Heartland

http://www.vanityfair.com/online/daily/ ... s-19492011

Whether you agreed with him or disagreed with him (or more likely both, depending on the day or the topic), he was a master of the written word. The big C finally got him.

someone on twitter wrote:God Is Not Great
Proof couldn't be neater
He took away Hitch
And left us with Peter

If you want to be really depressed, do a search on Twitter for "Hitchens Jesus". Vultures are already circling to claim a deathbed conversion, or failing that, gloating about him being in hell. What a wonderful christian attitude. Kind of proves Hitch's point doesn't it.

There was much more to him than the rather crude atheism that certain quarters will remember him for. More than anything, the man was a moralist--and a quite serious one at that, regardless of one's own disagreements with him. Here's a nice obit:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142 ... ifestyle_5

I might give to him the same appellation given to Nietzsche's Zarathustra by the last pope (in Zarathustra IV): the most pious of those who do not believe in God.

sultan2075 wrote:There was much more to him than the rather crude atheism that certain quarters will remember him for.

Oh certainly.

Mark Thomas phrased it best IMO: "Even when he was wrong he was brilliant."

Thanks, guys, for posting this!

markfiend wrote:If you want to be really depressed, do a search on Twitter for "Hitchens Jesus". Vultures are already circling to claim a deathbed conversion, or failing that, gloating about him being in hell. What a wonderful christian attitude. Kind of proves Hitch's point doesn't it.

Bah, that won't make me depressed. Rather, almost amused He even adressed the topic of last-minute death bed conversion in an interview.

PS - at the danger of soundign stupid, but Peter? Who's Peter?

I'm assuming his brother, Peter Hitchens, whose very existence offends the rabid-atheist type of Hitchens fans. He's (gasp!) a religious man.

Yeah, those types... some want to replace one mandatory world view by another mandatory world view. Makes you wonder what improvement they see in doing so...

Peter Hitchens wrote a very moving piece about his brother: clicky