Patterico's Pontifications

12/15/2011

Christopher Hitchens Dies

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 9:34 pm



At 62. R.I.P.

H/t Ag80.

39 Responses to “Christopher Hitchens Dies”

  1. “I love the imagery of struggle,” he wrote about his illness in an August 2010 essay in Vanity Fair. “I sometimes wish I were suffering in a good cause, or risking my life for the good of others, instead of just being a gravely endangered patient.”

    Dana (4eca6e)

  2. He had cancer so I’am not surprised by his death but I’m saddened.

    Dohbiden (ef98f0)

  3. He was furious, funny and a great intellect.

    I can not be sorry about his death, because it would fly in the face of his reason.

    However, I can be sorry for the loss of a great voice against ignorance.

    Although his atheism was against my core beliefs, his words were a great challenge. Challenges to orthodoxies can make us stronger. Especially when they come from such an intellect.

    Civilization will be the less without him.

    Ag80 (ec45d6)

  4. That’s well said, AG.

    He was someone who would probably find my views annoying and I surely do some of his, but he was a great man.

    Just that Syrian Nazi episode alone… where he sees a Nazi poster in an area where he knows ripping it down will probably lead to a violent response, and he has to rip that poster down anyway… I would like to live my life like that.

    Dustin (cb3719)

  5. But I don’t appreciate him calling Palin a demagogue because spoke truth about Obama and Ayers being allies.

    Dohbiden (ef98f0)

  6. because she*

    Dohbiden (ef98f0)

  7. Dohbiden, Christopher Hitchens said a great, great many things I did not appreciate.

    Did you know about the position “advocatus diaboli“? The Devil’s Advocate. The Roman Catholic Church relied on Christopher Hitchens the last time they needed one (for testifying against the beautification of Mother Theresa).

    Dustin (cb3719)

  8. Beatification. Though I guess she could have used a beautification as well…

    Milhouse (ea66e3)

  9. Hitchens will be missed.

    Dohbiden (ef98f0)

  10. Damn. Thanks for noticing that one, as I was genuinely ignorant of the spelling rather than just making another asinine typo.

    Dustin (cb3719)

  11. Very very rarely did I agree with this man, but his death is a great loss. May he rest in peace. And even though he wouldn’t have cared, I pray he found peace with God before he passed.

    Ghost (6f9de7)

  12. Or after…

    Milhouse (ea66e3)

  13. Mother Threas was far form perfect.

    Dohbiden (ef98f0)

  14. “Do I fear death? No, I am not afraid of being dead because there’s nothing to be afraid of, I won’t know it. I fear dying, of dying I feel a sense of waste about it and I fear a sordid death, where I am incapacitated or imbecilic at the end which isn’t something to be afraid of, it’s something to be terrified of.” ― Christopher Hitchens

    No doubt he’s debating atheism at a roundtable with God right now, clutching a tumbler of the Lord’s finest scotch whiskey. RIP, CH.

    DCSCA (9d1bb3)

  15. No doubt he’s debating atheism at a roundtable with God right now,

    He probably would.

    “So you’re God, so you’re natural phenomena, so who made you? Not God. So there is no supernatural God.”

    Dustin (cb3719)

  16. Theresa*

    Dohbiden (ef98f0)

  17. If he’s convinced that there’s no such thing as an afterlife, then he must think he’s still alive, and any evidence of his death with which he’s presented must be a delusion. Some kind of phenomenon associated with the dying brain desperately clinging to existence or something.

    Milhouse (ea66e3)

  18. Teresa, actually

    Milhouse (ea66e3)

  19. Oh to be a fly on the wall as he explains to G*d that He doesn’t really exist…

    RIP, and thanks.

    Gazzer (05f379)

  20. Thanks.

    Dohbiden (ef98f0)

  21. One of the few voices of reason during the first decade of the 21st-Century who spoke with a British accent.
    A great advocate of republicanism who would be missed by his ex-countrymen if they still cared about republican/liberal values.

    God’s speed, Christopher!

    AD-RtR/OS! (e08334)

  22. I drank a glass of the best scotch I could find at the local pub (Christopher’s favorite was Johnny Walker Black Label) in honor of his memory and impact on my life tonight.

    Cheers all, and here’s to a life well lived, Christopher Hitchens.

