In Memoriam: Christopher Hitchens, 1949–2011 – Vanity Fair: Christopher Hitchens—the incomparable critic, masterful rhetorician, fiery wit, and fearless bon vivant—died today at the age of 62. Hitchens was diagnosed with esophageal cancer in the spring of 2010, just after the publication of his memoir, Hitch-22, and began chemotherapy soon after. His matchless prose has appeared in Vanity Fair since 1992, when he was named contributing editor.
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He eloquently argued against tyranny his entire life. Including the tyranny of God.
Hope he was right about god.
He was the language instructor I never had in school.
Fuck the cancer! So sick of the shit!
This is one of these days you knew was coming but hoped would never get here. So sad.
Hitch was awesome, one of a kind I’ve spent hours over the years watching his debates and interviews and he was terrific up to the end. It’s horrible to think that we’ve lost such a great voice for the cause of reason.
He seemed to enjoy cigarettes. Kind of stupid, wasn’t he?
A god among men passes…
I will pray for his soul.
Ditto. Unironically.
Don’t be silly. Praying for Hitchens’ soul is like crying over spilled milk. Meanwhile, thousands of people are dying daily — people who never even knew your god exists nor had the opportunity to know Him and enjoy a richer life because of that association. Don’t waste your time on Hitch. Get out there and take your wonderful message to the world! Start ringing those doorbells! Your mission isn’t complete until everyone in the world has heard the good news. What a shame it would be if even one soul went to hell because you were too lazy to tell them how terrific (but shy) your Savior is. Jesus won’t introduce himself — that’s YOUR job.
Time’s a wastin’.
Pray for yourself, delusional twit.
“I’ll pray for him”. So passive aggressive.
So… now INXS is looking for a new lead singer?
He’s dead. He’s probably in a refrigerator in a morgue. That’s all folks…
Religion is nothing more than a creation to ease one’s fears of the unknown. The afterlife is a superstition invented to appease people’s arrogance that they are SO special, one life isn’t possibly all they get.
“The Lord is my shepherd…” Well, some of us are NOT sheep & can think for ourselves.
Wishing a good afterlife for Christopher (Don’t Call Me Chris) Hitchens is an ultimate insult for this atheist in chief. Cover the world with superstitious crap and you might find a crack.
Reminds me of a pretty powerful theme in a book ((I want to say BridesHead Revisited but thats not what the book was mainly about–but it was a long book)) about an atheist old rich guy in contest with his religious wife and messed up kiddies. He rejected god after some event and rejected the local religious types that were constantly being encouraged to seek favors from the old guy by his wife. Well, at the end, on his death bed he refused absolution about 4 times=====but right at the very end, out of breath, weak, almost entirely dead, the wife and the priest ((Yes–it was Catholic Nonsense–often the very worst kind outside of the exotic)) “hear” him ask for absolution and final rites are given: another convert to the one and only faith.
And so it goes with religion===really only fit for the lame, hopeless, and almost entirely dead who can’t defend themselves anymore.
Silly Hoomans.
Hey! It’s HUMANS. Can’t you graduate the first grade?
On Dvorak there are several euphemisms some of us have invented or acquired from previous posts. For instance, on here you aren’t a moron, you are a moran. It’s actually quite funny if you saw the original post and image.
I am looking for a quote from Hitchens recited on Morning Joe about characteristics that Hitches admired and those he rejected. While searching I found the always excellent wiki:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Hitchens
and then for those that prefer the video medium- a series of rejoinders from Christoper:
http://vanityfair.com/video/2011/12/1329955421001
IMO–the wiki is a very nice demonstration of what a life worth living looks like. The videos: no point to them.
The medieval Catholic Church used God and the Bible to justify the torture and murder of heretics.
The Bible has been used to justify slavery.
The Bible has been used to justify the denial of a woman’s right to vote, or wear pants, or to speak freely.
Adolf Hitler claimed to be a Christian, and he considered himself to be doing the work of the Lord when he initiated the slaughter of millions of Jews, Poles, and other ethnic groups that were considered impure.
The Bible has been used to justify hatred, racism, and bigotry in its many forms.
History continues to record the crimes of Christians against humanity. Pederasty and pedophilia in the Catholic Church is only one small example.
An objective study of the sayings of Jesus might suggest that He was a racist.
I offer only one example from the scriptures:
A Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to him, crying out, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is suffering terribly from demon-possession.” Jesus did not answer a word.
So his disciples came to him and urged him, “Send her away, for she keeps crying out after us.” He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.”
The woman came and knelt before him. “Lord, help me!” she said. He replied, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to their dogs.”
That’s why Alphred promotes the bible. He profits from it by manipulating scripture to suit his needs. The Bible is similar to statistics in that way.
