[grey_whiskers]

He doesn't *know* it; still, it's better odds than the *Minnesota* Vikings winning any more games this year.

Sorry Hitchens died, and of cancer; I pray he repented -- remember the thief on the cross. God is not too proud to accept deathbed conversions.

g_w

[BigEdLB]

Hitchens was a unique spirit who marched to his own drummer. It would be presumptuous for anyone to assume the final destination of his spirit, for that is in the hands of God. No matter what our clergy may say about belief, God is the ultimate arbiter of our position in the afterlife, certainly Jesus helps a lot, but any who condemn a firey end for Hitch, do so because they think it will raise their own prospects, as some sort of arbiter of judgement. And in the end a person’s position in the afterlife is solely in His hands. On balance, I believe Hitch will be well treated because no matter what one can say about his lack of religiousity, he understood gross evil emblematic of Islamofacism, and spoke out.

[OneVike]

I pray he did have a deathbed conversion, but I doubt he did.

He is responsible for helping my brother to be convinced that Christ was nothing but a scam artist, and that God does not exist.

As for the Vikings, I again pray for them also. I pray they do lose the rest of their games. Better draft choice, and maybe we can finally get some good defensive help, and maybe at least one good Offensive lineman.

[aruanan]

I have the impression that some on this thread, were they to discover that he had a death bed conversion, would be as pissed-off as

1. the older son in the parable of the prodigal son: It's not fair that someone should live his life being a total a-hole toward God and then get in at the last minute!

2. the workers in the vineyard who agreed to a wage for a whole day's work and then bitched about the ones hired an hour before quitting time for the same wage: It's not fair that we should have to work all day long and then this guy who worked a few minutes got as much as we did!

Of course, if you're a five petal Calvinist, none of this had anything to do with Hitchens either way--Hitchens dying an unrepentant atheist or Hitchens getting converted at the last moment--but was entirely the will of God.