Posted on 12/17/2011 5:32:02 AM PST by Kaslin
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...
Thank you, Dysart, for sharing Larkin’s poem “Aubade”. It was starkly beautiful, in a horrifying kind of way, but reassuring to see that there are others who wrestle with and agonize over death.
Hitchens was the consummate individual, intellectually admirable, and true to himself.
What amazes me; is the quality of judgments that come from Christians who by turn; would be the first to say - quote - 'Judge Not'. . .
There is a difference between an opinion; a criticism; and what appears; as 'final judgment'; offered by those who simply cannot be the 'final arbiter' of another man's life. A little humility would help, and have to say 'little' humility observable.
Think Ransom's conclusions about Hitchens' life; is at least, unfortunate. Perhaps; had he just 'couched' an adjective or two. . .or had 'any' appreciation. (He could thank Hitchens for inspiring him to clarify the importance of Faith; by which Ransom, may touch someone elses life; who is not yet clear. . .)
If they consider god one god/one person then they have no explanation for the existence of universal, invariant, abstract entities upon which logic is predicated. So, if you ask the Jew why is logic logical they should reply because God is logical. Now the process begins of examining their god. If that god isn’t triune then it fails in providing for unity and diversity. Without unity and diversity we cant even converse.
The Christian says that logic is logical because it reflects the nature and thinking of the triune God as revealed in scripture. When that God is then examined, His Trinitarian nature provides the preconditions necessary for unity and diversity which leads to understandable language, math and scientific inquiry.
Without a triune God, how do we account for unity, diversity and harmony? If he is one god/one person then where did the diversity come from? If he is many gods, then where did the unity come from? If many gods with many ideas then where did the harmony come from? The father, son and spirit are diverse yet always in agreement (unity and harmony). God has been revealed to us in Holy writ.
Hitchens was a troubled figure, although none of the questions he raised were beyond answer. People believe in all manner of invisible things, like breezes or radio waves, not because they ever saw one but because they saw its effects. If the standard Judeo-Christian story about a fallen creation and a future eternity which embraces both hell and heaven seems a little too pat for some people, it at least handily deals with the objection of why terrible or wonderful things seem sometimes to occur to those who would look to deserve them least on earth. Christians and many Jews will tell you that it’s like a camera film being developed or a butterfly that hasn’t yet gotten out of its cocoon. It is only the future that will show the complete story.
Upon coming to the verge of the last asking of the Final Question, did Hitchens finally drop his doubt? Every charitable person not in a position to know hopes he did, but it is among the dreadful possibilities that God has permitted to every man to lock himself into hell and throw the key outside the door, if he means it.
Atheism makes too little sense to me for me to believe in it. It would take too much faith.
It may be a regionalism e.g. British.
Old Testament scriptures which do not directly preach a trinitarian Godhead still carry hints of the Christian conception of God, such as God playing multiple roles in a single situation, and we Christians should not be foolish enough to say that God can’t be even more than a three-personal God. What we can say is that God is not less than a three-personal God.
And I have to think the pensive Hitchens really did wrestle with these primal fears despite his bluster, and it's possible he may have found hope someday given more time. He's RIP now.
Is he R’ing in P, or did the devil RIP him a new one... beyond mortal ken.
Some might jokingly call it a redneck heaven, but a serious Christian knows that the Christian redneck is telling Jesus hey this “bread” and “wine” is better than anything that ever got labeled “Bubba” on earth.
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
I know. But he really seems to have developed a bit of an obsession with his atheism towards the end, and that has somewhat blotted out his other work. Maybe it will emerge again later.
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...
Most intelligent thing you ever said :)
We can only say what he is to the extent he has revealed himself and he’s revealed himself as one and three.
It’s interesting but I don’t know if it proves anything or not.
Here’s a situation I know more about. I have two cats who weigh the same. (All cats have gravity rays they can turn on whereupon, lying upon their humans in bed, they increase their weight by a random factor up to five.) During the night, when I’m asleep, Susie jumps on my feet. Or is it Timmy? I have the covers pulled over my face so I can’t see. It’s only when I beckon whichever cat it was to walk up to my face, that I can see if it was him or her.
Hitchens wans’t great, but I give him credit for standing up to his fellow leftists and not bowing to political correctness.
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