You are a turd.
I must seem like a god to you then.
I ordered his last book, Arguably, minutes after the announcement. Mine’s ready-to-ship, but I wonder how long others will have to wait?
We all know the real test of a person isn’t whether or not they kill, bomb, rape, murder, maim, lie, cheat or steal.
By left-winger’s stereotypes of “Republican standards”, this guy wasn’t a “fag”, spoke English, wasn’t a Jew and didn’t have dark-colored skin either.
But OMG — he had different thoughts than the religious peoples.
Somewhere above, an angry God will someday impose his judgment … and it won’t be on his this guy.
It’ll be on morans who think this guy is as bad as Hitler because he had a different point of view.
Sheesh.
And the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it.
Therefore, Hutchinson dead and the Church (Catholic Church) is getting ready to celebrate Christmas.
Ignorance is bliss.
The subconscious need for some belief system or other is installed at the factory. The factory is any pregnant womb. We’re stuck with that fact & it’s REAL TOUGH to paddle upstream against the current of one’s own medieval psyche & jettison one’s Jeebus.
I was raised as a Southern Baptist (Lord, forgive me) and I was considered a lost cause because I asked questions in Sunday School class.
I was told by the Church the Bible does not contain any contradictions, and the Bible is the perfect Word of God.
One particular question I posed to the class went something like this:
Here are some quotes of Jesus from the Bible that cause me some confusion; I cannot seem to reconcile these contradictions.
Matthew 5:43:
“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven.”
Luke 6:26:
“But I tell you who hear me: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.
But then Jesus also says these things:
Luke 14:26: “Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple.”
Luke 18:20 “You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery, Do not murder, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Honor your father and mother.’”
These statements appear to be contradictory.
According to Jesus, I should love my enemies, but hate my family?
At the same time, I should honor my father and mother?
How do I hate my parents and honor them at the same time?
Then there is the esoteric question of eternal life.
Luke 10:25-28:
On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
“What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?”
He answered: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.'”
“You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.”
But then Jesus says later on:
Luke 18:18-22
A certain ruler asked him, “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
“Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone. You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal, do not give false testimony, honor your father and mother.'”
“All these I have kept since I was a boy,” he said.
When Jesus heard this, he said to him, “You still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”
The answers in Luke 10 and Luke 18 are totally different.
Which of these answers am I to consider?
Enough said.
I was raised as a Roman Catholic. At the tender age of 6, I was asking similar questions in Catechism class. The nun called me out as being influenced by the devil and if I kept questioning the bible I would go to Hell. My parents were notified of my ‘indiscretions’ and promptly removed me from class. Thank you mom and dad!
Never heard of him, don’t give a shit.
That’s why you are intellectually constipated.
No, I am not. As a matter of fact, I finish one history book every ten days, on average. I have seen more of “real” life than any of you folks here, based on my occupation. I watch virtually no television, and do not get most of my information from magazines or radio, either. You, sir, are an an asshole.
Soooo, you get all your news from history books? That’s… um …unique.
You want a cookie or something?
An acquaintance of mine, not particularly bright, once told me a theory he wondered about. He wondered if, before death, whatever idea you had about any life after death was, somehow, what you experienced. In other words, an eternal existence amongst angels and green fields was what you got if you believed in the traditional heaven, because your brain manuactured an eternity that you experienced right before death. Eternity meant you experienced an eternity. Likewise, it manufactured a hell for eternity it that was what you believed.
So, this guy probably would have gotten a complete end of his existence since he believed in that. This may be more than most Dvorak readers can comprehend, I assume. Nonetheless, I think my friend had a unique insight.
Um… you might want to pick up a science book once and a while. The brain and all it has “manufactured” dies with you. Your friend is delusional, and you are apparently susceptible to delusions.
Put your friends theory to a test. A priest is thinking, just before he dies, that heaven would be filled with little boys he can abuse. Can you comprehend what that means ABO? Most here on Dvorak can.
Sorry, you just are just to dim to understand the concept, aren’t you? As to you final point, it would fit the theory my friend outlined. I never said I agreed with it, dipshit.
By the way, I have a Masters in physics, bucko.
As a Masters in Physics, one would wonder why you “read a history book every 10 days”. It’s possible I suppose, but it doesn’t seem plausible. I guess if you were out of work and decided to become an Historian…
It also seems implausible that you would defend the bible thumping antics of Alfred, having that pure logic scientific background of yours.
Again, la-tee-dah
Do you feel better having promoted yourself above the rabble of strangers on a blog?
