When I read the news that Christopher Hitchens has died I just felt frozen for a minute and I couldn’t believe the words I was staring at on my screen. It seemed like a big joke. If there was a man whom I thought Death would avoid for as long as it could, it would be Christopher Hitchens. He could probably say something clever to Death’s face and send him laughing, telling him to come back another day.
But December 15, 2011 would now be remembered as a sad day for the freethinking world. He was 62 and battling esophageal cancer, he put up a good fight for as long as he could.
I never got to see Hitchens in person. I never personally knew the man. But I will be forever grateful to him for the things he has done. Watching Hitchen’s videos on Youtube and other various websites, reading his books, writings and listening to whatever audio I manage to come across somehow made me feel I have an ally in him.
His works had a very strong influence in my life especially his criticisms about religion. He made me realize that I need not be ashamed to admit that I am a non-believer. I should not be ashamed on calling people out on their bullshit. I should not be ashamed when my thoughts and opinions would not agree with the majority. Sometimes I could not understand what he was talking about, especially when it was about politics. Simply because I was not as informed as him. But then again, we also really do not have anyone we can agree with 100%. That is just absurd.
His powerful words stirred the fire of strength and life in me. He showed that one need not be afraid to stand up for what they truly believed in. One should be free to voice out his opinions and declare his thoughts. And even though your thoughts may not always go well with the majority, if you speak the truth and you have the evidence to back it up then be strong, be firm, speak up and truly the world will listen.
The exposures he did on famous personalities at one point or another has made him quite unpopular. Yet, since he could back-up his opinions, the world listened and watched and what he said forever changed it.
My heart truly aches for the loss of this great thinker. Yet I am also feeling grateful that I was able to live in a time when he lived. I got to witness his work. He may be dead but his works and words will live on.
“Hitchens’ mastery of a logical argument along with his confident demeanor gave many the courage to come out of the atheist closet,” Roy Speckhardt said about him.
Hitch I salute you!
Some of Christopher Hitchens’ quotes that I love and treasure.
“You don’t so much as become an atheist as find out that’s what you are. There’s no moment of conversion. You don’t suddenly think ‘I don’t believe this anymore.’ You essentially find you don’t believe it,” Christopher Hitchens said in an interview with Sally Quinn.
“What can be asserted without evidence can also be dismissed without evidence.”
“For a lot of people, their first love is what they’ll always remember. For me it’s always been the first hate, and I think that hatred, though it provides often rather junky energy, is a terrific way of getting you out of bed in the morning and keeping you going. If you don’t let it get out of hand, it can be canalized into writing. In this country where people love to be nonjudgmental when they can be, which translates as, on the whole, lenient, there are an awful lot of bubble reputations floating around that one wouldn’t be doing one’s job if one didn’t itch to prick.”
“The only real radicalism in our time will come as it always has — from people who insist on thinking for themselves and who reject party-mindedness.”
***Article is also posted in author’s original blog Shades of Gray.
10 comments
Kim says:
December 18, 2011 at 10:49 (UTC 8)
“He showed that one need not be afraid to stand up for what they truly believed in”
That’s funny! Christopher Hitchens, the alcoholic whose vitriol was fueled by a constant flow of booze, terrified at the very thought of experiencing reality while sober.
Luna Emperatrice says:
December 23, 2011 at 13:59 (UTC 8)
He made more sense in his “drunk” stage than most people do when they are sober.
His verbal attacks especially on subjects like Religion and the people who are considered holy were well-researched, well-thought out and well-stated. His love for his alcoholic drinks did not in any way impede his critical thinking.
Juan C. DeLeon says:
March 5, 2012 at 17:36 (UTC 8)
Thats very courageous of you Kim! Insulting the man right after he is dead! I commend U, (sarcasm)
Hitchens said once, ”He drank to make boring people interesting” reading your comment makes me want to drink Johnnie Walker!
Jonathan A. Ronda says:
December 23, 2011 at 09:33 (UTC 8)
Would’ve loved to be the one to write a Memoriam for Hitch, but this article said it better than I ever could.
Life well lived, Hitch! Cheers!
Luna Emperatrice says:
December 23, 2011 at 13:44 (UTC 8)
Thank you Jonathan. :)
HalfMooner says:
February 28, 2012 at 21:29 (UTC 8)
That was a wonderful memorial to a great human being, Luna. Thank you for writing it.
Though now living in Baguio, I am fortunate in having met, got a handshake from, and listened to speech by “Hitch” a couple of years ago in Berkeley, California. (He also signed my copy of his anthology, The Portable Atheist.) At the time, I noticed that he looked sickly. My daughter’s photos of him seems to show this:
http://www.skepticfriends.org/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=8924&whichpage=26#176277
Hitchens told the audience he was suffering from “a spider bite.” (That’s the only probable lie he’s ever told, to my knowledge, and it’s certainly not a big one.)
I did not agree with Mr. Hitchens on everything, particularly his support for the Iraq invasion. But Hitch was someone with whom one got into an argument at one’s own risk. A true street brawler for his beliefs, and this I respect. Hitchens was a wonderful thinker, writer and debater. He was someone the world and we atheists needed, and will miss.
– HalfMooner, Baguio
Site Admin says:
March 3, 2012 at 04:27 (UTC 8)
Admin Luna – Thank you for your comment HalfMooner. I too didn’t agree with Hitch on everything but I somehow tried to understand where he was coming from. His view of supporting the war in Iraq is better understood when we realize that he used to be a journalist that extensively covered the atrocities that affected the Kurdish people. He saw first hand what Saddam did. He was not a Bush loyalist though as many would like to point out for he has criticized that administration.
HalfMooner says:
March 3, 2012 at 16:39 (UTC 8)
At least Hitch’s reasons for supporting that war were indeed far better argued than were those phoney ones (weapons of mass destruction, etc, etc) that were made by Bush. Hitchens, at least, had BEEN there, as you mentioned. He’d been to a lot of scary places.
What I’ll remember most about Hitch is how committed he was, how well-researched, how wonderfully humorous were his words, and how incredibly persuasive he was in both print and in his speeches.
Hitch would tell the following joke (my retelling here only an approximation):
An engineer who was a freethinker happened to travel to Northern Ireland for professional reasons. He rented a car, drove through Belfast, got lost, and at last encountered a barricaded checkpoint set up by an armed secular militia. A husky fellow came to the driver’s window, flashed a pistol from under his coat, and asked, “And just where is it that you think you are going, may I ask?”
The engineer told the thug that he was consulting with so-and-so manufacturing firm. The militiaman then asked, “And then would you be a Catholic or a Protestant?” The engineer somewhat nervously explained that he was an atheist.
“That’s as may be, but are you a Catholic or a Protestant atheist?”
[Bah-dah-boom.]
My worst nightmare would be arguing in a debate against him, no matter how firmly I believed my own position. He’s humiliated and/or made laughingstocks of more strong opponents in debates than anyone I ever heard of.
HalfMooner says:
March 3, 2012 at 21:59 (UTC 8)
Oopsies. Please read “sectarian” instead of “secular” in the loosely quoted Hitchens quote above. BIG difference. (Hitch wouldn’t have made that mistake.)
ryan says:
March 5, 2012 at 12:00 (UTC 8)
now there is only 3 horsemen left