Christopher Hitchens dies at 62.
Who are the other riders in this quartet?
Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, and Sam Harris
Otherwise known as the Four Horsemen of New Atheism.
_________________
Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men?
Actually he is not having a laugh, good, bad, or otherwise. He is dead, and in an ontological sense gone.
ruveyn
Last edited by ruveyn on 18 Dec 2011, 8:25 pm, edited 1 time in total.
You've nothing to lose either by believing, so may as well believe.
You've nothing to lose, besides time.
And one of the wittiest, most stylish sophisticated writers that ever put a word on a page. His prose was Golden.
Here is the progression:
Mark Twain -> H.L. Mencken -> Christopher Hitchens. .....
Who is next and when?
ruveyn
jojobean
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Location: In Georgia sipping a virgin pina' colada while the rest of the world is drunk
omg ...Some AFA spokesperson said that "Hitchens in is hell because God loves him"
I believe in reincarnation, so instead of farewell...I will just say, see you later, alligator.
Jojo
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All art is a kind of confession, more or less oblique. All artists, if they are to survive, are forced, at last, to tell the whole story; to vomit the anguish up.
-James Baldwin
He welcomed criticism of his drinking, because it's a sign of victory when your opposition resorts to ad hominem attacks. In his own words he explained that he drank to make other people less boring, as he had a great terror of being bored. And all of the comments that are ad hominem attacks are amusing to me. People actively displaying their defeat even after he's dead and gone... in the exact way many of his opponents showed him he was victorious when he was living.
I fear there will be an intellectual void that may be impossible to fill as a result of his death but I will be forever grateful for what his lifestyle produced. I can't deny that I've felt slightly depressed since hearing of his death, I wasn't surprised but I was stricken with grief that was much stronger than I had anticipated.
As for the Pascal's wager crap, you have a lot to lose if you think the options are believe and avoid hell or disbelieve and go to hell. Which god is it that you are supposed to believe in? What if you pick the wrong one? You've got a LOT of options in that regard. Even if there IS a god and you pick the right one, I sure hope, for your sake, that it's one who will reward you for believing for personal gain rather than having any real devotion to said God.
jojobean
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Joined: 12 Aug 2009
Age: 47
Gender: Female
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Location: In Georgia sipping a virgin pina' colada while the rest of the world is drunk
I fear there will be an intellectual void that may be impossible to fill as a result of his death but I will be forever grateful for what his lifestyle produced. I can't deny that I've felt slightly depressed since hearing of his death, I wasn't surprised but I was stricken with grief that was much stronger than I had anticipated.
As for the Pascal's wager crap, you have a lot to lose if you think the options are believe and avoid hell or disbelieve and go to hell. Which god is it that you are supposed to believe in? What if you pick the wrong one? You've got a LOT of options in that regard. Even if there IS a god and you pick the right one, I sure hope, for your sake, that it's one who will reward you for believing for personal gain rather than having any real devotion to said God.
ya I never understood the whole worshiping God to get into heaven...not devotion to God for devotion itself regardless where you end up.
that whole set up is just a reminant from the dark ages where popes had total control over ppl's mind. It is easy psychology...believe and go to heaven...dont believe and go to hell. It is very powerful mind control. When I broke from Christianity and went on my own path of spirituality...it took a huge leap of faith to discard all that mind control and follow my inner truth.,
The church still has consiterable control over ppl and society in the US. I mean look how much religion plays into politics and visa versa.
The religious right still think Bush jr was a devout Christian because he could quote scripture and makes homophobia part of the constitution. If they believe that I have some great ocean front property in Oklahoma that I like to sell them. It is several miles south of Enid.
Jojo
_________________
All art is a kind of confession, more or less oblique. All artists, if they are to survive, are forced, at last, to tell the whole story; to vomit the anguish up.
-James Baldwin
I can almost see the smug look he must have had on his face.
After becoming a parent, I asked myself if there was anything my child could do that would make me want him to suffer an eternal torment. The answer was no, of course.
I'm comfortable with the idea of reincarnation and I think heaven and hell are just ideas used to control people.
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Detach ed
A very eloquent and witty man. I thoroughly enjoyed God is not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything.
Even though I don't agree with everything he stood for, at least in regard to his socio-economic and other political viewpoints, I like how he chose his own path regardless of what other people thought of his decisions. He could very well have been the most knowledgeable man alive regarding religion as a whole.
I owe a debt of gratitude to Christopher Hitchens. I was enmeshed in the Protestant evangelical fundamentalist mindset and needed badly to sort through what had happened to me when after 3 decades of being a devout Christian, I had a religious mental breakdown. Christopher Hitchens was one of many, who through his writings helped me to find my way out of the deeply flawed thinking I had developed.
I was surprised at how deeply I felt the loss when he passed away. I followed the course of his illness through his writings at Vanity Fair and suspected he would not survive esophageal cancer, but thought if anyone might, it would be him.
He will be deeply missed by his fans, of which I count myself as one.
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