RIP Christopher Hitchens

[_Darth J]

Given his admirable self-awareness, I think he would appreciate the symmetry and would be off-put by any sanctimony of leaving him untouchable because he just died.

I don't want to touch a dead person. Gross!

[_Hoops]

It is easy to do when their beliefs are drummed into your head daily for 30 years.

Apparently.

[_Jersey Girl]

Ceeboo

?????????????????????
I need a break from the MDB (I am exhausted!)

See you all after the New Year!!!!!! :)

Peace to you all and Merry Christmas to you and yours!
Ceeboo

Um, NO.

[_mikwut]

I will miss his humor and wit, to wit:

It was early last September,
as near as I remember,
I was falling down the street in drunken pride,
when I fell into the gutter thinking thoughts I dare not utter,
and a pig came up and lay down by me side.

As I lay there in that gutter thinking thoughts I dare not utter,
a fair young maid came by and she did say,
you can tell a man who boozes by the company he chooses,
and that the pig got up and walked away.

mikwut

[_Blixa]

I am really bummed out that Hitchens has passed. I was sad to hear of his illness, so it is not like I didn't know this was coming, but I will miss him. It is not like I agreed with his special disdain for religion, but he was an intelligent and witty fellow, with a ready quip to unsettle the self-satisfied and complacent. His book god is not Great was not very good, especially on things Mormon, but it was a real pleasure to watch him debate, even though I didn't agree with him about a lot of things.

Again, I will miss seeing him debate and appear on shows.

On a further note, I guess I am somewhat saddened by the argument that people are only significant if they can be physically immortal. I believe that everyone is immortal in the impact they leave on this world, no matter how small that impact may be. We all interact with other people and our planet, and in those interactions we contribute to the trajectory of history. My reverence for this idea is one of the reasons I feel more attached to my Mormon roots than ever. I pay tribute to my LDS ancestors and feel attached to them in finding appreciation for their beliefs.

Finally, I would recommend Paul Woodruff's book Reverence: Renewing a Forgotten Virtue as good holiday reading for people of all philosophies and beliefs. In respectful recognition of Ray's latest approach to the board, I offer it to you as a decent argument for the importance of reverence to human society, whether one is atheist, Christian, Muslim, or Scientologist.

I like what Kish said, but I also have appreciated the remarks of EAllusion in this memorial thread.

I haven't read Hitch for years, yet I did feel a pang when notices of his death began showing up in my Facebook feed last night. That he was an interesting writer and personality over the varied course of his career there can be no doubt.

While I found some of his later political opinions problematic, I used to read his articles quite a bit. And I have to say, I've always thought his absolute best work was his critique of Mother Theresa. I was a risky topic to take on, but he did it with a thoroughness and integrity that impressed me. EAllusion's own allusion to it in this thread is SPOT ON for any kind of tribute to the man.

[_Chap]

I will miss his humor and wit, to wit:

It was early last September,
as near as I remember,
I was falling down the street in drunken pride,
when I fell into the gutter thinking thoughts I dare not utter,
and a pig came up and lay down by me side.

As I lay there in that gutter thinking thoughts I dare not utter,
a fair young maid came by and she did say,
you can tell a man who boozes by the company he chooses,
and that the pig got up and walked away.

mikwut

I am sorry - is this some kind of irony, or are you actually under the impression that this poem - probably over 100 years old - is by Hitchens? Or do you just mean he quoted it?

[_mikwut]

Chap,

He quoted it (sang it) many times in public.

mikwut

[_Jersey Girl]

I have to say that prior to this thread, I knew nothing about Hitchen's work regarding Mother Teresa. My reaction to what I read about it (Mother Teresa's practices) earlier today on other sites was a combination of disbelief and revulsion. I had no idea about her philosophy on suffering, her abject neglect of terminally ill persons, the fact that while she apparently deprived the terminally ill of appropriate palliative care, including pain relieving meds, while she availed herself of modern health care and treatment for her own illness.

It seems to me that her ministry enjoyed enough monetary donations to relieve the sick and poor, however, the funds were apparently diverted to facilitate more mission starts that were likewise unable to provide adequate care.

Where was the compassion?

In any case, thanks for the thread, Sethbag. What an eye opener this turned out to be!

[_cksalmon]

Hitchens's debate partner, Douglas Wilson, reflects.

[Guest]

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