    Random (38d59c)

  23. If he’s convinced that there’s no such thing as an afterlife, then he must think he’s still alive, and any evidence of his death with which he’s presented must be a delusion. Some kind of phenomenon associated with the dying brain desperately clinging to existence or something.

    More like he doesn’t think or experience anything at all.

    Random (38d59c)

  24. “I love the imagery of struggle;…I sometimes wish I were suffering in a good cause, or risking my life for the good of others, instead of just being a gravely endangered patient.”

    (From comment 1, by Dana)

    Welcome to the common fate of humanity. One of them. We all imagine ourselves as something special. We die finding out differently.

    Steve (8ddf37)

  25. He was a brave man, a good man and will be missed

    EricPWJohnson (2925ff)

  26. If he had to be taken from us, it’s fitting that it would be right around the time America ended its military involvement in Iraq. he was – in my mind – perhaps the most eloquent and forceful of those who made the case that it was necessary that the United States rid both Iraq and the world of Saddam Hussein. His knowledge, wit and rapier tongue will be sorely missed.

    What a writer!

    What a man!

    Colonel Haiku (2add70)

  27. “And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever.”

    Daniel 12:2-3

    Gerald A (9d78e8)

  28. Hitchens reminded me of William Buckley – I didn’t always agree with them, but they were a joy to listen to and ponder their arguments/ideas. RIP.

    Horatio (e2e328)

  29. He ran hard until the end. His arguments for reasoned consideration of the consequences of various religions’ core beliefs, and his willingness not to equate all religious beliefs as equal, were important.

    Hitch was vigorously pro-America. He found the Eurpopean response to terrorists insufficient.

    As to those who envision a nice afterlife for Hitchens, there are some doctrinal problems with that for most of you. As Hitch pointed out, eternal torture for those who disbelieve in You makes You a monster.

    On that same topic, I think Hitch would have liked this relevant quote from Richard Tillman, Pat’s brother, at Pat Tillman’s funeral: “Thanks for your thoughts, but he’s fucking dead.”

    RIP, Christopher Hitchens. Dying was yet another thing you did better, faster, and wittier than the rest of us.

    –JRM

    “Death doesn’t mean that the party’s over. It’s much worse than that; the party keeps going, just without you.” – Christopher Hitchens.

    JRM (cd0a37)

  30. Horatio your so right.

    He was right about Mother Teresa kind of.

    Dohbiden (ef98f0)

  31. If Christopher Hitchens is in heaven with God right now, who is more surprised: Hitchens? Or the Evangelical Christians up there with him?

    aunursa (1b1549)

  32. It would be hilarious, aunursa, to see that meeting.

    I sure hope Hitchens is wrong about that issue.

    One thing I do admire about him is that he’s one of those rare birds who has been reasoned out of a point of view publicly and honestly. Not for some fashion statement as a position becomes vogue, but legitimate intellectual honesty.

    Dustin (cb3719)

  33. If Christopher Hitchens is in heaven with God right now, who is more surprised: Hitchens? Or the Evangelical Christians up there with him?

    Comment by aunursa — 12/16/2011 @ 9:57 am

    Choice #3: God is surprised

    Gerald A (9d78e8)

  34. Can God ever be surprised?

    AD-RtR/OS! (1f61b8)

  35. When I told god my name was margaret he was surprised……………….hehehehehe I kid you.

    Dohbiden (ef98f0)

  36. Patrick

    if you go into my tweets, you’ll see where I MT’ed a click of hitchens on maher’s show, insulting the audience and giving them the finger, while standing up for George W. Bush.

    Its pretty sweet.

    Aaron Worthing (e7d72e)

  37. and, i should add that if you go to my blog, you can find a link to Peter Hitchen’s obit to his brother.

    (click on the link, ya’ll to go there.)

    Aaron Worthing (e7d72e)

  38. Besides being brilliant and a joy to read, Christopher H. was living proof of how complex and unpredictable human beings are–and how none of us should ever make assumptions or attempt to pigeonhole others whom we do not know. (That’s kind of a good thing to keep in mind, I think, in real life as well as when participating on blogs. We really only know snippets about others–never the full picture.)

    elissa (c4b759)

  39. itchens on maher’s show, insulting the audience and giving them the finger,

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MoclaTQWzvc

    He will be missed.

    carlitos (49ef9f)


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