In praise of Christopher Hitchens.

[darkstar]

Hitchens was recently diagnosed with esophageal cancer, he is famous for his atheism, he's often extremely blunt when discussing the matter of religion. He is a personal hero of mine, an extremely intelligent man, and I'm deeply saddened by his illness. I am in awe of the way he has taken on this illness, stating "Why not me? I've burned the candle at both ends... and it gave a lovely light"

 

[Mad Doug Biker]

That's the best attitude to have though. Instead of saying

'Why me?!'

Say to yourself

'Why not me?'.

Horrible as it is, statistically, it has to happen to someone.

Another way of looking at it is to say

'You always hear of it happening to other people, except that this time I'M the other person its happening too'.

It helps make sense of it all in the great scheme of things and also makes it hard to feel sorry for yourself, beleive me, I KNOW!


MDB - more than qualified in such matters.

 

[darkstar]

Oh yes I agree, I think it's a brilliant attitude to have. He is such a brilliant man, he' led a good life and knows that. That quote just struck a chord with me, really got me thinking.

 

[Unkraut]

...he is famous for his atheism, he's often extremely blunt when discussing the matter of religion.

He may be blunt, but I learned of this on Doug Wilson's blog, a pastor who has debated Hitchens on the subject of atheism. After a public moderated debate Wilson wrote on his blog when reporting on the event that he would 'first like to thank Christopher Hitchens for the civilised tone to the debate' or something to that effect. Just goes to show it can be done.