I don’t even mean to challenge you.
I just truly don’t understand.
If one doesn’t have faith, or believe in God or sin or heaven or hell, why would one care what another thinks about the afterlife of Christopher Hitchens or anyone else?
Maybe those you oppose here are wrong, or spiteful or overzealous, or just plain stupid, but why would it matter? I liked Hitchens’ writing too, and admired his courage—and I would certainly be willing to defend him on those grounds.
But why would you worry about what I think about his eternal fate?
And why on earth (!) would you go on urging what you see as his dead body to ‘rest in peace’? He’s gone, according to you: he’s done, he’s past. We would do better, again according to you, simply to urge people to read his books.
I’ll do that, and I will pray for him as well, as I have been doing since I learned of his illness. I don’t have the “gift” of faith either, but I’m supposing that neither God nor Hitchens will mind if I continue to try.
I was brought up to say “Rest in Peace” or “May God Rest his Soul.” These are beautiful words to me and it’s my way of saying goodbye to Christopher Hitchens. My complaint is with nasty people who come on a forum like this and wish that he was burning in hell for all eternity. And then they claim to be Christians!