Scouts Out! Cavalry Ho!
Any way you slice the apple, Christopher Hitchens was respected and probably loved. He was an honest man and I hope he is at peace with his soul. Godspeed to him and I will say a prayer for him as that is my belief.
I hope he did not refuse to put on the wedding garment, so to speak, even if it was at the last moment. That atheism finally proved an insufficient answer to him, in the nick of time. This in spite of all the damage he would have done on earth — it is not Christian to hold a grudge, though it is God’s role as judge to call finality sometime.
Didn’t Chistopher Hitchens speak at a Freep rally in DC years ago? Rest in peace CH.
Condolences to family and friends of Christopher Hitchins.
It is well worth the read!
Anyone with the name Christopher must have given much thought to Christ.
May he RIP!
I appreciate that Hitchens had the courage not to drink the Clinton Kool-Aid when so many of his colleagues would let him get away with everything. As far as atheist liberals go, he was one of my favorites.
Thank you for posting. For those who admire Mr. Hitchens, I recommend going to the Guardian newspaper. There’s a wonderful article written by Ian McEwan (I believe), his best friend, about his final days in a Houston hospital.
The man had guts!!!
I like what Daniel Foster posted at NRO’s The Corner upon news of Hitchens’ death Thursday night:
“I’m sure I join many in hoping he is in for a glorious, glorious surprise.”
Good article. RIP Mr. Hitchens.
In all fairness to Hitchens, Christian theology has an oft-repeated theme, that just acceptance of Christianity without effort or struggle is seen by heaven as a bare minimum of faith.
Instead heaven truly cherishes those who fight against heaven every inch of the way. “Hell-raisers”, brutes, cowards, scoundrels, fiends, scoffers, prostitutes, even persecutors, oppressive tax gatherers, murderers and downright heathens who find their faith after endless conflict and strife.
We’ve all seen both types: the comfortable, sanctimonious, confident in their ritual, faith and redemption on one hand; and those who look like they were dragged through a knothole backwards, brawling, cussing and partying their way through life until the ran headlong into heaven’s brick wall. Repeatedly.
I can imagine Christopher Hitchens meeting St. Peter at the pearly gates, in which the Saint offers him the open doors of heaven, to which Hitchens replies, “Make me!”
And St. Peter responds, “You’re on! Best of three throws!”
Of course Hitchens will lose, but he will be a happy loser.
His anger at God was at an emotional level. His intellectual capacity is limited, like all mortals. His inability to have faith is not unusual in humans, although societies with no faith in God are brutal and can only live in a Darwinian world or under total tyranny.
All brilliant philosophers understood the need for religion and “values” . Virtue is essential to all free Republics and only promoted by rational religions (Judeo/Christian) plus Nicomachean Ethics.
Aristotle, Cicero, Machiavelli, All the Founding Fathers, Thomas Reid, John Locke, Blackstone, Edmund Burke, Benjamin Rush, Nietzsche.....so many brilliant, knowledgeable men over thousands of years can not be wrong, especially when historical evidence exists. Hitchens was wrong—he ignored historical truths—but he was brutally honest about his thinking, in the Darwinian sense. Faith in God can be more rational than atheism (as history proves), but he never discovered that—or maybe he did in the end. Only God knows.
He was the kind of guy you couldn’t possibly agree with 100% of the time so right away at least 20% of this audience will hate him. But for the rest of us he was a free thinker and told it like it was.I think he said what he meant and meant what he said.
That alone makes him a rare speaker in todays world.
RIP Hitch.
A sad goodby to a brilliant, articulate man. He lived a full, too short, life and professed no regrets. His books are his legacy.
Many of the posts here remind me that one of the great things about the 1st Amendment is that it helps normal people identify the ... screwballs.
Frankly, I never thought Hitchens was all the great. His venomous attacks on Mother Teresa were unforgivable. I will hate him forever for that. It showed him devoid of all humanity. So, he was a wit. So what. Not a terribly great wit at that. All this fawning and celebration of his life is way over the top and misplaced.
Frankly, I never thought Hitchens was all the great. His venomous attacks on Mother Teresa were unforgivable. I will hate him forever for that. It showed him devoid of all humanity. So, he was a wit. So what. Not a terribly great wit at that. All this fawning and celebration of his life is way over the top and misplaced.
Psalms 14:1 (For the choir director. A Psalm of David.) The fool has said in his heart, "There is no God."They are corrupt, they have committed abominable deeds; There is no one who does good.
Proverbs 27:22 Though you pound a fool in a mortar with a pestle along with crushed grain, Yet his folly will not depart from him.
And, it seems an atheist on his deathbed was quoted as having said something to the effect of, "Oh God, if there be a god, save my soul, if I have a soul, from hell, if there be a hell." Too little, too late (many, many repetitions of this scenario throughout history).