Hey Alfie—I think this chart has been posted before, but always an interesting review. Re: belief in afterlife and other dogmas:
http://religionfacts.com/big_religion_chart.htm
I never heard of this guy but from this blog I get the impression he is some sort of gold standard for atheist, loons, and Dims.
It’s been interesting reading all of the rational, scientific statements debunking religion with irrefutable proof.
Enjoy those cigarettes, Mr. Know-It-All?
Ref:
Post #58- bobbo, the pragmatic existential evangelical anti-theist says:
12/16/2011 at 2:11 pm
Hey Bobbo, we can defeat the system !!
1. Refuse to click on any ‘Reply’ link
2. Reference the post to which you intend to reply as I did here (above) by quoting date and time. This then becomes analogous to the old system of quoting post numbers and we obtain a rational time sequence of comments once again.
What do you think?
alfie says “No one pushes against what doesn’t exist.”
So human caused global warming is real, as so many folk like alfie push against it.
Have fun I am out for the week.
You’re confusing “Push-BACK” for “Pushing”, it is/was Al Gore and his mindless minions that were “Pushing” their global warming agenda, alfie is just pushing-back.
So lefties haven’t totally disowned him for being against Saddam Hussein, or for telling Bill Maher’s audience, none of you are smarter than this President.
http://youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=HECI4QK_mXA
I’m sorry I didn’t know more about him. He seems to have had a brain and the willingness to be blunt.
Well, #97–Fred==thanks for the support. There are 4-5 regulars here fighting the good fight in various ways. “NewFormatSux” would mean nothing to a newbie and there are quite a few newbies as well.
In truth–JCD just doesn’t care to share why the recent changes were made except to “make it modern.”
FUNCTIONALLY==it makes the forum less engaging as ideas are lost as people only focus on their own postings.
Pro’s and Con’s to all we do. I assume JCD is getting whatever he wants out of it and we poor readers can put up with it or leave. I have mostly left==posting much less than before==all to the cheers of most. Just about to get bounced off the two other forums I started attending.======UNCENSORED–has a lot going for it no matter how hard JCD tries to f*ck it up.
I enjoy the personalities here.
I planned on giving my call to masses until the end of the year to see who would play along. No mob is forming. Winter is always bad for Occupy Movements.
I think we should all find our maximum joy from the alternatives available to us.
Keep the good stuff coming.
I knew I could get a real discussion going.
That was fun.
I really think God will forgive me if I am a skeptic.
I had a lady tell me the other day that her husband had several teeth that were rotted out and needed fillings.
She said they could not afford to pay for a dentist, so they prayed to Jesus and within a couple of days, gold fillings started to grow in his teeth, and people from the church were coming by to watch the gold fillings grow.
Within a week or two, all his rotten teeth were filled with gold fillings. It was a miracle!
I told her the story was very interesting.
I explained that I have an ex-wife that has been brain-damaged for 27 years, and she requires nursing care 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. So I told her I would put her faith to a real test. I figure if Jesus can grow gold fillings in her husband’s rotten teeth, then repairing brain damage should be a walk in the park for Jesus.
She promised me her faith healing group would pray for my ex-wife and teach me a lesson about faith in Jesus.
That was more than a month ago. I have not received a phone call that my ex-wife has been made whole again.
Maybe they don’t pray good enough. Maybe Jesus doesn’t love my ex-wife.
On the other hand, maybe her story was all horseshit.
Let’s take a vote.
Truth, or horseshit?
I would vote horseshit. That story attracts too many flies to be true. It would be like God healing an amputee by giving him a brand-new prosthesis instead of a new limb. The “intelligent” choice for a dental healing would be original tooth construction finished off with real enamel.
A favorite of mine is the frequent claim that God performs medical healings using modern doctors as his tools. My mom tried to tell me that God healed her vision through the doctor who performed Lasik eye surgery on her. The story was attracting flies even as she was telling it, but she was convinced.
Verdict: Horseshit.
It’s good to be skeptical. Live a life, not a death which is what religious dogma promises you.
If there is a heaven and a hell (how simplistic?) then I suspect Mr Hitchens would prefer hell over the parochial tyranny of heaven that religion prefers.
I call Horseshit on the tooth story. Taxed loves Jesus tho Taxed cheeks are virgin. Meaning he (taxed) attacks instead of turning and offering up the other cheek.
RIP Hitch.
It’s a sad loss for sure.
The man truly was a master debater.
I doubt anyone who is reading this would have lasted 5 minutes with him in a debate.
Hearing him argue was thrilling when you agreed, frustrating when you did not.
I regret that he never recanted in his support for invading Iraq.
But he’s beyond the reach of his critics and any retribution they might imagine.
Dead war monger.
Dead war monger that gave you free speech and human rights.