A tribute to Hitch

Christopher Hitchens (61) has been an unknown character to me. I still don't know a great deal about him. I know him as an outspoken atheist with a mind-blowing command of the English language. He is a fantastic orator, if you haven't witnessed his skills you should, and a prolific writer on the subject of disbelief.

The other day I stumbled upon this piece, 'Tropic of Cancer', which unfortunately reveals that he now suffers from cancer of the esophagus. Having read the article I was struck by just how beautifully frank it was, how honestly he recounts his personal feelings about being faced with his own death. I found it stunning.

Sentences such as:

"I have been 'in denial' for some time, knowingly burning the candle at both ends and finding that it often gives a lovely light"

and:

"I have been taunting the Reaper into taking a free scythe in my direction and have now succumbed to something so predictable and banal that it bores even me"

articulate a clarity of thought, an acceptance of mortality, and a dislike of drama that only someone who truly accepts the world and our short time here, could appreciate.

In his second piece of the series, 'Unanswerable Prayers', he uses his immense skill to yet again mount an attack on religious belief, from the new perspective of someone terminally ill. As an avid reader of atheistic literature I am aware that authors on the subject often receive significant 'hate' mail or even worse. Richard Dawkins has taken to printing his favorites in his books and posting them on his website for all to see. Certainly having read a few, you cannot help but think that the level of hatred and violence these messages promise could only come from someone thinking irrationally. Hitchens, to his credit, uses his razor-sharp intellect to show how vacuous these people and their beliefs in fact are.

From his new, if not unenviable perspective, he also picks up some rather comic viewpoints that only an atheist would appreciate. As a renowned writer, he mentions that he has received, in addition to hate mail, messages of support from religious people. Many of which wish him well and plead for him to convert to their particular strand of belief before it is too late. He states that he now sympathises afresh with Voltaire, who, when badgered on his deathbed and urged to renounce the devil, murmured that this was no time to be making enemies.

Despite my lack of familiarity with Hitchens, I have now seen that this titan of logic, is worthy of further research, and no doubt will prompt me to offer further credit in the future.

If you would like to comment on this post, please click 'comments' below.