life the only regret that he might have had is that he couldn't reply his feelings from beyond the grave to tell us what was wrong with the afterlife.
Maybe one thing we might have agreed on if we knew each other, no one gets out alive.

 

[B_jdunhill]

I am glad to see his passing has enticed some thoughts...he's like that. He, Carlin, Maher and Howard Stern are my holy trinity of free speech and open thought.

 

[B_Hickboy]

I am glad to see his passing has enticed some thoughts...he's like that. He, Carlin, Maher and Howard Stern are my holy trinity of free speech and open thought.

Trinity = three

Howard Stern is a cunt.

 

[Calboner]

He, Carlin, Maher and Howard Stern are my holy trinity of free speech and open thought.

Trinity = three

Hitchens, one; Carlin, two; Maher, three; Stern, four. Hmm, count again: one, two, three, four. No, try again: one, two, three . . . four. Damn it! I seem to be unable to discern the trinity.

Howard Stern is a cunt.

Ah, that reduces the number to three!

 

[B_Hickboy]

Hitchens, one; Carlin, two; Maher, three; Stern, four. Hmm, count again: one, two, three, four. No, try again: one, two, three . . . four. Damn it! I seem to be unable to discern the trinity.

Ah, that reduces the number to three!

You are smarter than anybody. Will you be my LPSG husband?

 

[Calboner]

You are smarter than anybody. Will you be my LPSG husband?

But who will do the cooking?

 

[B_Hickboy]

But who will do the cooking?

I will, gladly.

 

[Calboner]

I'll have to think about it. (I was venturing, by the way, an allusion to what I admit to be a very obscure Monty Python source: Gay Boys in Bondage, by William Shakespeare. "Ken, 25, is a mounted policeman with a difference--and what a difference! Even Roger is surprised, and he's used to real men. But who's going to do the cooking tonight?")

Meanwhile, back to the subject of Hitchens. Frank Shaeffer has a piece in his blog today. Excerpt:

All the raging of today's atheist apologists combined are but a flea bite compared to the fatal blow that Christianity has been dealt by its own leadership in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. . . .

Put it this way: Hitchens and company attacked the idea of the supernatural as bogus. . . . Their attacks were frontal and honest. Religious people - and I am one and will be in church this Sunday - had nothing to fear from the atheists' honest critique. Conversely the leadership of Christianity has utterly corrupted the Christian witness from within.

The death of the Christian witness (especially here in America) has been brought about by two fatal wounds: First, the conflation the teachings of Ayn Rand with the teachings of Christ. Call this the American version of Jesus-wants-us-to-be-anti-government-regulation-of-business and to be anti-health-care-for-all Tea Party-type "Christianity."

Second: John Paul II's real place in history is that of a pope that protected his institution rather than his flock. . . . While boys and girls were being abused by bishops and priests around the globe he looked the other way, covered up for them and did all he could to "contain" the scandal, a scandal that is still unfolding.

 

[B_Hickboy]

I'll have to think about it. (I was venturing, by the way, an allusion to what I admit to be a very obscure Monty Python source: Gay Boys in Bondage, by William Shakespeare. "Ken, 25, is a mounted policeman with a difference--and what a difference! Even Roger is surprised, and he's used to real men. But who's going to do the cooking tonight?")

Meanwhile, back to the subject of Hitchens. Frank Shaeffer has a piece in his blog today. Excerpt:

Everybody extrapolates.