R.i.p. Hitch !!!!!

[ILOVEJESUS]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-16212418 Seems cancer finally beat the well renowned atheist writer and all round theist kicker Christopher Hitchens. He will live on, not as a spirit, but through his writing and debates strewn accross the interweb and beyond. Can we not have too much goddy shit in this thread? I have a lot of respect for many of th eopinions of this man, and think he has done a great deal to help many throw off the shackles ot theism and embrace reality.

[Smellyoldgit]

Not unexpected, but still sad.

[Sternwallow]

I will grieve. Grief is not a theistic concept.

[ILOVEJESUS]

I didn't know him well enough to grieve too much, but I did repect his written work and his debating style enough to know when the world has lost a valuable contributor. I wonder how his strongly theistic brother feels?

[Michael]

He was a clearly intelligent man whose viewpoints probably lent pretty heavily to my own current view of the world (in that he affected other people who subsequently affected me).
However, if I'm to be honest, I was not particularly up-to-date with his body of work.

Still, I recognise that he is considered one of the fathers of "new atheism", If that is even a real thing, and his loss is sad.

[Philboid Studge]

I worked with him once, back in the day. He did all the work; I fact-checked. It was an article about the royal family, in which he wrote that Charles looked like "a monkey on a stick."

Had a martini with him at the office Xmas bash. That is, I drank and listened as he held court. He was both a great man and a good man. R.I.P., Christopher.

[Smellyoldgit]

I think he'd have preferred - “rest in undisturbed biological decomposition”

[Irreligious]

I heard him speak in person once and was riveted.

Death will humble us all. But with his numerous books, columns and public speaking engagements over the decades, Christopher Hitchens has left behind an important body of thought to counter copious and longstanding religious propaganda.

Well done, Mr. Hitchens.

[West491]

Goodbye Hitch. I'll definitely miss hearing him speak his mind so freely.

[ghoulslime]

I've been pre-mourning this inevitable juncture for some time. However, it doesn't seem to have diminished the pain any. We've lost a very great man. I will miss his wit and his unblunted, disintegrative articulation of truth.

It is my birthday today. Suddenly, this milestone in my life has a more profound significance to me.

[Irreligious]

Happy Birthday, Ghoulie!

[ghoulslime]

Irreligious wrote

Happy Birthday, Ghoulie!

Thanks, Irr!

[ghoulslime]

"Faith is the surrender of the mind; it's the surrender of reason, it's the surrender of the only thing that makes us different from other mammals. It's our need to believe, and to surrender our skepticism and our reason, our yearning to discard that and put all our trust or faith in someone or something, that is the sinister thing to me. Of all the supposed virtues, faith must be the most overrated."

- Christopher Hitchens

[psychodiva]

I'm sad - but also quite glad he isn't suffering and that his books / a all over the net for a while and in the face of the religidiots at this oh so special time- mm suspiciously good timing eh?

[nkb]

Irreligious wrote

I heard him speak in person once and was riveted.

Same here. I was lucky enough to see him in person last year, and, holy shitballs, what an eloquent and captivating public speaker he was.

I will miss him, but I will also make it my goal to catch up on all his books. I've been meaning to order Hitch-22 and Arguably:Essays, and this is as good an incentive as any. After that, I'll work my way back, chronologically speaking.