Hitchens was a man of intellect who many say took a few wrong roads in life. I found him eminently readable and thought provoking whether I believed in what he was saying or bot.
I pray the he personally found whatever peace he was seeking.
Hitchens may not have been “great”... but, he was a MUCH better writer than this guy!
And... I bet a LOT MORE fun to hang out with! :-)
The writer uses the phrase “on accident”, how old is he, about 4?
On the other hand, the universe is astronomically large, so there is a finite probability that an astronomically rare event would occur by accident.
Of course when you start with strong evidence that X is here and now, and then try to reason by the method of dividing infinity by infinity, whether or not X should exist, what you are doing is pretty obviously sophistry. Asking the question whether in the vastness of the universe whether Shakespeare’s plays should exist is rather the long way around Robin Hood’s barn.
Philip Larkin - Aubade
I work all day, and get half-drunk at night. Waking at four to soundless dark, I stare. In time the curtain-edges will grow light. Till then I see what's really always there: Unresting death, a whole day nearer now, Making all thought impossible but how And where and when I shall myself die. Arid interrogation: yet the dread Of dying, and being dead, Flashes afresh to hold and horrify.
The mind blanks at the glare. Not in remorse -- The good not done, the love not given, time Torn off unused -- nor wretchedly because An only life can take so long to climb Clear of its wrong beginnings, and may never; But at the total emptiness for ever, The sure extinction that we travel to And shall be lost in always. Not to be here, Not to be anywhere, And soon; nothing more terrible, nothing more true.
This is a special way of being afraid No trick dispels. Religion used to try, That vast moth-eaten musical brocade Created to pretend we never die, And specious stuff that says No rational being Can fear a thing it will not feel, not seeing That this is what we fear -- no sight, no sound, No touch or taste or smell, nothing to think with, Nothing to love or link with, The anaesthetic from which none come round.
And so it stays just on the edge of vision, A small unfocused blur, a standing chill That slows each impulse down to indecision. Most things may never happen: this one will, And realisation of it rages out In furnace-fear when we are caught without People or drink. Courage is no good: It means not scaring others. Being brave Lets no one off the grave. Death is no different whined at than withstood.
Slowly light strengthens, and the room takes shape. It stands plain as a wardrobe, what we know, Have always known, know that we can't escape, Yet can't accept. One side will have to go. Meanwhile telephones crouch, getting ready to ring In locked-up offices, and all the uncaring Intricate rented world begins to rouse. The sky is white as clay, with no sun. Work has to be done. Postmen like doctors go from house to house.
I would pray for Mr. Hitchens but at this point it would do him no good. When he was alive there was hope, because where there is life there is hope. He is dead and there is nothing more we can do for him. his fate is sealed and judgement will be rendered, our desires for his salvation are just not relevant...
To me he was right on many things but wrong on The One Big Thing. But it's all good as far as C Hitchens is concerned. He did good (God). Rest in peace.
Sean Hannity liked him and told a good story last night. How Hitchens and Ann Coulter had a public argument at CPAC a few years back. Attendees surrounded them as they debated. Chris Hitchens smoking a cigarette and drinking a glass of scotch and getting better as he drank more.
In my hour of darkness, in my time of need Oh Lord, grant me vision, oh Lord, grant me speed Oh Lord, grant me vision, oh Lord, grant me speed
--Graham Parsons sung with Emmylou
If that’s true- Einstein rejected the possibility of the Uncertainty Principle- none of us really exist nor does the universe exists without an all-seeing being. There is just no other explanation for the universe.
Example number 57,923 of why people should not use material they don't understand as a point of argument or analogy.
The Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle deals with the limits of exactitude at certain scales and with respect to certain properties. Quantum superposition (and the collapse of the wave function), which many people have heard of through Schrodinger's thought experiment (i.e. Schrodinger's Cat), are not the same thing (though they may derive from the same mathematics)!
So, basically, I have no reason to pay attention to this goof-ball, since it's obvious that he's writing about things that he has no understanding of whatsoever. Rather than being persuasive, his dive into this material merely makes him non-credible...
Hitchens wans’t great, but I give him credit for standing up to his fellow leftists and not bowing to political correctness.
Wuz!